16.10.15
Southeastern forced to remove sexist ‘safety’ poster across 70 stations
Southeastern has been forced to remove a “safety” poster campaign across 70 stations after it was rightly branded as sexist by MPs.
The poster, somehow intended to promote safety, featured an edited close-up of a woman’s behind in a pair of jeans with a caption that read: “Good for sitting, squeezing and shaking. Don’t bruise it. Please take extra care in wet weather conditions. Love every bit of you.”
The sexist poster sparked an outrage amongst politicians, with Teresa Pearce, MP for Erith And Thamesmead, telling the Evening Standard she was shocked by its content. She emailed Southeastern to complain and ordered an investigation into how it was allowed to be published in the first place.
She added: “Women face sexual abuse and harassment every day on public transport, and it was appalling to see that Southeastern think that it is okay to trivialise it in this way.
“Southeastern have promised to remove them but they need to investigate how this was ever given the green light and deemed appropriate.”
Tooting’s MP, Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate to run for the London mayoralty, backed Pearce after voicing concerns on Twitter over the awful poster at Ladywell station.
He also told the paper: “This kind of sexist advertising has absolutely no place on London’s transport network.
“I’m pleased the poster is now being taken down, but it’s ridiculous it was put up in the first place.”
Southeastern’s asinine move comes just a couple of months after the British Transport Police revealed that, despite an overall fall in crime in the rail network over the last year, sexual offences and violent crime had both increased.
Despite attempts to launch campaigns aimed at empowering people – namely women – to report instances of sexual offences on trains and on the Tube, these crimes had soared by more than 25%. And this only includes incidences of abuse that were actually reported.
It is advertisements like Southeastern’s – unashamedly objectifying its own passengers and recommending the very non-consensual touching that most women have experienced on public transport at least once – that clarify why this issue is still a significant concern for national authorities.
But a spokesman from the operator said the poster was intended to be, of course, “harmless” and aimed at drawing attention to safety issues, particularly trips and falls during wet weather – which, in fairness, did comprise almost half of the poster’s content.
He said: “This poster was put to an independent panel, which included both women and women, who approved it before it was used. We since recognise that to some it may cause offence and have taken appropriate action by removing it.”
While we don’t hear back from the investigation into this independent panel, which will probably never happen, here are some other examples of safety campaigns that don’t rely on misogyny to get the point across:
http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Rail-News/network-rail-launches-station-safety-campaign
http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/rail-news/slips-and-trips-campaign-launched-over-christmas/66080
http://www.railtechnologymagazine.com/Railway-safety-and-crime/Page-16/safety-campaign-to-cut-railway-staff-abuse