An explicit lingerie advertisement carrying the slogan "remember me" and showing a handsome young man sniffing a pair of red culotte (underpants), has been banned by the Paris Metro -- even before it went on display across the French capital's underground rail network.
The ad, already displayed on thousands of billboards throughout France, had incensed many women as pornography. The feminist writer Florence Montreynaud, whose lobby group "La Meute" has been campaigned against sexist ads -- even awarding prizes for the best and the worst -- said it was the first time an ad due to go up in the Paris Metro had been banned
before even hitting the walls.
In a statement, La Meute welcomed the ban and quipped: "While we will continue to call for an anti-sexist law, we see no reason why men should not concern themselves with such items of underwear, for example by washing them and putting them tidily away."
Montreynaud said while her group believed humor was certainly one way to persuade advertisers not to use sexist themes, the ads did represent unacceptable violence against women and said the parade of pictures of long-legged and well-endowed young women publicizing virtually anything from kitchen equipment to cars should be dropped. French television ads are scrutinized by a regulatory watchdog but magazines and newspapers can do much as they please.
La Meute (which translates as a pack of hunting hounds) was launched in 2000, and now has about 4,000 people signed up to its anti-sexist manifesto in 45 countries with particularly enthusiastic support in Belgium, Switzerland, Canada's Quebec province and France.
"Attitudes are changing as women's education improves and there is a growing sense of solidarity," Montreynaud said. "We are also getting support from men, which is an encouraging sign."
But she admits that getting rid of sexist attitudes is a huge task and believes they will not be overturned in her lifetime.
"As a historian, though, I am used to taking a long view." she said.
La Meute activists work a good deal in urban areas where most of their target ads are found and are not afraid of direct action. They daub the ads with graffiti and even go up to people in the street.
Activists reckon that about half the people they speak to give them a sympathetic hearing.
"What we have done is invent a new approach to the problem of dealing with sexism, bringing together linguistics, political action by feminists, and the study of sexuality," said Montreynaud, whose latest book, Appeler une chatte une chatte (an untranslatable play on words) looks at attitudes to sexuality in different countries and civilizations.
"We have not created a new science -- that would be impossible -- but have developed a combined approach that one could call socio-linguistics. We also make annual Femino awards for the best non-sexist ads, and give Macho awards for the worst sexist ones."
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