Is it good to rebuke people for sexism? Of course. Can you do it as a kind of mild soft power pre-emptive strike, to guard against the development of much worse behaviour later? Maaaybe.
I say “maaaybe” like that, because the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, with media agency, Ogilvy, has launched a new campaign, “Say maaate to a mate”. It follows on from his 2022 campaign “Have a word”, which also set out to deal with violence against women and girls (VAWG).
The idea is to empower men and boys to step in when they witness sexist attitudes towards women and girls. As well as behavioural research commissioned by the mayoral office, there’s support (from LADBible and comedian Romesh Ranganathan, among others), billboards in areas like Piccadilly Circus and a video campaign.
Well intentioned though it clearly is, it all comes across a tad woolly and over-idealised: this idea that, if some guy is making awful remarks, other blokes say “maaate” in a disappointed way and this magically banishes sexism and misogyny from the capital forever. Whaaat?
The unease doesn’t shift when you sample the interactive video showing a group of young men watching TV sport together, one of whom keeps making terrible remarks. “She ghosted me,” he says of a woman. “Probably wouldn’t know a good thing if it slapped her in the face. Something I’d gladly do if I see her again.”
You’re supposed to intervene (click the “Maaate” button), but I don’t, and he continues spraying around anti-female comments. As my “Maaate” button remains unclicked, the silent friends writhe with discomfort. (Why don’t they just boot him out of the friendship group? Does he buy all the beer and weed?) Finally, the oaf (working class, of course, as are all sexists and misogynists) stares accusingly down the lens at the viewer: “You just going to keep letting me carry on like this? Not going to say anything?” It’s like being chastised by a venal version of Jay from The Inbetweeners.
The whole thing seems a tad basic and naive, not to mention richly lampoonable: an inadvertent rebirthing of the 1999 Budweiser “Whassup?” ad campaign, though there they were selling lager rather than social correction initiatives.
The campaign has sparked criticism, much of it warranted, from respected feminists and women’s issues campaigners: it’s too lightweight, limp, patronising; it ignores the real (big, ugly) problems facing women in London and elsewhere (not least rape and violence); it’s a dire waste of public funding that could have been diverted into policing, more street lighting, more convictions for rape and assault, more support and resources for women fleeing domestic violence and so on.
In fairness, if the mayoral office doesn’t have the funding or power to solve more deep-rooted issues, here it’s at least trying to do something achievable. “Maaate”, moreover, is supported by the End Violence Against Women coalition. It isn’t Kahn’s first VAWG-rodeo: Transport For London is full of posters warning against “intrusive staring of a sexual nature” and the like (if you find this silly, have a chat some time with young females like my daughters and their friends). Nor, crucially, is the campaign about condemning young women to self-imposed rape-alarmed Gilead. Or a generalised over-policing of public behaviour and speech. It’s about directly targeting younger males.
“Younger” being the operative word because, for all that the video might seem risible, this campaign isn’t aimed at me. Nor does “Maaate” seem to be posturing as a deterrent against rapists or violent men. It’s aimed squarely at young males, at an age before the sexist-misogynistic rot sets in. Hence the core message: that throwaway words (“bantz”) can be seeds that later flower into full-blown sexism, misogyny and violence. Also, the focus on the power of peer pressure – an immense, not-to-be-under-estimated force in youth.
Not that this is enough to dispel criticism. Even acknowledging the root principle, the campaign has multiple faultlines. It ignores not only the different degrees of sexism and misogyny, but also that there are varying levels of threat and danger within those. It narrowly focuses on hyper-domesticised encounters (say, a night in with the lads), which means this inter-policing further dwindles from young men generally, to just your own friends. It downplays the toxic strength of sexism and misogyny and creepily mollycoddles those who indulge in it.
In the video, and on the posters (“She’s asking for it in that skirt”), gruesome sentiments are expressed that would appear to warrant a far stronger negative response than (sad face) “maaate”.
Then there’s that general sense yet again of things being made just a little too pat and easy for everyone involved, from the politicians to the young males being targeted. Good intentions are all very well but they don’t make gesture politicking any less empty. In terms of softly-softly activism, this kind of initiative appears to be about as light as it can possibly get before you do absolutely nothing at all.
I am thinking also of that certain brand of “male feminism” that already seems to require so little energy and puff it would struggle to blow a kazoo (just looking vaguely on-side usually does it). The kind of slacker-feminism that would only too happily be empowered into combating the kind of low-cal sexism and “Maaate”-strength misogyny women don’t particularly need help with (a case of, dudes, thanks, we’ve got this), but tends to melt away into the gender issues fog when things get too difficult or boring.
Sexism and misogyny are huge, weighty issues that require help with heavy lifting. As with so much that’s aimed at protecting women and girls, the “Maaate” campaign doesn’t break nearly enough of a sweat.
• Barbara Ellen is an Observer columnist
