I’ve never been trolled. I’ve never been subjected to graphic gifs like Jezebel has lately, nor have I been attacked on Twitter like #everydaysexism, The Vagenda, No More Page 3, and Caroline Criado-Perez. But when I do raise an issue that I think is insulting to women, detrimental to the growth and development of women, or just plain offensive in general, I can guarantee that I will receive at least one reply pointing out that it’s not a big deal, men are objectified too, or here we go again with another one of Laura’s feminist rants… etc.

I find it interesting that I get these constant another feminist rant (or something with the same point but much more passive aggressively phrased) complaints on Twitter. Twitter is one of the only places in mass media where women speak freely and openly. What would the TV/Magazine industry look like without the confines of advertising, profit, and (yes I’m going to go there) the many men at the top who control the industry.

I think it’d look a lot more like Twitter.

All this came up today with my response to an advert of the new Tom Tom Cardio watch – I’m not going to link to it to give it any more attention – that involves a women running in slow motion in a strapless bra to sell a watch that measures your heart rate without a chest strap. I’ve emailed the UK office of the company to ask for an explanation as to why they chose this approach to sell their watch. As an aside I’ve been told your wrist is a completely inaccurate way to measure heart rate so maybe that’s why they have to trick 50% of the population into buying it.

Do companies never learn or is the “bad PR” really worth producing commercials that are insulting to women? @UKTomTom http://t.co/bkJPWgNedA

— Laura Stewart (@ledavies) August 12, 2014

*Update* The TomTom Global PR Manager Sports replied to me and said that she’s not an “official spokeperson” for TomTom so is unable to provide any statement towards this video. She then offered to send me one of the watches to product test myself. I didn’t accept this offer for many reasons, but the main being that a freebie doesn’t change my opinion of the video.

Many of my friends are trialling the watch right now for their blogs and I don’t want this to seem like an attack on them. I believe you can be critical of a companies message while enjoying a product. In addition, the more strong and confident women who do use the watch will hopefully prove that marketing like this is insulting.