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Wednesday’s Headlines

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• TTC pimps its ride, literally [ Toronto Star ]
• Transit riders grow tired of jumping water hazard [ Toronto Star ]
• Taking advantage of defeat [ Toronto Star ]
• Cities don’t have room for everyone [ Toronto Star ]
• Get set for cuts: Miller [ Toronto Sun ]
• Miller orders spending cuts [ Toronto Star ]
• In wake of tax defeat, Miller eyes ‘serious’ spending cuts [ Globe and Mail ]
• GTA sputtering as economic engine: TD report [ cbc ]
• Unfortunately, Mike’s love doesn’t fix elevators [ Torontoist ]
• Ontarians must wake up to mixed-member threat [ Globe and Mail ]
• What crisis? City buys theatre [ Toronto Sun ]
• Throughout history, leaders have come up with ingenious revenue tools. All Toronto has to do is use it taxable brain [ Toronto Sun ]
• Over to you Ontario [ Globe and Mail ]
• Province’s position [ Globe and Mail ]

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16 comments

  1. Joe Fiorito’s prudish complaining is more than a little far-fetched. If anything, his moralizing about his Northern Ontario upbringing shows why we could all use a little loosening up, if anything.

    I haven’t seen the ad in question, but only Jonathan is allowed to call people pimps.

  2. Joes story reads like he had a few drinks before he wrote it. I think he feels that the vodka ad is sexist. And I guess Giambrone is to blame (he is guilty of everything else so he must be guilty here too). As usual with the Star they talk about something visual and don’t include a photo to inform people.

  3. fiotiro writes, in part: “It is what they shove in the faces of all the women who work in the glass-and-steel towers downtown.”

    i’m one of these women. i think fiorito’s right and thank him for making his observations. i think it’s not correct to describe his article as “prudish complaining.” rather, i think he’s putting forth his understanding of a feminist message. i’d rather not see sexy images of women all day long, every day, all the time, throughout our public space, for a bunch of reasons, including reasons related to the empowerment of women.

    with the greatest of respect to kevin bracken, i feel insulted by his suggestion that the appropriate response here is to loosen up.

  4. I agree with mkm. I don’t think Fiorito is being prudish, he’s against something that is just not good. He’s not against public “sexiness” or what-have-you, there are many appropriate opportunities for that that don’t have this kind of baggage.

    There are many who wish this reaction to a wrapped TTC vehicle would extend to more than just the sexist ones, but perhaps this is a good start.

  5. “i’d rather not see sexy images of women all day long, every day, all the time, throughout our public space, for a bunch of reasons, including reasons related to the empowerment of women.”

    please tell me where you go and see all these images all day long. i like to visit these places. i don’t know about others, but i see an equal amount of ads with men and women. i admit there may be slightly more ads with women but not in the way that you put it that there’s ads with sexy women everywhere. lets start worrying about things that impact us a bit more than this.

  7. The objectification of women is hardly something that can be pinned on Giambrone. Give me a break. Want to discuss the issue? Discuss the actual problem instead of blaming some guy you don’t particularly like.

  8. City’s decision to buy Theatre Passe Muraille is a good thing. Not sure, though, about it being handled through Artscape – an agency which has become quite smug about its role in the arts.

  10. It’s not the first sleazy ad to be seen on the side of a transit vehicle, but that doesn’t make mkm and Fiorito wrong.

    Alex, where exactly are you living that you don’t have multi-storey T&A posters staring out at you from every fifth flat surface?

  11. Ryan,
    I don’t think anybody said the objectification of women can be pinned on Giambrone. That issue has certainly been around a lot longer than he has. However, as Chair of the TTC, he is in a position of accountability for that organization. If people see that TTC streetcars and buses are being used as vehicles (pardon the pun) of inappropriate messages, then why shouldn’t they direct their questions to him? That is all part and parcel of accountability.

    Personally, I am getting sick and tired of this attitude that because we need to make a buck, any sort of advertising is permissable in our public spaces/public transit. I feel it is very short-sighted and destructive.

  12. What about these same ads glamourizing alcohol? What about these ads using sex as a method of targeting men, which itself is also a bit sexist and demeaning (the hidden identity of the men in ads almost certainly allows them to become surrogates for the viewer)?

    What about … subway ads for Canada’s Next Top Model, which also promotes a certain ideal beauty? Ads for shows like Desperate Housewives, or Sex in the City? Or ads for terrible romantic comedies that paint women as desperately single (and other comedies that show men as incompetent oafs)?

    Seriously, where do we draw the line here?

  13. Gloria,
    I’m not sure where we draw the line. But when we have the whole outside of a transit vehicle functioning as a huge moving ad for an alcoholic beverage, I think some people will think we have crossed that line — especially given that the ad relies heavily on the image of a woman’s legs with her skirts hiked up.

  14. Granted, but I find it a bit odd people are so focused on images only, and cast aside many ideas behind them. Several of the images I mentioned are relatively desexualized, but they promote the same skewed ideals.

  15. I like the idea that the TTC subject its advertising to some sort of code of ethics. I wish they would. With respect to those above who point out that this will not bring world peace, each drop in the bucket makes it a bit fuller — quick fixes are not really the point here.

  16. Disparishun, the TTC likes that idea too — they already have an Advertising Review Committee which could order the removal of this ad on ethical grounds. It’s not clear how you make a complaint, but perhaps the Star article already got their attention.