A Quick Note On How Someone You Don't Know Could Just Cheer You Up Completely

*Trigger warning* rape threats in the linked articles

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Looking at the comments on the article about The Co-op threatening lads mags with removal if they don't cover up their front pages was disheartening to say the least.

There was the usual feminist bashing, and outcry over censorship. And the strange "why not cover up the men on Men's Health magazines as well??" and "Women are always half naked in bikinis in women's fashion mags" comments.

I was despairing of the general population. You're missing the POINT, PEOPLE.

The point is that lads mags OBJECTIFY women.
Men's Health does not OBJECTIFY men. In fact, it portrays them in an idealistic light, creating possibly impossible goals for men to try to live up to.
Women's magazines do not OBJECTIFY women in the same way as lads mags do either. Again, they are creating an idealistic portrayal of the female form, one that it knows it's readership does not conform to because only a small proportion of women actually look like that and those that do are already models, duh, and despite this the magazine can direct it's readership to the newest diet on page 85 and the exercise moves that the celebs know how to use on page 102.

Lads mags portray women as objects to be looked at. So does Page 3. Looking at women as objects makes men less likely to see women as people, as equals.


All this after the weekend of abuse I'd seen thrown at feminists on Twitter, such as Caroline Criado-Perez, and also the MP Stella Creasy. An MP?! Thank you moronic misogynists, because you made your behaviour front page news and now even more people are aware of the hate you spew.

I was despairing, and then I saw this:

If you think your prejudice and your anger is working here, or frightening us, or forcing us into retreat, then please be assured that it works only to deepen our resolve and strengthen our voices. Every threat we get makes us stronger, and brings us - as a feminist community - closer together. It also strengthens our cause tremendously as you help us demonstrate the misogynistic attitudes still in play. You are the reason that the public sees our work as increasingly important.

And I felt my resolve, my strength, flood back. 

No More Page 3 and Lose the Lads Mags are not about censorship. They are about respect and equality. They are about education and changing attitudes. They are about protecting children, and protecting men and women from ridiculously outdated views. 

I stand with Criado-Perez, and with Creasy, and with Laura Bates of EverydaySexism and Lucy Holmes of No More Page 3.

And any sane person interested in equality should stand with them too.