Halloween is not an excuse for being sexist.
Subway has been under fire for its most recent Halloween commercial.
While it has long been suggested that it provides healthy food options, its decision to create a new “summer body” campaign for Halloween takes a jab at women. Apparently being pestered about bathing suit season did not cause enough body shaming and insecurity to the company.
Society in and of itself places women behind men time and time again.
It’s a mentality that is deeply rooted in history. Unfortunately, in 21st century America, ideas of body shaming women because they don’t have the “ideal” look still persists.
Without this look, society tells you that you are not pretty, attractive or sexy.
it is easy to see how today’s media flooded world is placing more pressure than ever before on people.
Eating disorders such as anorexia are on the rise according to the National Eating Disorder Association The idea behind the ad is that Subway’s food is the healthy option just like they have always claimed, but it is told by a woman claiming that eating at Subway is the only way that she will be able to have the thin body Halloween costumes require.
The costumes the commercial uses as an example are “attractive nurse,” “spicy red-riding hood,” “viking princess warrior,” “hot devil,” “sassy teacher” and “foxy fullback.”
The idea that looking good is portrayed as needing a sexy costume and a certain body type to fill the costumes is pretty upsetting.
Without this the idea that you are not attractive is easy to conjure and messages like this in today’s media can really hurt a woman’s mindset about her body.
Promoting health and even being skinny are not offensive or wrong by any means.
The problem with this commercial is that it suggests that the only way to be sexy, the only way to even look attractive, is to be skinny and wear revealing clothing.
If Subway were to take Channing Tatum in his “Magic Mike” costumes the outcome would not have been any better.
It would have shown to men that in order to be considered attractive you need to eat Subway because it’s the healthy choice that will help you to maintain a lean body.
Unfortunately though, only women were made the target of this commercial making the body shaming sexist. Men were not told they did not look good; women were.
After Time magazine blasted the ad saying “Thank your lucky thigh gap the sandwich chain, which recent research asserts is just as unhealthy as McDonald’s, is here to remind you that it’s your moral obligation to stay skinny,” the ad was removed from the company’s page on YouTube.
The irony of the fact that eating Subway may be just as unhealthy as McDonald’s in the end is mind-blowing. Enabling girls to think they must be thin in order to look good and then falsely claiming their food will allow girls to achieve that goal when it would do the exact opposite shows even more lack of concern from the company to its customers.
If Subway thought its commercial was an innocent attempt at humor, then why did it pull the ad?
I wish that I could say that it was because they understood they did something wrong, but I think it has a lot more to do with trying to cover up the negative attention and try to prevent more people from learning of the commercial.
As a leader with a lot of influence Subway’s opinions can influence society in major ways, but this time power fell into the wrong hands.
It is because of commercials and other forms of media like this advertisement that sexist ideas continue through society.
I think that supporting the action that more people need to speak out like Time magazine did and continue to work towards allowing women to feel confident without some idea of the perfect body plaguing their minds.
