Sir, - As second-year students in Alexandra College, Dublin, we find it truly astonishing that a reputable company such as An Post should still wish to portray women as the weaker of the sexes.
We received leaflets for the An Post Junior Education Awards competition, and were initially delighted to take part in it. However, on examining the leaflets, we were shocked and disappointed to find a photograph of a man and a woman in a cinema which displays the woman clinging on to the man in fright while he sits there calm and brave. This gives the false impression that women are weak and defenceless and that men are strong. This is not so in many cases. It belittles females and gives an unwarranted ego boost to males.
What surprises us the most is the fact that An Post are sending these leaflets out to schools which have been making great efforts to encourage the breaking down of barriers regarding job opportunities. For example, girls nowadays are being encouraged to believe that they are able, both physically and academically, for jobs that were traditionally male dominated. Advertisements such as An Post's are undermining all this positive encouragement for women to succeed in what used to be a "man's world".
Is Ireland still living in the Dark Ages? Class II B in Alexandra College are beginning to think so. - Yours, etc.
Kate McGann, (on behalf of class IIB, Alexandra College) Laytown, Co Meath.