UK: The Lose the Lads' Mags campaign demonstrates the power of modern feminism

Submitted by Mastodon on Tue, 2013-05-28 20:17

Article here. Excerpt:

'This week marks the launch of the campaign Lose the Lads’ Mags, spearheaded by feminist organisations UK Feminista and Object. Depending on who you believe, this is either an attempt to free employees and customers from "an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment" that could arise from exposure to sexist pornographic content - or, in the words of Loaded and FHM journalist Piers Hernu in a report by the BBC - "a deeply sinister and disturbing attempt by a group of fundamentalist, fanatical feminists...to bully supermarkets into removing lads’ mags from the shelves".

As far as deeply sinister and disturbing acts by fundamentalist groups go, this one seems fairly civilised. The lawyers and campaigners behind Lose the Lads’ Mags are unlikely to turn up, Spring Breakers-style, in pink balaclavas, toting pistols at the local Tesco Extra. Any facet of the Equality Act that may or may not be used against employers is unlikely to be found "disturbing" (unless you’re a person regularly given to using that well-worn phrase, "IT’S POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD!") And as for fundamentalism: while we’re taking the dictionary definition of feminism as the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men, charges of ‘fundamentalist’ egalitarianism don’t seem very threatening at all. Unless, of course, you’re a sexist.'

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Actually, I understand why ppl would want magazines with revealingly-clad (or underclad) models on the cover not overtly shown on magazine racks. In the US we had the same issue with far racier magazines like Penthouse, etc. The solution was simply to put the magazines behind the counter covered by plastic separators that only went high enough to stop just under the magazine's title. And feminist organizations didn't need to mobilize to make it happen; parents simply lobbying local/state legislatures got laws passed requiring magazines containing images of nude people to be handled in this way. Until the Internet came along, it didn't seem to hamper sales.

Of course the bigger issue here is less what is being asked but more how it is being done. The UK however has different standards and traditions around free speech. I do wonder though about this: just as in the US, there have to be "muscle mags" for sale in the UK showing pics of muscular ppl (mostly men) wearing very little clothing. Are the feminists in the UK raising a stink about those, too?

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2013-05-28 23:48