Day 124.

There is never a good time to break up with someone. If you aren't happy, move on from them. There's no use in waiting around for something that will never get any better.

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I'm afraid I am probably about to go off on one again. I know, I know, it always seems to happen but I am upset. Well, perhaps not upset. I'm not sat here weeping in to my bed covers, wailing about the injustices in the world. That will happen later when I am watching Children In Need or some other appeal type advert. Those donkeys get me every time.

Nightclub advertising. 

Anyone able to explain to me why nightclubs use half naked women on their advertising? Anyone able to explain to me why I can't find any half naked men on nightclub advertising? Actually, I apologise, I found ONE half naked man for a gay bar flyer...the rest were women.

Here we go!

So, let's look at this overall. Sex sells. That is correct and has obviously been tried and tested for many years. However, why does it seem that it's only the women who are having to use their bodies for that sort of campaign? I Googled 'Nightclub flyers' and was greeted by tits and arses. (Seems to be all I'm ever greeted with when I search for something online...*must clear search history*) The majority of flyers with women on are wearing either: low cut tops, bikins, short shorts or fuck all. The men featured on any flyers are either in a suit, t-shirt or merely floating heads. Now, if we are wanting equality I am fancying seeing some bulge please. Get a picture of a bloke pulling some ridiculous 'cum' face to entice me in to your nightclub. Or, we could go the other way and have the women covered up. Covered up you say? You mean no tits spilling out and no flesh on show whatsoever? Imagine.

Now, a women getting her body out is by no means an issue for me. Generally speaking, I enjoy it. However, I don't like it when it's not on an even playing field. I can appreciate that maybe if your advertising implies that there will be women looking like that in your venue, you'll probably attract men and women alike, in the hope of meeting them. The problem there is that these 'beauties' on the flyers have been airbrushed and edited to within an inch of their lives. I used to work for a sex toy/lingerie type establishment. I watched in horror as the photo editor bloke actually slimmed these models down even more from the original photo. Now, these girls were not overweight in any shape or form. He made their boobs bigger, slimmed their thighs, trimmed their waists. It was the most horrific thing I had seen. These women were beautiful in the initial photos but had turned in to some Barbie waif by the end of it, yet this was how the photos must be displayed. It made my stomach turn. The worst bit of it all (and what I said at the time) was this male run and dominated business was appealing, in the same way as everyone else, to a market that is not even near the national average. For a woman in the UK, the current average clothing size is a 16, which quite honestly, isn't that big. Yet, when advertising lingerie it has to be a size 8 or lower. As I flicked through the final catalogue this company had made, I was disgusted to see how little representation there was for women my size (12) or bigger. From my understanding there was only one 'larger' model and she was about a 12. Horrific.

So despite going off topic, women are not being shown a fair representation of themselves in the public eye. We are all left to feel insignificant and undesirable if we don't look a certain size and it has filtered in to all aspects of society. If we want to go clubbing, we will be greeted by a flyer of a half naked woman either sucking on something or pretending to dance while her baps take up most of the space. What a joy. I could be lucky though and be given a flyer with a fully clothed man on. That seems the best way of doing it. Maybe I wouldn't feel so bad if the people handing out these flyers were fully ripped, Adonis type men. That, I think, would balance everything out. It would then make the men feel uncomfortable because their bodies would be being 'threatened' by the ideal whilst us ladies got a good perv. Then, once the fellas have the flyers they can objectify women and we can go on to feel uncomfortable.

I know someone who makes these flyers. He has never been able to justify the images he uses on these but has always just said 'that's the way they are'. Now, we could all change this. We could all make a stand against it. However, I doubt many will. On a night out in Eastbourne I am sadly greeted by the clone type women who all wear the same thing; same shoes, same types of clothing, same attitudes. Most, I have noticed think it's okay when a guy grabs their arse in a club or think it's acceptable to lead a man on, get a free drink out of them and then disappear amongst the crowds. BUT men should never see a free drink as an opportunity to get laid. 9 times out of 10 a girl is merely using you to save herself a couple of quid. Just saying...I've done it myself.

Ladies, please with all the love and respect in the world, have a little for yourself. It's either tits out or legs out. Not both. You are not a sex worker. Although...

Unfortunately, I find it difficult to see, in an ever changing world, the representation of women ever differing and that's sad. The way I see it is that we will forever be seen as sexual objects as opposed to sexual beings. Yet, what I will be doing is not playing up to the ideals of society. If I want to go out wearing a jumper and jeans, I will do. If I want to go out wearing my little, black dress, I will do. Either way, I am dressing for myself and not for the wandering eyes of the men on the 'prowl'.

Let's say no to the objectifying of women as well as men. Let's have intelligence as our biggest attribute not the size of tits or length of cock. 

Hannah xox