Glasgow Students Threaten Boycott Over 'Sexist' Supermax Nightclub Advertising

Glasgow Students Threaten Boycott Over 'Despicable' Nightclub Advertising
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Students at a Scottish university are threatening to boycott a nightclub after its repeated use of "sexist, despicable" advertising.

One member of Glasgow University's feminist society (GU FemSoc) told The Huffington Post UK the advert, used by Supermax to promote its night at the Berkeley Suite club, was not surprising, given the club's history.

Nadia Alnassa, former president of FemSoc, said: "Supermax have done it yet again - this time they've gone for a naked woman's torso with a face painted on it, I think she's supposed to be a sex doll.

"I think it's despicable, but at the same time we were expecting it, since their message last time was basically that they didn't care about misogyny, as long as it boosted their sales."

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The offending poster

The Glasgow student added: "Not only is the female body objectified and sexualised by using a naked female torso as a canvas for the promotion of their dull club night, but then by giving it a face [Supermax] make it into some sort of 'independent' being or person, giving the sexualised flesh the agency and identity they're denying the woman herself."

Supermax came under fire earlier this year after using a similarly controversial image of a woman licking a clenched fist which appears to be pinning her down by the face, as she lies semi-naked on the floor.

At the time, Stacey Devine, NUS Scotland women’s officer, said the poster was an outright sexualisation of violence against women.

"It’s ridiculous to say that calls to remove images like these is somehow restricting free speech, or imposing censorship," Devine said.

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Supermax's previous poster. The club said it 'embraces the positive value of controversy'

Glasgow City Council also got involved, sending a licensing standards officer to investigate the issue.

Regarding the most recent poster, Laura Dover, co-president of the GU feminist society, told HuffPost UK: "I think ad campaigns for club nights which present women as passive sexual toys who exist for the pleasure of men suggest that the atmosphere in the club would feel really uncomfortable, if not downright threatening, to a lot of women.

"It's also particularly unhelpful that ad campaigns are normalising female objectification on the doorstep of Glasgow Uni, especially considering that the Glasgow Uni Union has a problem of institutionalised sexism as it is.

"I would also like to organise a boycott of the Berkeley Suite, though to be honest I'm not sure a lot of our members would attend their club night as it is!"

The poster is an identical copy of the one used for the Rolling Stones' 1973 European tour, although the "girlfriends prefer" line is a Supermax addition.

Supermax and the Berkeley Suite have both been contacted for comment but have yet to respond.