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Opinionista

Hashtag campaigns: Marie Claire SA takes a step in the wrong direction

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Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar was born in Cape Town and raised by his determined mother, grandparents, aunt and the rest of his maternal family. He is an admitted attorney (formerly of the corporate hue), with recent exposure in the public sector, and is currently working on transport and infrastructure projects. He is a Mandela Washington Fellow, a Mandela Rhodes Scholar, and a WEF Global Shaper. He had a brief stint in the contemporary party politic environment working for Mamphela Ramphele as Agang CEO and chief-of-staff; he found the experience a deeply educational one.

The magazine’s controversial #MCInHerShoes campaign is fundamentally flawed because it seeks to deal with the real and difficult issues facing women without any depth or real thought. Hashtag campaigns seem to be the new wave of self-righteous and self-congratulatory behaviour South Africans are forced to accept.

Not too long ago we were confronted with the #CEOSleepOutZA campaign, which hit the streets with much fanfare, press coverage and self-indulgent confidence about how that campaign was changing the world.

We are now confronted with #MCInHerShoes, a similar campaign, launched by magazine Marie Claire SA as part of their August publication. Marie Claire SA explained that this particular edition was motivated by their idea to “honour women’s month in August, we invited 18 local celebrities to walk in our shoes – literally. As they learned to balance and strike a pose through their discomfort, the shoes became a representation of the experience of being a woman”.

Yet there seems to be such a desperate need to hold onto campaigns, to see the good beyond the problematic nature of those campaigns and then to defend campaigns that are tone-deaf, divorced from the lived reality of many and that are out of touch.

The #MCInHerShoes campaign had Marie Claire SA pitted against various users on social media puzzled at why a campaign about women’s abuse would feature Themba Nkosi, commonly known as DJ Euphonik, who in 2012 was accused of domestic violence in his then relationship with Ms Bonang Matheba.

The puzzlement on social media, however, is not limited simply to the inclusion of Nkosi or misogynists in the campaign but extends to the foolish idea that stilettos were somehow a defining feature of what it was to be women. Perhaps Marie Claire SA should be reminded that women have previously burnt their brassieres, and should maybe now burn their stilettos.

I will not delve into the accusations of domestic violence levelled against Nkosi in a formal police complaint, and later withdrawn, by Matheba except to say that the cycle of violence disempowers women. We are confronted time and again with cases of domestic violence that do not attain justice and countless cases of rape that go unanswered.

The idea that the withdrawal of charges somehow cures or sanctifies the alleged abuser in question is ridiculous and lacking in context, thought and decency. Somehow, some of us are willing to accept this argument and infer that because Matheba withdrew the charges it was all some type of ploy or stunt.

Nkosi showed such bankruptcy of thought, when he tweeted (in response to Matheba’s tweet) that “maybe next month they’ll discuss the crying wolves” – using the tired reasoning that women cry wolf about rape, abuse and violence.

Oddly, this kind of bankrupt and problematic thinking is mimicked by those responsible for tweeting on behalf of Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women Susan Shabangu her and her ministry. A haphazard tweet read: “What should be done with women who press charges then later withdraw them?”

Marie Claire SA are in the Associated Media Publishing stable and have a circulation of 33,885. The magazine seeks to be a “brand of depth and substance” which “offers a journalistic angle on issues”. This half-baked campaign has not reflected those ideals but rather has relied on the tried and tested formula of getting male “celebrities” to participate in an easy-to-execute concept without acknowledging the deeper issues women face.

The media world has fundamentally shifted with access to trends and information no longer confined to magazines but instantly available through various channels.

I am mindful that magazines like Marie Claire SA now find themselves in a market that has equally fundamentally changed, however, I would hope that this reality would make them work smarter and harder to be engaged in and aware of what is happening in the target market they claim to represent – women’s issues – instead of relying on dated and simplistic thinking around complex and difficult issues.

The Marie Claire SA August spread was rightly criticised. Firstly, for assuming women’s issues are all the same. Secondly, for putting someone who was accused of abusing a woman in the feature. And thirdly for really believing that walking in stilettos really would reflect the story of women.

However, the #MCInHerShoes campaign is not only discredited because of the involvement of misogynists and men like Nkosi. It is fundamentally flawed because it seeks to deal with real and difficult issues without any depth or real thought.

We must demand more from each other and really asked ourselves why we are so eager to defend campaigns that are flawed, out of touch and wholly inadequate to deal with fundamental issues that seek to rob women of their dignity and safety. DM

PS In the dying hours of 23 July, Marie Claire SA issued a statement to acknowledge that the campaign was ill-conceived and that there was room for improvement. This is a small but simple gesture which acknowledges simply that they “realise our mistake. We will do better”.

This is the kind of honesty that is required not only in media campaigns of this nature but by the leadership of this country broadly. We should demand the simple truth – for men and women to simply account honestly, openly and without any hesitation. An apology, in itself, may not be enough, talk is never enough and I will be interested to see how exactly they do better.

Will they really be better? Will they be able to meaningful confront how out of touch they were? Will they realise that a diversity of voices, views and context is the only way to really be better?

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