Brigade Antisexiste: The masked feminists vandalising sexist posters

Fed up with the sexist adverts proliferating the streets of Paris, a masked brigade of feminist activists have taken matters into their own hands.

Armed with permanent markers and red and white stickers emblazoned with the word "sexiste", the secretive members of Brigade Antisexiste - or the Anti-Sexist Brigade - cover their faces with red bandanas and vandalise posters which objectify women.

The group - which includes three men - has been congregating once a month since April 2016. Members are encouraged to flag posters which they deem misogynistic. The activists then debate what makes the poster sexist, before voting to label it with a sticker and scrawling their explanation on the framed posters.

Debating each poster, they hope, will help members to better understand sexism and how to fight it.

Commenting on a Guess poster showing a model in black fishnets lying on her front, one member of the group told Broadly she found the poster "degrading and disrespectful".

Another commented that they were not criticising - or "slut-shaming" - the models in the adverts but the "visual as a whole".

Brigade Antisexiste was started organically by three friends who decided to pin stickers to sexist adverts in their spare time. After attracting more support, they launched a Facebook page and opened meetings to members of the public. Now, there are 27 such groups across the world, including Canada and Switzerland.

In March, the group successfully persuaded the body which governs Paris to ban "sexist and discriminatory" adverts when it agreed a new contract with outdoor advertising firm JC Decaux.

Asked in an interview with LCI.fr whether the group needs to prepare before each outing, Brigade Antisexiste member Lea replied: "We do not prepare anything, we have no doubt that sexist ads will be found."