‘Sexist’ M&S cocktail in a can causes quite a stir

MARKS & Spencer has been accused of sexism for selling £2 ‘Porn Star Martini’ cocktails.

Shoppers and feminist campaigners claimed the high street giant was ‘normalising porn’ with the tinned drink which combines passion fruit juice and vodka.

The Object! group said: ‘The reality of porn is violence to women. This is clearly what Marks is selling – Marks & Spencer normalising porn.

‘If you try to complain online, the system rejects the word “porn”. Mixed messages, huh?’

Brenda Ellis tweeted to the company: ‘Please remove the very offensive and disturbing Porn Star cocktail. It is not something I want any children to see – and to see M&S approving this for sale is a shock.’

Kate Hillman, a prison chaplain, said pornography ‘depicts paid-for acts of rape and sexual violence against (mostly) women and references to it have no place in a high street store’. She

‘Very offensive and disturbing’

insisted: ‘Introducing this product in this context further sanitises and normalises porn. It’s horrific and yet pornography is so normalised within our culture.’

Porn Star Martini is a common tipple in bars across the country and was recently voted one of the UK’s favourite cocktails.

But feminist writer Grace Shore Banks tweeted: ‘Is porn this normalised by our society, that you’re not above profiting from it and the exploitation of women to sell stuff?’ A spokesman for M& S defended the drink yesterday, saying: ‘Porn Star Martini is a common and popular name for a passion fruit cocktail drink. We launched it back in September and it has already become one of our most popular cocktails.’

Last month campaigners attacked M&S for a window display at a Nottingham store that said women’s ‘ must- have’ Christmas present was ‘fancy little knickers’. They branded it ‘vomit inducing’.