In a classic move of anti-feminist predictability, an Australian lad mag is holding a search for "Australia's sexiest feminist" after being taken to task for a gross contest.
The men's magazine which sparked outrage when it offered a $10,000 boob job as a competition prize has responded to its critics by launching a search for Australia's sexiest feminist.Zoo Weekly magazine angered health and women's groups when it urged men to "win" their girlfriend a boob job by sending in shots of her cleavage.
The lad's mag today revealed its new competition - a search "for the hottest girl in sensible shoes" - promising the winner a year's supply of deodorant and a sexy photo shoot.
Get it? Cause feminists stink! The originality is awe-inspiring, truly.
The ad for the search reads, "If you hate men, we want to see photos of you in sexy lingerie." And, naturally, the ad also features a picture of a burning bra. Because they needed to fit all the stereotypes in there. (Seriously, I'm surprised there wasn't an image of a hairy woman in Birkenstocks castrating someone.)
Magazine editor Paul Merrill says, "We're calling for feminists all over Australia to show that women can be sexy even if they disapprove of sexy women." You know, I would seriously die of shock if just one anti-feminist douchebag could come up with an insult that wasn't a variation on feminists-are-ugly-and-hate-hot-women.
Australian feminist blogger Audrey has been covering the mag's nonsense since the original contest, and she hits the nail on the head:
Indeed, "Feminist!" has become the rallying attack cry from the armies of men that refuse to acknowledge that a woman's greatest aspiration isn't uniquely connected to how much men want to fuck them. Its hissed utterance has become ubiquitous for a host of inaccurate and lazy ideas that only serve to crudely mask the speaker's own ignorance and disinterest in directly engaging with those he seeks to demonise.
Indeed. By the way, my submission for said contest is after the jump. Feel free to link to your own in comments.
Image at top from the Guerrilla Girls.
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Wow. And I thought nothing could offend me more, at least for the next 24 hours or so, than this site I stumbled on yesterday - myfreeimplants.com. Damn.
Awesome! Now I can finally get validation from teh mens that even though I'm a feminist, I'm still sexxay!
God, I'm so sick and tired of having to teach men that their desire to fuck me (or lack thereof) is really not my problem or responsibility.
Um, don't they have a problem? How many actual feminists are going to enter that contest?
Although I suppose they're not really the mag one could expect to differentiate between real and post- feminists. I'm sure the winner will be some woman whose mission in life is to prove that women can be powerful AND sexy, i.e. that women can get further in business than the patriarchy is comfortable with, but still retain the need to be validated by the male gaze!
What a great PR stunt, though. Hats off to the assholes.
Hey, myopen bhook: Here is an article about the site that yahoo ran. http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/35823/hooter-heaven.
That shit is f*%king disgusting. It really sucks that these pervs will donate money for jerk off material, but would probably not donate money when the girls suffer from the many health repercussions associated with getting implants.
Thank you for the link nbrice. Unbelievable. Except that it isn't really. That video is frightening. The site is actually featured in a piece in ELLE this month. And I am sure you are right about the money for any health issues. Why would they? It doesn't serve them. And isn't that what women are for...
"women can be sexy even if they disapprove of sexy women..."
Such idiots. As a feminist (who considers myself quite sexy if I may say so myself) I don't get it. But maybe that's a good thing.
I am really curious to see if anyone actually enters this contest. I mean, what woman would call herself a feminist AND not see the irony in seriously entering. You know there's always gotta be someone out there...
I agree with jessica's picture....
and jesus christ, nbrice, that's sick!
It doesn't help that the girl getting the implants doesn't seem too bright. "Like, oh my god! Where has this been all my life?".
My problem isn't with implants. You can get them if you want to. It's your body. The whole thing, though (the contest and the linked video) just seem inherently messed up to me.
I think a bunch of men should send in photos of themselves only wearing "This is What a Feminist Looks Like" baby tees.
Holy shit, that's GENIUS
Nobody will enter apart from women who aren't feminists but are aspiring glamour models prepared to fake it. Or else they'll just hire glamour models and coach them to say 'hilarious' things about Simone de Beauvoir.
I agree with jessica's picture....
and jesus christ, nbrice, that's sick!
It doesn't help that the girl getting the implants doesn't seem too bright. "Like, oh my god! Where has this been all my life?".
My problem isn't with implants. You can get them if you want to. It's your body. The whole thing, though (the contest and the linked video) just seem inherently messed up to me.
"If you hate men, we want to see photos of you in sexy lingerie." I have to admit, that's a genius sentence, even if the creators of it aren't aware of it.
Men want to fuck anything (sorry to the few of you enlightened souls who may not). It's not a compliment when they choose us over a whole in the wall.
nbrice, cheers for leaving that delicious peice of mysogyny for us...nice to finish the day with a little 'ugh' moment.
My favorite part was when that little sleezeball guy was trying to justify his website (which was rightly described by the interviewer as 'soft porn') as a place to do 'social networking over shared interests'!
Good god, if you want fake breasts that is up to you, but raising money from random guys who want your picture is not the way to do it!
...and FEMily!, I'd buy that mag just to see your man picture in it!
The snarl is perfect.
The most frustrating thing is their total disregard for any statement you make - if we all sent in snarling photographs, you know they'd just be laughing at them and rolling in their mountains and mountains of cash. I don't mind being laughed at, but it frustrates me beyond belief that my expense of angry energy over Zoo far outweighs their desire to care what one damn feminist thinks.
Jessica, et al., as a man, I have one word (nine letters) to describe this "contest": appalling. I never knew that any magazine would stoop to this kind of low.
One of the problems with this is precisely that no actual feminist is likely to enter. And then they'll be able to say, "Hahaha, feminism is dead! We gave you the opportunity to climb out of the woodwork and get your tits out,but you MUST all be fat ugly lesbians, or else you would have entered our competition! Why else would you not want to get your norks out for the nation? And by the way, if you are a fat and ugly woman, you have no worth as a human being and nothing you have to say could possibly be of any interest whatsoever." Hmmm. I think I too am going to send them a snarly photo.
This is really pathetic. It shows just how ignorant the editors of that rag are. 'Lads mag' -I hate that phrase.
Whats next feministing looking for woman haters to send in nude pics?
Oh my gosh. I really cant begin to explain how angry this has made me!!! I seriously considered writing a whole batch of angry e-mails/letters and sending them to the editor, the publishing house etc etc and then I paused and thought that they might see it as reinforcing the stereotype. HELP!!!! I might have to start Zoo burning in newsagents to get out some of the rage.
Oh my gosh. I really cant begin to explain how angry this has made me!!! I seriously considered writing a whole batch of angry e-mails/letters and sending them to the editor, the publishing house etc etc and then I paused and thought that they might see it as reinforcing the stereotype. HELP!!!! I might have to start Zoo burning in newsagents to get out some of the rage.
I wrote up the "story" for Defamer Australia, and found this delightful skeleton in Zoo's online closet, which speaks volumes about how they *really* feel about feminism:
GREER SHOULD SHUT THE F**K UP
It was bad enough that the Aussie ex-pat bagged our Aussie Steve just after he died, now she's sinking the boot into his manhood. Obviously Germaine has far to much time on her hands.
Steve was more blokey than an entire kaki wearing rugby team and could handle himself with crocodiles the size of minibuses, that’s pretty manly in our eyes. Even though Germaine Greer looks like a man, Steve was at least three times the bloke she will ever be!