Over at The Bilerico Project (who is up for the Best GLBT blog Weblog Awards), Bil Browning had a sweet turned bitter taste in his mouth when he spotted a vintage logo on the bottle of A1 steak sauce.
Apparently, the image is a 1950s-esqu picture of a man silencing a woman with his finger while he eats his food. The caption reads, “Yeah, it’s that important.”
Browning goes on to admit, “I may not be the most versed in feminist theory, but, Good Lord Almighty, this one is glaringly obvious.” The comments in the thread go on to discuss the imagery and its meaning.
But my delight in this post was more than just someone taking a phone picture of what he saw as sexist and writing about it. It’s small things like this – taking initiative when you see something as offensive – and DOING something about it. One post on the internet isn’t going to change the world or even shake the boots of a popular steak sauce company, but it does rattle chains. And it inspires us to do some form of daily resistance, however small, when we perceive something as sexist, or racist, or classist, or just plain wrong.
It’s the collective action of our daily resistance and the power we hold to access media that will change the landscape of mainstream marketing and its irresponsible advertisements.