UoB’s Drama group heavily criticised for promoting play with ‘sexist’ poster

A poster used to promote the new production by Birmingham’s Drama GMTG group has been branded sexist by members of the Women’s Association and members of the play’s cast.

“City of Angels” is set to run from the 23^rd to the 27^th of February, and the plot follows the story of a New York novelist who must adapt his books for Hollywood.

But the play’s poster attracted criticism on the Women’s Association Facebook page, with one member accusing it of “objectifying women”.

According to the post, the members of the drama society featuring on the posters were not comfortable posing, and felt the circulation of the images on campus would leave them feeling “exposed”.

An additional complaint questioned why images of the girls in their underwear were used to advertise the production when they had “no real relevance to the plot” and the main male characters were “not featured anywhere, despite their central roles”.

A committee member was also allegedly overheard saying in a meeting that the images were “created solely to increase sales”.

Initially, members of both groups campaigned to get the images removed.

Daisy Lindlar, the Guild Representation and Resources Officer, used the Women’s Association page to announce that the images were going to be looked into by the Student Groups Executive Committee to see whether GMTG could “justify why [they] used [the] images”.

But a subsequent post by the Women’s Association President later confirmed that the issue had seemingly been resolved, stating that “the women on the production team, the cast, and the posters are all now, and always were, happy to be involved.”

The Tab has reached out to the Guild of Students for further confirmation into how the complaint was raised and handled.