When I first saw this (PPE Women in Construction) you could blow me over with a feather. Safety just keeps getting worse and worse. See Figure 1. PPE With B**bs and Legs

Figure 1. PPE With B**bs and Legs

If ever there was need for a feminist ethic in Safety it would be now.

Here we have, masked as something to do with safety and PPE, all that a masculinist ethic desires for women.

Just because the dress is made of high viz material (note no hard hat, gloves, glasses etc) this somehow promotes a positive message for safety and women. Well, god bless the sunshine and hand out the ‘zero event’ pamphlets. BTW, most important to ensure the model is neither old, short, overweight or unattractive (to men).

The article states that ‘this dress is my amour’ no sorry, this dress is a masculinist semiotic.

Of course, if you deconstruct this parade or dress, you are obviously anti-safety and this is reflected in the comments attached to this article. Of course, in safety, no matter how the bad idea, how unethical the projection, it must be supported and congratulated because it comes from Safety.

Poore olde safety, where critical thinking is demonised and compliance is god.

Sorry, this promotion is just as problematic as the stiletto for ‘Women in Safety’ (https://safetyrisk.net/the-wisdom-of-the-beguines-for-safety/). Sorry wo-men, but keeping your head in the sand about semiotics doesn’t help your cause. Safety is a profoundly misogynist activity (https://safetyrisk.net/safety-as-a-mysoginist-activity/).

Unfortunately, all this stuff promotes masculinist power and endorses safety as a masculinist activity. And this is what this article confirms: wo-men, know your place, be compliant, and be a sex object.

Zero is of course the greatest symbol of masculinist power (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/zero-the-great-safety-delusion/) and sadly Wo-men in safety endorse this delusion. How strange that Wo-men would promote an ideology of brutalism.

If you want to understand a different view or risk, a feminine view of risk that is positive, constructive and meaningful, you can watch here: https://vimeo.com/237511120

How fascinating that in all the activity of Wo-men in safety there is no mention of the most critical factor in Care Ethics (https://safetyrisk.net/care-ethics-and-the-ethics-of-care-in-risk/; https://safetyrisk.net/culture-silences-in-safety-care-ethics/).

No, let’s just get excited about having our boobs and legs hanging out of a dress and somehow reconstruct sense to state it is some kind of safety statement??? Even the discourse about the dress is engineering focused and masculinist!

More mindless safety and then we wonder why gendered violence in the workplace is a safety issue?