This Girl Can is a campaign launched by Sport England which claims to be a celebration of active women all over England. In particular, This Girl Can wants to "inspire women to wiggle, jiggle, move and prove that judgement is a barrier that can be overcome" (This Girl Can Official Website, Meet The Girls, 2015). This has resulted in posters, TV adverts (ok yes I saw them on More Four because we don't own a TV :( ) and even an app so you can make your own personalized versions of the posters.
I don`t want to wee all over this campaign. It does have some upsides. For instance, it celebrates all different types of women. It provides women with a safe space to share their motivations, joys and struggles when it comes to exercising via the facebook page and the Your Stories section of their website. Ofcourse, the campaign is also empowering as women across the country have been affirming their right to enter into the traditionally male sphere of sports in public spaces. But the very title of the campaign undercuts all of this good stuff. If Sports England wants to celebrate women then don't call us girls. Saying This Girl Can instead of This Woman Can reinforces the infantilization of women. Then this infantilization is plastered on bus stops, TV, Facebook, basically all over the show and before you know it, a campaign that is meant to be celebrating women is actually contributing to the societal processes that stop them being seen as adult females, i.e. women.
One of the main concerns of the campaign is that women should learn to overcome the fear of judgement. However, the campaign doesn't actually attack judgement, whether it is judging each others bodies or feeling judged by other genders nor does it seem to start a conversation around it. Instead, the campaign basically tells us to just get over being judged by others instead of telling others not to judge. There was an opportunity here to tap into the conversations surrounding cat calling that are happening at the moment and widen this discourse by bringing it into more mainstream locations but sadly this has been missed.
On top of this, some of the slogans that the campaign relies on are problematic. Slogans such as "Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox" , "My game face has lipstick on it " or "Under these gloves (boxing gloves) is a beautiful manicure". While these could be seen as attempting to be affirming to women or even undo the stereotypes around sporty women...I still see a darker side to this. Slogans like this say that women should still look good while they are exercising, that even if they are involved in an intense football match they still need to be wearing make-up. This campaign is supposed to be about overcoming judgement but instead perpetuates the high beauty standards that society requires women to live up to.
In short, the campaign seems to be a liberal-feminist-bandaid to a real problem. We need a campaign that says Hey! How Dare You Judge That Woman For Getting Hot And Sweaty! I can see that This Girl Can does make attempts to make women feel more comfortable in their own skin but several things about it makes my skin crawl.
I don`t want to wee all over this campaign. It does have some upsides. For instance, it celebrates all different types of women. It provides women with a safe space to share their motivations, joys and struggles when it comes to exercising via the facebook page and the Your Stories section of their website. Ofcourse, the campaign is also empowering as women across the country have been affirming their right to enter into the traditionally male sphere of sports in public spaces. But the very title of the campaign undercuts all of this good stuff. If Sports England wants to celebrate women then don't call us girls. Saying This Girl Can instead of This Woman Can reinforces the infantilization of women. Then this infantilization is plastered on bus stops, TV, Facebook, basically all over the show and before you know it, a campaign that is meant to be celebrating women is actually contributing to the societal processes that stop them being seen as adult females, i.e. women.
One of the main concerns of the campaign is that women should learn to overcome the fear of judgement. However, the campaign doesn't actually attack judgement, whether it is judging each others bodies or feeling judged by other genders nor does it seem to start a conversation around it. Instead, the campaign basically tells us to just get over being judged by others instead of telling others not to judge. There was an opportunity here to tap into the conversations surrounding cat calling that are happening at the moment and widen this discourse by bringing it into more mainstream locations but sadly this has been missed.
On top of this, some of the slogans that the campaign relies on are problematic. Slogans such as "Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox" , "My game face has lipstick on it " or "Under these gloves (boxing gloves) is a beautiful manicure". While these could be seen as attempting to be affirming to women or even undo the stereotypes around sporty women...I still see a darker side to this. Slogans like this say that women should still look good while they are exercising, that even if they are involved in an intense football match they still need to be wearing make-up. This campaign is supposed to be about overcoming judgement but instead perpetuates the high beauty standards that society requires women to live up to.
In short, the campaign seems to be a liberal-feminist-bandaid to a real problem. We need a campaign that says Hey! How Dare You Judge That Woman For Getting Hot And Sweaty! I can see that This Girl Can does make attempts to make women feel more comfortable in their own skin but several things about it makes my skin crawl.