“Strippers! Plus sausage sizzle.”
I’ve been driving past this pub every week, marvelling at the sheer crassness of the sign. It is so banal that I can’t even bring myself to write the analysis. But if I list some words, I’m sure you will nod your heads in agreement.
Women = meat. Anything to get the punters in. Women as cheap as food. Women to sell alcohol. No subtext – it’s all in-your-face trivialisation of women.
*headdesk*
10 responses so far ↓
Mikhela // Tuesday 2 December 2008 at 9:44 pm |
Nodding.
Also something about how completely irrelevant women are as actual customers.
Daleaway // Wednesday 3 December 2008 at 8:42 am |
Why do Australian women put up with the coarseness with which they are treated?
Who calls Aussie men to account?
I’ve often thought, in a mild way when I think about such things, that Aussie women have a much longer way to go than their Kiwi counterparts. It’s their affair, of course. Except when they export their knuckle-dragging TV shows to New Zealand. God knows our TV honchos don’t need any encouragement.
Deborah // Wednesday 3 December 2008 at 8:56 am |
Well, there’s plenty of Aussie feminists calling them to account…
I’m not sure whether I agree with you or not, Daleaway. A few years ago, like about 15, we dropped into our village pub late on a Saturday afternoon, where we occasionally went for a drink, only to find that since the last time we had been there, it had changed hands, and the new owner had decided that topless waitresses were the way to get the punters in. And indeed, the pub was a lot more crowded than we had ever seen it.
We never went back. But the pub carried on doing a roaring trade.
Deborah // Wednesday 3 December 2008 at 8:57 am |
NB: that was a village and pub in NZ.
Paul Williams // Thursday 4 December 2008 at 10:00 am |
There’s certainly a lot more overt sexism, I completely agree. There’s a pub near where I live in Sydney that’d almost certainly have signs that rival this. I conciously avoid it when my daughter’s in the car – she’s of an age where bright signs catch her eye and she asks what they’re saying. I don’t want my three+ year old to confronting this kind of shit… on that theme, in the train station which we frequent most days, I’m also pissed off that the magazine shop display 10 meters of back to back blokes mags with gratuitous photos…
Giovanni // Saturday 6 December 2008 at 12:39 pm |
Strippers plus sausage sizzle, boy… they didn’t make much of an effort, did they? I’m still inclined to find more offensive the post-mysoginystic, faux ironic objectification in the spirit of innocent fun of, say, the latest few batches of Tui ads on TV in New Zealand. Which is not to say this isn’t offensive, of course.
blue milk // Saturday 6 December 2008 at 2:07 pm |
Interesting, neither the sausages nor the bare breasts were enough in themselves?
Carol // Saturday 6 December 2008 at 7:29 pm |
Well spotted and well reported, Deborah.
I agree with Giovanni about the Tui ads – I find them creepily exclusive, and I love the description of them as faux-ironic.
Pavlov's Cat // Tuesday 9 December 2008 at 1:12 pm |
Oi, you left out the ‘Our strippers will sizzle your sausage, hur hur’ subtext.
We who are old enough to remember when meat was cheap enough to have actual barbecues, with not only proper home-made hamburgers made with (only) good mince, but also with actual chops and steak, can’t help reading the phrase ’sausage sizzle’ as ‘We’re doing it on the cheap’.
Paul Williams // Friday 12 December 2008 at 11:47 am |
As if on cue, Zoo magazine has asked federal Minister, Kate Ellis, to strip for a photoshoot. FFS. Here’s a woman who’s a Minister at 31 having been elected for the first time at 28. A leader who is a role model for young women interested in public life, not aspiring covergirls. This is the precisely the kind of crap publication plastered across every other newstand in Sydney.