Sexism

Your Comments

27 August 2004

I completely agree on everything here - I am sick of ALL men's magazines having a model wearing hardly anything or nothing at all on the front covers.

Men claim they love football and beer as much as women but you don't see these on the front covers of their magazines!! I've tried to make my feelings known and I have complained to so many different people but it just gets played right down and i'm made to think i'm making a fuss over nothing when quite frankly I don't think I am.

Then again most of my complaints have gone to men and they have been addressed by men so that would explain it I guess. I, like you am not against sex, or men for that matter I just find it increasingly difficult to cope with seeing so many naked and semi naked girls every time I go into a shop.

Society has gone mad and people bang on about freedom of expression and speech way too much and they are forgetting that children are living in this world too and they have to see what we see too everyday and the damage we must be doing to their little minds is very worrying to me.

I really do feel we are causing more harm than good here but then this is nowhere near as important as Iraq and other problems in our world...or is it?!!

Nikki, Portsmouth

Replies

Hi Nikki!

I think you´re right. It is normal and natural to be interested in sex, but it is sickening to see it abused for the sake of profit.

And that is exactly what is happening. After all, profit is what the capitalist system is based on and there is a whole army of advertising agencies out there whose function is to get people to part with their money. Of course they are not going to be too worried about the ethical implications of the way they go about it.

The solution lies in our hands. Companies will only stop producing sexist advertising when we as consumers let them know we find it degrading and distasteful and that we will stop buying their products if they continue in this way.

I believe there was a group in England a few years ago which regularly went into WH Smith`s, took pornography off the shelves and confronted the manager with it. Someone over here in Germany tore down the offending posters and replaced them with messages of her own.

Groups and individuals have more power than you think.

Yours

Kevin, Germany

15 March 2004

Re: Intenational Woman's Day and sexist advertising and media.

A lot of "sexist" advertising has gone the other way and it's often men who get negatively stereotyped...

As for magazine's like NUTS... I don't think they have any great effect on how women are seen in today's society...

Dan, London

We disagree, Dan.

For the Socialist Party's support for the struggle of women against the "new sexism" and specific points on the effect magazines like NUTS have, click here.

For our section on Women's rights click here

Replies

The Socialist Party gives solidarity with all oppressed - working class men are exploited and oppressed, but working class women are doubly oppressed, as are ethnic minorities.

"Rape and sexual assaults are on the increase and media pressures on women to attain unrealistic ideals of beauty are contributing to an increase in eating disorders and expensive, sometimes dangerous, cosmetic surgery..."

We support their struggle. For instance the struggle of the nursery nurses, low paid women workers who do a vital, yet massively undervalued job for the next generation: Nursery Nurses: Strikers Say No To Low Pay

Dan, divided we are weak, united we are strong!

Angus, Isle of Sheppy

Dan replies:

Ok fair enough. But is anti sexism really about trying to stop people reading certain magazines eg: lads magazines?...

No, that would be going about things from the wrong end of the job, as far as the Socialist Party is concerned I think. There's nowhere in this site that says that so far as I know...

The ISR and the Socialist Party protested against IPC, which publishes NUTS magazine. This and other sexist magazines are owned by a handful of extremely rich media bosses who make a fortune out of reinforcing sexist stereotypes.