A recent video put out by Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada has recently been taken down due to inappropriate and sexist content. According to one of the school’s professors, “The collective outrage of female faculty resulted in the video being removed from the SFU website.”
The video is a PSA meant to promote Sweater Day in Canada—a holiday that promotes turning down the heat (to save energy!) and making up for it by wearing warmer clothing, like sweaters. While the holiday sounds like something really positive, the video is not. It depicts a female professor putting on a sweater in her office before a male student tells her he likes her sweater in a sexually charged way. It’s excruciatingly awkward to watch, not to mention gross and sexist. Then the professor gets totally flustered by the student complimenting her, and the words “Saving energy is sexy” appear on the screen (sorry, but we’re vomming too hard right now to feel sexy about saving the environment).
The inherent sexism was brought to light when one of the school’s professors, Elise Chenier, wrote a blog post about “the harm it does, and not just to Miss Pinkham, but also to her male student who is encouraged to relate to half the population on such a limited level, and who himself then is defined by his heterosexual desire for women.” Preach.