Written by Kazue Muta
A disgusting
ad encouraging sexual harassment was printed on page 5 of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper (page 10 of the
Osaka Head Office version) issued on September 23, 2014..
It is a fully-colored ad of the first issue
of MADURO, a magazine for men in
middle to senior age, which features a Sean Connelly look-alike male model. The
ad is a tie-up with the sound equipment manufacturer, Bose, featuring their
headphones as the copy reads how comfortable it is to wear them on the plane.
The line goes as the following:
“Once you get
settled on the plane, try teasing a cabin attendant. When she talks to you,
pretend you can’t hear her (actually you do hear her) and lean toward her as if
you were asking what she just said. There is no other chance for you to get
close in a 12-cm distance to a himena
(Note: term coined by the writer to denote a lady) whom you’ve never met in
such an open manner. Now, all you have to do is demonstrate your hard-earned skills.”
(the bold text is as it is in the original)
The entire ad
This is
already disgusting enough, but what’s more annoying is that a message from the
overall ad can be read that in a way that such a behavior is called “naughtiness”
that all fashionable middle-aged and senior men are supposed to practice. This
is nothing more than instructing and encouraging the readers to sexually
harass cabin attendants, which is quite a problem.
Even here in Japan, sexual harassment has been recognized
over a quarter-century as a serious social problem that violates women’s human and
labor rights. The sexual harassment case at the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly was
found in June and the aftermath yet continues. This shows that sexual
harassment still is a deeply-rooted and hard-to-solve problem. Considering
these circumstances, I do not understand why anyone would ever print such an
anti-social ad that encourages sexual harassment on such a major newspaper. This
ad is planned and produced by the Advertising Bureau of the Asahi Shimbun
Company. The Company is seriously liable as it not only allows an ad that
encourages sexual harassment to be printed but also proactively produces these
ads. MADURO magazine and Bose, the
sponsors, are both equally liable as well.
As an
activist and researcher on sexual harassment and violence, I was just unable to
overlook that a newspaper, part of mass media, encourages sexual harassment by
placing an ad like this. On the 24th,
a day after the ad was printed, I sent a document to the Advertising Bureau of the
Asahi Shimbun Company, MADURO magazine (yanG
Co., Ltd.) and
Bose K.K., protesting against the ad and questioning why they placed such an ad
that encourages sexual harassment. This is the letter sent to the Advertising
Bureau of the Asahi Shimbun Company: 201409朝日広告局御中（抗議と質問）wanアップ用 (personal
information has been deleted). The documents sent to the other two companies
have the same main message:
I found this
newspaper ad on the 23rd and sent a message via Twitter around noon (my Twitter
account: ＠peureka).
Since 3,000 users re-tweeted my tweet by the 24th, I learned that a certain
number of people felt as unpleasant and critical about this ad as I did. Among these
people were middle-aged and senior men who are supposed to be the target
audience of the ad. This ad accepts abuse of women’s human
rights by encouraging sexual harassment, and at the same time, assumes that
middle-aged and senior men want to practice such sexual harassment. Isn’t this quite
offensive to all middle-aged and senior men?
I am not sure how much impact one citizen’s protest can
make, but strongly hope that many people can learn about the problem through
these various means, which could be the first step toward the society that does
not allow sexual harassment. I would appreciate your cooperation in spreading
and paying attention to this matter.
The Asahi Shimbun Company is currently facing almost
excessive criticism due to their false reporting. Having sent another criticism
to them at this timing was not quite easy for me as I do appreciate the Company’s continued proactive
reports on women’s rights and human rights for women including
the comfort women issue. This is why I protested against this ad that could
weaken the foundation of their reporting attitude, wishing for their thorough
review of this problem and improvement so that this will never happen again.
Let me use this opportunity to introduce my book in which
I wrote that how insensitivity of middle-aged and senior men can be linked to
sexual harassment:
Book title: Manager, The Relationship Is Sexual
Harassment!
Author/ Translator: Kazue Muta
Publisher: Shueisha
Price: 799 yen
Original Article on the WAN website (September 25, 2014): http://wan.or.jp/group/?p=3316
Translated
by Kumiko Moriya
