Modesty bags

[TheFaQQer]

Men's magazines objectify women or talk about fishing or golf.

Women's magazines teach women how to be objectified or talk about knitting or cookery.

Can't remember the last time I bought a magazine.

What's the difference between Cosmopolitan, Vogue and Woman's Weekly?




Cosmo will tell you how to have an orgasm, Vogue will tell you how to have one with style, Woman's Weekly will tell you how to knit one.

[darmstadt]

I presume the next step will be insisting that women cover themselves up in public in order to not arouse men! Surely young children walking down the street in the summer or go abroad for summer holidays see just as much flesh?


(Haven't we had this discussion before?)

[mudskipper]

I presume the next step will be insisting that women cover themselves up in public in order to not arouse men! Surely young children walking down the street in the summer or go abroad for summer holidays see just as much flesh?


(Haven't we had this discussion before?)

I think you're rather missing the point.

It is argued the magazines such as these encourage impressionable young men to a) view women first and foremost as sexual objects, b) have unreasonable expectations from their own sexual encounters. Some also claim the women who model for the magazines are being exploited (I personally doubt this to be the case in the majority of instances).

Women's magazines are just as bad in pushing the line that if you don't have a perfectly toned and well groomed body, and you're not having hot, adventurous sex three times a night you're unfulfilled as a woman.

For me, the ideal would be that women (particularly teenage (and younger) girls) didn't want to dress like tarts when going about their everyday lives and were not ashamed of their pubic hair, and that young men would realise that the women in the magazines are not in any way 'real'.

Blokes have always looked at mucky mags, but there was a furtive aspect in doing so, which is a distancing mechanism from real life. The problem with these mags is that it's in your face - no 'embarrassment' required.

[Old Greg]

I presume the next step will be insisting that women cover themselves up in public in order to not arouse men! Surely young children walking down the street in the summer or go abroad for summer holidays see just as much flesh?


(Haven't we had this discussion before?)

Do you presume that? Tell us why.

[Mich the Tester]

... and that young men would realise that the women in the magazines are not in any way 'real'.

Sounds like you're trying to deny the humanity of women who work in the adult entertainment industry.

[MaryPoppins]

Sounds like you're trying to deny the humanity of women who work in the adult entertainment industry.

As you well know, MTT, she's referring to things like the amount of airbrushing that goes on, and possibly also to the incredible amount of maintenance these women's bodies require.

[Mich the Tester]

As you well know, MTT, she's referring to things like the amount of airbrushing that goes on, and possibly also to the incredible amount of maintenance these women's bodies require.

Well, I've been airbrushed and made up. When I was 22, I modelled men's undies for a (not that type) mail order catalogue. Despite being a young guy who played rugby and did athletics and had about 11% body fat, I didn't have the unrealistically toned abs that you see in the catalogues, quite simply because almost no man has them, so they sprayed shade on the abs and then touched up the pictures to work away any normal skin anomalies. It didn't objectify me, it didn't in any way affect my humanity, it did pay me more than minimum wage and I knew exactly what I was doing.

This whole issue about people looking at pictures of other people's bodies, whether they're airbrushed or not, makes a charicature of the real issues of objectifying people for commercial ends and discrimination on the grounds of gender. The real issues are things that are happening every day; human trafficking, slavery (yes, it still goes on), denial of education to girls and denial of full citizenship rights to women in some countries and even in some societies the refusal to accept a woman's word as equal to a man's word in evidence in court. Frankly, a bunch of free, emancipated western women complaining about men looking at pictures of girls who've been paid a decent sum to pose just makes a mockery of women who are really fighting to have a decent life and self determination.

Drop it and and find a worthwhile cause. Like this; http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...e-8731781.html

Or this; http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...d-8364664.html

[Old Greg]

Well, I've been airbrushed and made up. When I was 22, I modelled men's undies for a (not that type) mail order catalogue. Despite being a young guy who played rugby and did athletics and had about 11% body fat, I didn't have the unrealistically toned abs that you see in the catalogues, quite simply because almost no man has them, so they sprayed shade on the abs and then touched up the pictures to work away any normal skin anomalies. It didn't objectify me, it didn't in any way affect my humanity, it did pay me more than minimum wage and I knew exactly what I was doing.

This whole issue about people looking at pictures of other people's bodies, whether they're airbrushed or not, makes a charicature of the real issues of objectifying people for commercial ends and discrimination on the grounds of gender. The real issues are things that are happening every day; human trafficking, slavery (yes, it still goes on), denial of education to girls and denial of full citizenship rights to women in some countries and even in some societies the refusal to accept a woman's word as equal to a man's word in evidence in court. Frankly, a bunch of emancipateed western women complaining about men looking at pictures of girls who've been paid a decent sum to pose just makes a mockery of women who are really fighting to have a decent life and self determination.

Drop it and and find a worthwhile cause. Like this; http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/...e-8731781.html

Or this; Malala Yousufzai, the rights of girls, and how child marriage unites us with the developing world - Comment - Voices - The Independent

So I shouldn't be bothered about my little girls seeing these pictures as we wander round the supermarket? Is it a good thing because it will open their minds to lucrative employment opportunities when they're grown up?

[Mich the Tester]

So I shouldn't be bothered about my little girls seeing these pictures as we wander round the supermarket? Is it a good thing because it will open their minds to lucrative employment opportunities when they're grown up?

You are their father, and so you have a responsibility to explain to them the rights and wrongs of the matter.

[darmstadt]

Do you presume that? Tell us why.

Like night follows day or day follows night, it was a theoretical question which could could be used in the context that once you start then where is the end...

to suppose to be true without proof <presumed innocent until proved guilty>