Original advertisement

Heterosexism and Sexual Prejudice

The advertisement of Durex condom tries to emphasize the importance of using condom and the aim is to protect the individuals. The slogan in the poster is “be safe”. There are multiple meanings of “being safe”. The basic function in the advertisement is to tell consumer that condom can prevent people from STD, including herpes, HIV etc. The other meaning of “being safe” is specific for heterosexuality which is for birth control to prevent sperm entering female’s body. In this case, there is only a male and a female on the poster and obviously the condom advertisement only target at heterosexual consumers, which may present idea of heterosexism.  The specific examples of heterosexism in America indicates on being against lesbian and gay military personnel and there is no legal protection for opposing LGBT discrimination in employment, housing and other aspects. Till now, more than one-third of the states exist sodomy laws which also indicates the existence of heterosexism (Herek, 1990). Another term can relate with the advertisement is “sexual prejudice”, and relatively it is a new term to apply on anti-homosexuality attitude. Sexual prejudice consists of all negative attitudes based on sexual orientation. The difference between heterosexism and sexual prejudice is the latter’s target is homosexual, bisexual including heterosexual. Also the subject group is different, the organization is mostly directed at people who engage in homosexual behavior or label themselves as LGB (Herek, 2000). The idea of heterosexism and Sexual prejudice represent on the advertisement, and there are some common points between them. The first one is it is an attitude, then there is social group and members. Last but not the least, their idea involve hostility and negativity.

Herek, G. M. (1990). The context of anti-gay violence: Notes on cultural and psychological heterosexism. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 5, 316-333.

Herek, G. M. (2000). The psychology of sexual prejudice. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 19-22.

Revised Version of Advertisement

Sexual Minority Inclusion

I add two groups of couples into the advertisement which represent lesbian and gay couple. There is a difference of size between the three couples which indicates the group size. The small size of gay and lesbian couples indicate the social minority and larger size of heterosexual couple indicates the social majority. Secondly, I change the slogan “be safe” to “each love should be safe”. From the point, I want to eliminate the discrimination in the advertisement which is that the product specifically serves for heterosexual couple. The most serious problem in the original version of advertisement is that it does not even consider the safety of minority group in the society because there is only heterosexual couple on the poster and they want them use condom to be safe. Oppositely, STD transmission is relatively higher among homosexual behavior, especially gay sex. The reason is gay have more casual sex and sexual partner. Evidence shows that more male enjoy casual sex than women (Baumeister, R. 2001). For the case of gay sex, it is more reasonable because there are two males involve in the sex and the sex drive will be extremely high. If I put the two advertisement together, they will look like the process of LGBT movement and change from homosexuality exclusion to LGB inclusion. LGBT movement movements increase the acceptance of the minority group in society. There is a long history of LGBT people campaigning for their deserved rights. The movement is worldwide and the earliest organizations to support LGBT rights starting in the 19^th century (Bernstein, M. 2002). There is discrimination in the original version of advertisement and I think my revised version can continue to promote LGBT movement. Sex education should be increasingly promote among the sexual minority people, and the revised poster will have the function. Gay people is the group which has relatively high ratio to get STD and the poster can remind them to use condom in their each sex.

Baumeister, R.F., Catanese, K.R., and Vohs, K.D. (2001). Is There a Gender Difference in Strength of Sex Drive? Theoretical Views, Conceptual Distinctions, and a Review of Relevant Evidence. Personality and Social Psychology Review 5:242–273.

Bernstein, Mary (2002). Identities and Politics: Toward a Historical Understanding of the Lesbian and Gay Movement. Social Science History 26:3