This Girl Can - Sexism

This Girl Can is a campaign that was developed by Sport England in 2015 to promote sport amongst women regardless of their shape, size and ability.

The campaign consisted of TV adverts, posters and social media advertising. 

The campaign was very successful and it managing to have encouraged 1.6 million women to start exercising.

A lot of people found the ads sexist. 

Most of the imagery used in the ads focuses on the women’s jiggly bodies and them sweating which is another form of objectification and sexualisation of women. 

The text that accompanies these images is meant to focus on female empowerment using slogans such as ‘I jiggle, therefore I am’, ‘sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox’  and embracing being ‘hot and not bothered’. 

It attempts to celebrate ‘normal’ bodies however rather than focusing on health, agility and co-ordination, the campaign chooses to draw attention to the female body and view it as an object. 

Even though women are the target audience the campaign could appear to focus on engaging men.

American philosopher Iris Marion Young believes using the term ‘girl’ can be seen as insulting as ‘throwing like a girl’ is a sexist remark used a lot in today’s society and excludes women from feeling strong, capable and respected.

The whole campaign suggests that women strive to keep up appearances and maintain a feminine image even when during exercise, if this was an ad campaign targeting men the focus wouldn’t be on looking and feeling glamorous  it would show men getting muddy and sweaty as this suggests masculinity and power. 

Confidence, a carefree nature and being unconcerned about your appearance are all fundamental aspects of femininity in this campaign however a lot of focus is put on women’s bottoms, hips, chests, sexualised movements and heavy breathing.