‘Please join us in the 21st century’: Swim England comes under fire for ‘sexist’ picture depicting little girls as mermaids perching either side of a boy to advertise swimming lessons
- Swim England shared photo advertising ‘Mermaid and Shark’ swimming lessons
- Katy Cooper, from south London, tweeted photo which has since been removed
- Social media users slammed the ‘old school representation’ of boys and girls
- Fin2Fit who run lessons have since apolagised for offence caused by the image
Swim England has come under fire for a ‘sexist’ image depicting two young girls dressed as mermaids posing on the floor besides a standing boy to promote swimming lessons.
Katy Cooper, from south London, took to Twitter to share her anger after coming across the image promoting Fin2Fit’s ‘Mermaid and Shark’ lessons, which teach children and adults how to swim while wearing a fake fin.
The picture – which has since been removed – shows two little girls wearing bright pink mermaid tails, lying on the floor by the pool as a boy with a shark fin stands with his hands on his hips in the middle of them.
Social media users quickly hit out at the campaign, calling it a ‘horrendous’ example of gender stereotyping, which feeds into ‘inequality and negative attitudes’ about women.
Swim England has come under fire for a ‘sexist’ image depicting two young girls dressed as mermaids posing on the floor besides a standing boy to promote swimming lessons
Katy Cooper, from south London, took to Twitter to share her anger after coming across the image promoting Fin2Fit’s ‘Mermaid and Shark’ lessons
A spokesperson for Swim England said the organisation acknowledge it was ‘wrong’ to use the image and will ensure it will not be used on its website and social channels again.
Sharing the image, Katy wrote: ‘Dear @Swim_England – what exactly is the message you are trying to send about our boys and girls with this picture?’
Several other users quickly expressed their outrage, pointing out the ‘old school representation’ of the male and female genders, and urging them to replace the picture with something ‘a bit more progressive’.
‘This image as a 2022 campaign? Please change it and have a word with your marketing department / publicity team. Look forward to seeing something new in the near future,’ said one user.
Social media users quickly hit out at the campaign, calling it a ‘horrendous’ example of gender stereotyping, which feeds into ‘inequality and negative attitudes’ about women
‘Look at the power stance of boy, and the ‘I’m attractive’ stance of the girls. Reflected in the height positions too. This is old school representation of gender stereotyping, and feeds into so much inequality and negative attitudes,’ wrote another.
A third agreed: ‘It’s hard to know where to start. What was even the thinking behind this? Swim England, PLEASE retract this picture and get a bit more progressive, eh, there’s a good chap.’
Another user called the image ‘utterly bizarre’ for an organisation encouraging young women to take part in sport, and said it puts ‘pressure on girls to look good’ while exercising.
A Swim England spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We always pride ourselves on setting high standards but, occasionally, we get things wrong – and we’ll hold our hands up when we do.
‘We were provided with an image for an article which was first published in June 2019. We acknowledge this should not have been used.
‘We thank Katy for highlighting it to us and apologise for using it.
Several other users quickly expressed their outrage, pointing out the ‘old school representation’ of the male and female genders
‘We have removed the image from our website and social channels and will ensure it is not used again in the future.’
Replying to the backlash on Twitter, Fin2Fit said that the picture was taken at one of their sessions ‘where all the children had so much fun’ and the picture showed a mermaid lesson where ‘boys can join in the fun too.’
They went on: ‘Once again we apologise for any upset caused and would like to reiterate, Fin2Fit is open and accessible for everyone and we focus our sessions on developing their swimming, strength, coordination, fitness whilst making it fun – our aim is to encourage children to keep swimming.
‘Firstly we’d like to accept and acknowledge all the comments on this picture, everyone of course will interpret pictures in a thousand different ways and for those who are upset by this picture we sincerely apologise and confirm this will be removed.’
MailOnline has contacted Fin2Fit for comment.