Great... now movie posters are sexist?

[robvalue]

Because billboards are outside, and children go outside sometimes, I would argue that it's probably never a good idea to put anyone being choked on a billboard.

I agree! This gets to the heart of the matter. It's not suitable content for everyone to see.

True, but by the same token, pop culture is what informs cultural norms. What you see on a movie poster shouldn't be the sole determiner of your morality, but it does become a component of the social mien you're surrounded by, which influences the way you deal with the world around you. We already accept that advertising can do that, it's why we place restrictions on cigarette ads, for example.

But isn't it our social norm that tells us the guy in the poster is bad? And that he's a bad guy? One look at this poster, and I know who the villian is.

Yeah, that's it. And if this is so blatantly sexist, then people will write it off as such. And of course, we think that's the evil dude and he shouldn't be doing it. We don't think that if that blue monster is choking someone maybe we best go choke people too. Anyone set off that easily is obviously unstable.

So in conclusion, I don't think this is sexist, I think it's inappropriate. Films and entertainment are not meant to be educational. If parents aren't working with their kids to help teach them how to deal with the world and not copy every damn thing they say, we're screwed anyway. You could go through every scene of everything ever and shout "that's sexist!", "that's racist!".

As has been pointed out, you could just as easily say it's sexist against men for displaying them as violent. But these aren't even humans FFS. What kind of loonies are we talking about, once we've discounted children?