Dear Mayor Daley:
I am deeply concerned about the ads currently running on CTA buses for the new film I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, which read: "Deaf Girls Can't Hear You Coming." Clearly, this ad makes light of attacks on women (no less disabled women), and I cannot believe that's something considered appropriate messaging on the side of city property.
Combined with the other ad, which reads: "Strippers will not tolerate disrespect ... HAHA, just kidding!" the campaign makes Chicago look not like the progressive and welcoming city it purports to be, but a city that condones sexual assault and misogyny.
Given your campaign to bring the Olympics to Chicago, one hopes your office will consider whether that's the message it wants to send to the international community.
I would also hope your office would consider that many women who have survived sexual assault are dependent on public transportation to get to and from jobs, school, the grocery store, etc. They don't have an alternative option if they prefer not to be greeted by rape jokes on the side of their bus.
Surely you and your staff are aware that public transportation is itself a prime location for groping, frottage, and other sexual assaults, which makes the CTA's decision to run these ads bitterly ironic, and profoundly hostile toward the women who have been victimized in this way.
Best regards,
Melissa McEwan
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