For Mother’s Day, Playstation France released a little video in tribute to mothers… which smacks of benevolent sexism.
Sunday May 30 marked Mother’s Day in France. This celebration is often an opportunity for many brands to offer promotions, or to deploy more or less questionable communication plans.
This year Sony had the bad idea to get started. In one tweet dated May 30, 2021, the Playstation France account wished a “Happy Mother’s Day” to its community with a short video that perpetuates stereotypes from another age.
Happy Mother’s Day. pic.twitter.com/KJUVQb5I56
— PlayStation France (@PlayStationFR) May 30, 2021
The housewife who understands nothing
In the tone of humor, the brand thanks mothers ” who call to the table in the middle of a game “, Those who ask” to take a break during an online game “, And those who” offered you a PSP game for your PS3 “. Even mothers who ” arrive in the room when you are on the GTA loading screen »Have the right to their little word (it is obviously a question here of recalling that the loading screens of the famous game are excessively rich in sexualized images which could create an embarrassment between a child and his father).
Very quickly, the tweet was criticized by Internet users who accuse Sony of being ” returned 20 years ago “Or to perpetuate” sexist biases “And behaviors”misogynistic“. It must be said that the campaign indeed combines a good number of harmful clichés.
The image of the mother calling to the table automatically refers to the dated one of the stay-at-home mother. The “Mother Moulinex” represented seems, in addition, to understand nothing about video games, since she would have the audacity to ask that her offspring take a break during an online game. Let’s move on to mothers who are too ignorant to tell the difference between a PSP and PS3 game (moreover, the production of PSP and Playstation Vita having ended a few years ago, the dedication seems really anachronistic, in 2021).
47% of women play regularly
By opposing the world of cooking and that of gaming, Sony not only reinforces gender stereotypes, but also those related to age, which would mechanically make you lose your footing in the face of the technological mystery. However according to the report from SELL (the union of entertainment software publishers) dated March 2021, 47% of women in France are regular players (especially on smartphones). The average age of this category is 39, for both women and men. With this spot, Sony marginalizes half of its potential audience by reducing it to household chores and a posture of ignorance towards the video game world. Especially since we imagine that the company would not have dared to publish a similar video with the same clichés linked to the fathers of families.
There are obviously women who do not understand everything in the world of video games, just as there are men lost in the face of a PS5. In an industry where women are regularly harassed, or some receive death threats, and where studios continue to turn a blind eye to sexual assault, a video beast like this reinforces noxious clichés and perpetuates the idea that gambling video is a man’s leisure (preferably young). Even if this image no longer corresponds to reality at all and is terribly expensive for women.
Mother’s Day, in itself, is also increasingly criticized. Overall, it is a sexist party: if, contrary to popular belief, it was not exactly invented by Marshal Pétain, it was indeed used by the Vichy regime to celebrate and popularize a certain idea of women, at home, responsible for reproduction and devoted to her children.
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