Picture yourself as a young women just starting off at a brand new school. University, in fact. It’s a new chapter in your life, higher education, and so, so exciting. You open up a pack of materials send to you from your university to welcome you to campus and amongst the usual maps, coupons, and brochures, there’s a placard with a weirdly graphic close up of a woman’s mouth full of white, viscous liquid paired with a joke referencing fellatio. Hmm.
This is what happened at the University of Sussex, according to Buzzfeed News, and according to a tweet from a student named Raquel Rosario Sánchez. Sánchez photographed the insert from a company called Brush Box, which reads, “Whether you spit or swallow as part of your (twice…) daily oral regime, place your oral health on autopilot with Brushbox.”
Not terrible oral hygiene advice, but when paired with this image, it has a completely different meaning:
Imagine being a bright and eager female student excited to have been accepted into one of the UK's leading research universities (@SussexUni) and you find this in your welcome bag: https://t.co/wfKdr0ODd4
Sexism is sexism even when it's "a joke." Women deserve better than this. pic.twitter.com/Q8epaGuvM8
— RaquelRosarioSánchez (@8RosarioSanchez) September 19, 2018
You can see that the woman’s mouth appears to be filled with toothpaste foam, and the text is a double entendre about semen. If you have any doubt about that, ask around to see how many people swallow a mouth full of used toothpaste after brushing. Blech!
A lot of people were pretty disgusted with the implied message. Not that there’s anything wrong with oral sex, but you definitely want your school to stay out of it. Many also found it gross that women were being reduced to a gaping mouth on their first day of school:
Yep. The company claims they wanted to be provocative in order to raise awareness to dental health (towards the end of the Mumsnet thread) but imagine what swallowing toothpaste twice a day would do TO YOUR OVERALL HEALTH!
Hey @brushboxuk and @USSU: an apology is in order.
— RaquelRosarioSánchez (@8RosarioSanchez) September 20, 2018
How very disappointing @SussexUni. We do not raise strong, articulate young women for them to be treated this way. Nor do we educate our thoughtful young men to tolerate it this behaviour towards their cohort.
— ISL Surrey Primary (@ISLSurrey) September 20, 2018
Exactly. And when you're 17 and 18 (average age for first year students) you are so eager to find your place and fit in. You don't need this extra crap thrown in your lap! (Por cierto, que liiinda tu foto de fondo. ¡Felicidades por lo que sea! ?????)
— RaquelRosarioSánchez (@8RosarioSanchez) September 20, 2018
How clever and original to use a woman's body in a sexualized way to sell an entirely unrelated product. Revolutionary. Damn, will never get tired of this incredible idea ?? smh so intimidated by women why else would they try to tear us down while we're EXCELLING?!
— Loz (@LaurieButtons) September 20, 2018
The University responded on Twitter and also told Buzzfeed, “We were very disappointed to find this promotional material in our Dig-In boxes, and will be reviewing whether to renew our contract with this supplier.”
We can absolutely see why this promotional material in @USSU freshers packs has sparked such a strong reaction. We’re sure this discussion will continue and that @USSU and other student unions will feed back the reaction to the company responsible.
— University of Sussex (@SussexUni) September 20, 2018
A BrushBox spokesperson gave BuzzFeed the following statement:
“We are really sorry if anyone has been offended by the promotional image used in the Dig-In boxes. We now realise it was inappropriate and misguided of us to use this type of image as a way to raise awareness of dental health issues.
“We completely understand that the image could be deemed as derogatory to women and for that we are truly sorry – this was never our intention, and we take full responsibility for any upset it has caused.
“BrushBox is a company which prides itself on its family and ethical ethos and we are very disappointed that something which was meant to encourage good health habits amongst students has caused any offense.”
The company that puts together the boxes is called Dig-IN, and the’ve also apologized, saying,”Dig-In would like to apologize unreservedly for its part in distributing Brush Box’s promotional material. This insert, distributed in our Freshers boxes does not in any way reflect our high ethical standards and we have put immediate measures in place to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
Good to know. Next time, when you’re deciding what goes in a box, ask yourself if it’s something you’d be comfortable with a professor handing you.