In 2025 Male Allies Challenging Sexism (MACS) is calling on fellow boys and men across the globe to stop contributing to the sexual exploitation of women and girls, through our #RefuseTheBait campaign.
The campaign challenges the advertising strategy/slogan ‘sex sells’, by pointing out this is only true if males ‘mindlessly’ choose to buy products or services in response to adverts that sexually objectify women, and extends this concept to the sexual exploitation / sexual abuse industries (e.g. pornography; prostitution; gentlemen’s, strip and lap-dancing clubs; webcamming; image-based abuse; deepfakes; ‘nudify’ apps; AI girlfriends etc.).
We are calling on men and boys to resist the push of the multi-billion sexual exploitation industries and other industries, that push them to become consumers of female bodies and exploiters and abusers of women and girls, by using the hashtag #RefuseTheBait.
AIMS OF THE #RefuseTheBait CAMPAIGN
The campaign is a reminder to fellow men and boys of our individual and collective responsibility and agency, particularly with regards to the kind of person they want to be and the values they want to embody as human beings.
From our own personal experiences, MACS is aware that men use pornography as a way to deal with difficult feelings. This has been backed up by research on men, who report using pornography as emotional avoidance (Moynihan et al., 2022) and as a method of escaping or coping with negative emotions or boredom (Hanseder and Dantas, 2023).
In this light we are asking boys and men to work on developing alternative, more constructive strategies to cope with their negative emotions. This might include exercise, learning/reading about emotional wellbeing, finding a hobby and making social connections with other men.
Our call is to all men and boys to stop buying women’s and girls’ bodies for ‘sex’ and stop putting their want for sexual gratification or their need to escape negative emotions before the human rights of women and girls.
We are also specifically calling on men across the globe to abstain from participating in so-called ‘sex challenges’, advertised by the sexual exploitation industries and the women who work in those industries. Men who take part in these ‘events’ are carrying out mass abuse and sexual exploitation of women, causing lifelong physical and psychological damage to the women involved.
PRESS ENQUIRIES: allies@menchallengingsexism.org.uk.
REFERENCES:
Hanseder S & Dantas JAR (2023). Males' Lived Experience with Self-Perceived Pornography Addiction: A Qualitative Study of Problematic Porn Use. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 13;20(2):1497. Accessed online on 26 January 2025. Available at: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9861829/.
Moynihan, A. B., Igou, E. R., & van Tilburg, W. A. P. (2022). Pornography consumption as existential escape from boredom. Personality and Individual Differences, 198, 1–6. Accessed online on 26 January 2025. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886922003075.
Note: The campaign was originally titled #DontBeFishy. This was changed on 9 February based on feedback about the use of the term ‘fishy’ and sexist / misogynistic connotations.