Funny, Strange, Beautiful, Sexist People!
So, I was on my way to work yesterday morning, walking through Tottenham Court Rd. station and I noticed something which made me laugh.
I’m sure you have all seen posters advertising the new Judd Apatow film FUNNY PEOPLE all over the place. It’s a pretty standard poster with the actors in a group staring back out at you with each character having their own minor tagline next to them. Taglines that communicate something about each character in the film, taglines such as “Lucky People”, “Desperate People”, “Strange People” and for the only female on the poster the tagline reads “Beautiful People”.
It seems a disgruntled female commuter took offence to this and with a biro wrote a speech bubble that says
“WOMEN HAVE PERSONALITIES TOO!”
I guess the attack has come about because the poster seems to suggest that all women are good for is keeping their mouth shut and looking pretty. It really made me laugh because I just had this image of an angry woman on her way to work already pissed off because the transport in London is crap passing this poster and decided enough was enough.
Well, I’m male so maybe I’m missing the point when I say that there is nothing sexist about this poster at all. So I asked my girlfriend who said she didn’t have a problem with it either, she saw the tagline “Beautiful People” as just a passing reference to the character. I mean how can anyone be sure that the tagline doesn’t reference her inner beauty as well as her outer beauty. Surely it’s better to be a beautiful person rather than a desperate person anyway not to mention the fact that the actress in question is Leslie Mann who not only happens to be quite beautiful but is also Judd Apatow’s wife.
So girls, I want to hear your opinion on this. Do you find the poster sexist? Are you offended? Is the anger justified? Is it really worth getting angry with a film poster?
Funny People is out on 28th August and stars Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan, Eric Bana and of course Leslie Mann.







