Outside a Tesco supermarket in central London on a cool Friday evening, 30 people in pajamas, nightgowns and fluffy slippers gathered to campaign against men’s magazines. All are members of the activist group Object and they were there to take part in the monthly Porn Versus Pyjamas campaign. They darted down the dairy aisle, through the frozen foods section, before coming to the display of men’s magazines, which they marked with their own slogans. FHM was put in a paper bag emblazoned with “For Horrible Misogynists,” while Maxim was hidden behind the phrase “MAXIMum Sexism.”
The women started a conga-line through the supermarket, chanting “Hey, ho, sexist mags have got to go,” alerting security guards to their presence. Eventually they were ushered out, but not before depositing pamphlets, entitled “Porn v Pyjamas: Why Lads’ Mags Are Harmful,” in customers’ baskets.
Their campaign began earlier this year, after Tesco ruled that customers wouldn’t be allowed to shop in pajamas because it could make other people feel uncomfortable. Object bit back by accusing some Tesco stores of ignoring the voluntary codes of conduct that suggest men’s magazines should be covered up and repositioned on the top shelf, alongside pornographic content.
Photo: BLOOMBERG
Object was set up in 2003 to challenge the sexual objectification of women. It has enjoyed some notable successes. Its campaign Stripping the Illusion brought an end to strip clubs being licensed in the same way as cafes and karaoke bars, a policy that had allowed the lap dancing industry to grow by 50 percent in 10 years. And in 2008 it launched Demand Change, along with the group Eaves Housing for Women, to raise awareness of the realities of prostitution.
The Tesco demonstration was part of its Feminist Fridays campaign — monthly events where activists protest against men’s magazines and other forms of sexism. After being ejected from Tesco, the demonstrators spent three hours outside the store, distributing 1,500 leaflets.
“Lads’ mags are an example of the mainstreaming of pornography,” said Anna van Heeswijk of Object. “The whole tone is of complete contempt [for women]. They are made up of photographs that come straight from pornography and would have been thought of as hard-core 50 years ago. But now the boundaries have been pushed to such an extent that they are considered an appropriate part of lads’ mags and soft porn.”
Photo: REUTERS
Earlier this year, the actor Danny Dyer, then the agony uncle for Zoo magazine, suggested that a jilted male reader could “cut your ex’s face, so no one will want her.”
“They have jokes about incest and pornography, about trafficking, about rape,” Van Heeswijk said. “What’s harmful is that this is considered a normal part of the mainstream media.”
Object’s online coordinator, Silvia Murray Wakefield, feels men’s magazines reflect the fact that “mainstream media culture is becoming more sexist; with pole-dancing and pornographic references appearing on daytime TV.”
In 2006, as a result of Object’s lobbying and campaigning, a voluntary code of practice for the display and sale of men’s magazines was drawn up by the UK’s Home Office, the Periodical Publishers Association and the National Federation of Retail Newsagents. But the group would like stronger regulation.
A Home Office report in February stated that magazines such as Zoo and Nuts should be made top-shelf and have age restrictions on sales to stop the “drip, drip” of content that is sexualizing boys and girls at an increasingly early age. At the same time, there were signs the industry was dying out. Figures released earlier this year by the Audit Bureau of Circulations saw FHM’s circulation fall by 15.2 percent year on year. Sales of Zoo, Loaded and Nuts all dropped by between 20 percent and 30 percent year on year.
But, says Alison Dear, Object’s Feminist Fridays coordinator: “The reduction in the sale is not necessarily due to less sexism, but rather that a lot of publications have moved on to the Internet, which is the same thing, but worse.”
Since the launch of Feminist Fridays, several stores — including some Tesco and WH Smith branches where actions have been held — have moved their display of men’s magazines to the top shelf. But as long as the magazines are to be found on the lower shelves, it appears the protests will continue.
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