Are feminists more critical of the portrayal of women in Australian beer advertisements than non-feminists?

This study focused on examining the relationships between a respondent's level of feminism, their attitudes towards various levels of sexism in a series of Australian beer advertisements and their intention to purchase the products featured in the advertisements. The respondents were 100 female university students. Feminism was measured using the ten-item Bem Sex Role Inventory. The respondents were able to discriminate between the advertisements based on their level of sexism and they generally perceived the advertisements as depicting women in a less than flattering way. However, surprisingly the use of sexism in the identified beer advertisements and the respondents' level of feminism did not reflect negatively on purchase intentions. In fact, female respondents did not want the advertisements to be female audience targeted and did not feel that they would like the advertisements more if women were portrayed more positively. Implications and suggestions for future research are presented.