gender empathy gap Archives

A Christmas campaign for a youth homeless charity ignores male rough sleepers and glamourises homeless women writes Glen Poole.

A strange thing happened to me this week. The charity Centrepoint started pushing what I can only describe as “rough sleeper porn” at me via facebook.

It began quite abruptly with this image of a dead woman bearing her sole, presumably designed to attract any necrophiliacs who also happen to have a foot fetish.

Next up was the lovely Gemma with her big Disney-esque eyes and luscious lips, looking more like a grunge glamour shoot than a realistic portrayal of a young homeless woman.

All that was missing a Sun-style caption saying “how’d you like to take this tramp home for a spot of rough sleeping fellas?”

http://youtu.be/WCT47ZUQMIQ?t=21s

Next up was the very sexy Sally who spent last Christmas without a roof over her head and to prove that a girl can look both hot AND homeless, Centrepoint shared a sultry picture showing Sally begging for it on the streets of London:

This year Centrepoint is pleased to show us that Sally scrubs up well and will be spending Christmas at their place. You can almost hear them gloating “I bet you’d love to pull this cracker wouldn’t you lads”?

And just when I was about to complain about the lack of men in the Christmas campaign, up popped a new image to prove me wrong. First there was Emma rolling her “come and give me a bed for the night” eyes at me:

Secondly there was a man hanging out with Emma. This shouldn’t be surprising as around nine out of ten rough sleepers are male. But this wasn’t a homeless man, no this was a graffiti version of a man who seemed to personify pure evil—everything that horny homeless girls like Emma, Gemma, Lucy and Sally need protecing from.

Next up in this sidewalk cat walk was the teenager Lianne whose step dad made her do things she didn’t want to do.

Her step dad appeared to be the same evil figure who was haunting Emma—why are men such bastards? Why can’t we leave sexy homeless girls alone?

Poor Lianne told me that she was homeless at 17 and there were lots of scary people about.

Look closely at the images on the video and you’ll be left in no doubt that all of these scary people were men:

http://youtu.be/97mf2-5olMo

If you look in more detail at the Centrepoint website you’ll find they do actually help young homeless people who are both female AND male—and no doubt they do some great work for their clients.

But why are they using such sexy, sexist advertising to try and get people to give them money at Christmas—does pushing rough sleeper porn raise more pounds than telling the truth?

The truth is nine out of ten rough sleepers are male and men are nine times more likely to die homeless than women. So why are homeless men so invisible in Centrepoint’s Christmas campaign?

It seems like a ruthless way to treat the roofless.

Is it because we’re collectively more tolerant of men being harmed?

Is it because we’re all more likely to help and protect women?

Is the reason Centrepoint are raising money by objectifying homeless women and making homeless men invisible, the same reason more men are homeless in the first place?

Men are invisible, disposable, unworthy of our help. There’s no point putting men at the front of your fundraising appeal because men make terrible victims.

Much better to use female victims to promote your cause, even if they represent a tiny minority of the problem you’re trying to solve. And if your female victims look fit, well that’s great news because you can pimp them in your advertising campaign and watch the charitable donations roll in like tips at a Vegas titty bar.

Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

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Nine out of ten people pictured in charity posters are women

Is charity for girls? Glen Poole’s snap survey of charity fundraising posters suggests that we don’t care as much about men and boys.

Last night I was on a train from London St Pancras to Brighton and decided to pass the time by taking a snap survey of the gender balance in the charity posters in the four carriages. This is what I discovered:

There were 8 different charities advertised
There were 11 different charity posters on display
There were a total of 19 charity posters
There were 10 women, 4 girls and 2 men pictured in the posters
Put another way, 9 out of 10 people pictured were women girls
Where the charities referred to the gender of people they were trying to help, 12 out of 15 (80%) were female
Where charities pictured the people they wanted to help, 100% were women and girls
100% of children referenced were girls (no boys were mentioned)
Parents were referenced 9 times and 78% (or 7 out of 9) were mums
Nine people pictured were fundraisers, again 78% (or 7 out of 9) were women

Is charity just for girls?

So what does this tell us about public attitudes towards men, women, boys and girls? Big charities aren’t stupid. They know what sells. The top 1,000 charities in the UK raise £11.5 billion every year in voluntary donations. Charity is big, BIG business and big business knows that all of us, men and women, are collectively more tolerant of the harm that happens to men and boys. If you want to raise money, you’ve more chance of doing it if you tell people women and girls are suffering.

And what message does this send to men and boys? That we are less valued by society, that we are not cared for as much as women, that we are not as vulnerable, that we don’t need the help of others, that we are tough and strong and should “man up” and get on with our lives and not expect help when we face problems in life. Is it any wonder that men are less likely to access help and support when they need it, when the constant message that we give to men and boys collectively is that we don’t need and don’t deserve help and support from others?

I’m not going to pretend that this was a thorough, scientific survey but it has long been my experience that charities favour women and girls in their advertising and this quick count confirmed that suspicion. Here’s a bit more information on some of the posters that were on display:

Combat Stress: Pictures the mother of a veteran impacted by combat stress, because it’s easier to sympathize with a soldier’s mum, that a big, strong male soldier.

Concern: asked us to stop hunger for children like Halime, who they made clear is a girl! Because starving boys can save themselves.

Macmillan: showed cancer sufferer Colleen and her friends raising money and encouraged others to do the same.

Breast Cancer Campaign: showed three women and a token bloke raising money for a female cancer.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer: ran a poster about a mothers’ day card that was never sent because mum died of breast cancer.

The National Brain Appeal: used gender neutral stick people to promote its Pyjama Party fundraiser.

The Alzheimer’s Society: used a word based poster to tell a fictional story of a man visiting his daughter and not remembering which stop to get off on the tube:

The RLSB: pictured a blind baby girl, Emma, and her mum and focussed on the feelings that mums feel when their baby girls are diagnosed with blindness.

Tell us what you think. Do you think men and boys are invisible in charity campaigns and does it matter? And next time you on a train, tube or bus, why not do a quick count yourself and tell us what you discover.

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Article by Glen Poole author of the book Equality For Men

Is this homeless charity appeal perpetuating the objectification of women and the invisibility of male victims?

Nine out of 10 people pictured in charity posters are women

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