Well, it's news to me...

The Brisbane Sunday Mail and Queensland University of Technology advertising researcher Stephen Dann have suddenly realised that 'there were double standards in the portrayal of men and women' on television and in advertising.

This is news not because it's new information. As someone noted recently, much news of this kind finds its way into the MSM because it's new to them.

Many other people have realised for years that, as Dann expounds:

"There's a mistaken belief that if you portray men negatively, it is somehow equality because that's how women were treated for so long.

"In sitcoms and in advertising men are often being used as the dumb, laughing stock character with a smart wife or girlfriend.

"Shows like Everybody Loves Raymond are typical. If you believe in equality, it's annoying for both men and women. It's offensive and demeaning."

Advertising Standards Bureau chairman Robert Koltai then goes on to be offensive and demeaning with his comment regarding the ASB's dismissal of complaints against a Voodoo stockings campaign in which a woman has a wardrobe full of men wearing only jeans who are lined up similarly to clothes on hangers.

"The creativity behind this ad clearly intends to depict a tongue-in-cheek view of the well-accepted right of a woman to be in control of her choice and her 'accessories'." (My emphasis)

One would like to see Mr Koltai turned into an accessory. Perhaps a smart little handbag.

-- Nick