Menswear Adverts Featuring Half-Naked Women Are Actually Sexist Towards Men, Claims (Male) CEO

Ads Featuring Half-Naked Women Are Sexist Towards Men, Claims (Male) CEO

An international fashion brand has been accused of promoting "sexism" and "misogyny" in its latest ad campaign, which features doll-sized men Photoshopped onto scantily dressed women.

While Suit Supply's 'Toy Boy' campaign has sparked outrage on social media, with many saying the images "objectify" women, the company's CEO maintains that it is not sexist towards women.

The campaign includes an image of a man spanking a woman's bum, and another of two men bouncing on a woman's breasts.

The campaign page on the fashion brand's website states: "Sometimes it seem like it's a woman's world these days, and we just live in it. The modern woman is a confident tower of power, who knows exactly what she wants. She's beautiful. She's brilliant. She's a bona fide titan. It's hard not to feel...well, dwarfed."

Speaking to The Huffington Post UK, the CEO of Suit Supply, Fokke de Jong, said he does not believe the adverts are sexist towards women.

"The men in our toy boy campaign are depicted as play dolls for the women, we don’t see the men having the upper hand here," he said.

In a statement given to BuzzFeed he added: "Sexism implies inequality, if you want to read any form of sexism in here than it has to be towards the men."

Caitlin Roper, from women's rights group Collective Shout, is not convinced by the CEO's remarks.

"The notion that this ad could be an example of 'reverse sexism' or sexism against men, as they've alleged, is naive at best," she told HuffPost UK.

"Sexism - social, political and economic inequality on a structural level - isn't something that can be counteracted by superimposing tiny men onto women's semi-naked bodies to sell menswear.

"It's no accident the women are hyper sexualised and posed in subordinate and ridiculous poses while the men are fully clothed, posed with dignity and strength."

Dozens of people have taken to Twitter to criticise the company for the images:

Roper added that she's disappointed by the campaign, but not surprised by it, as Suit Supply has a "history of sexually exploitative advertising".

"They think they are being edgy and subversive but they are merely upholding the (sexist) status quo depicting women as passive sexual objects to sell clothing for men," she said.

"When companies feel the need to resort to such blatant sexism to flog their products you have to really question how little confidence they have in the quality of their products."

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