We love to hear positive stories of men taking action on the sexploitation of women. That is why we were so encouraged when Laurie chose to speak out after seeing the sexualised imagery on Makita's home page. 

We have been receiving complaints against hardware store Total Tools since last year. 

We contacted them in December and this was their reply:

"Apologies if our artwork choice has offended you. We will certainly use your feedback in deciding future artwork for our catalogues."

On their blog they claim to encouraging their female franchise community. But objectifying and sexualising women in marketing and advertising doesn't make for a very welcoming work environment for women. 

Today a special guest post by Collective Shout member Ryl Harrison.

Ryl's experience and persistence with challenging Makita power tools on sexist advertising in their catalogues has shown results. Makita now appears to be stepping  away from using sexist imagery in their advertising, although they’re not quite there yet. Read on to see how Ryl went about challenging Makita and what you can do to help. We agree with Ryl, it’s worth speaking up.