On women empowerment: is "This Girl Can" campaign effective in promoting sports among women?

"This Girl Can" campaign is meant to empower women and fight stereotypes. There is a debate on whether it succeeds doing so or just reinforces sexism.

"This Girl Can" is an English campaign that seeks to encourage women to do physical exercise no matter how well they do it or how they look. Produced by the government agency Sport England, the campaign is a reaction to a study that found that two million fewer women are regularly exercising than men, despite them expressing the wish of exercising more. Further research found that it is fear of judgement that prevents many women from doing exercise.

Debate on women empowerment

Through posters and short clips, the add depicts seven women doing exercise. They are all "real women", from Manchester and London with their own personal story about their relationship with exercise. The aim of the campaign is simple: If you feel like it, exercise! How well you look while doing it or how good you are at it is irrelevant. That is the message "This Girl Can" is supposed to transmit. But do you think that the add succeeds in doing so? 

On the other hand, many people are critisizing the campaing claiming that it is all about sex, not sports, and that this advert is mainly objectifying women bodies. Many feminist are not happy with the campaign. Referring to them as "girls" this campaign may undermine rather than empower women. Is this really such a revolutionary take on promoting sports among women? You can watch the video and judge by yourself: 

Does "This Girl Can" live up to its own expectations? Do you think that it succeeds in truly challenging the way in which women are portrayed in sport related ads? Is it effective in changing stereotypes or actually reinforcing the very same idea it allegedly contests?

Vote to see result and collect 1 XP. Your vote is anonymous.
If you change your mind, you can change your vote simply by clicking on another option.