31 July, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Today my travels took me through Waterloo Train Station. I went into WH Smith and was disgusted by what I saw. All over the shop — inside and outside at the entrance — was the latest issue of Maxim magazine, featuring two naked women in an explicit pose. [If you live in London, I bet you've seen this.] Just the other day a co-worker and I were discussing the fact that men’s magazines like Maxim, FHM and Stuff are marketed as mainstream publications, when in fact they are porn, plain and simple. Would WH Smith display a porn magazine all over their shop? Of course not. But there’s Maxim and other similar trash publications sitting right next to mainstream publications at eye-level in the most prominent spots. And the covers of these magazines are becoming evermore explicit — the women are completely naked and the accompanying text is a disgrace.
I had a strong reaction to seeing these magazine covers everywhere inside the shop this evening. As a professional woman, I felt humiliated and degraded. Looking around the shop, what kind of men do we see on magazine and newspaper covers? Gordon Brown and other political and business leaders. And what kind of women do we see? Whores. Yes, whores. People who sell their bodies for money are whores. It’s bad enough that these magazines exist at all, but there is no need for WH Smith to plaster them everywhere in our faces. If they want to sell these magazines, the covers should be concealed.
Not only are they sold inside the shop, but they are outside the entrance too for any Waterloo passenger to see. Do we have to be subjected to pornographic imagery on our daily commute? If you are in Waterloo, you have no choice but to look at these images. As a woman, to be subjected to this against my will is a form of sexual harassment. And what about for young women passing through the station? These magazines just send the message that your only worth as a woman is your looks and the size of your breasts. Do people not understand the incredible damage non-stop exposure to these images does? And people wonder why so many girls have eating disorders and want breast implants. What kind of images are they confronted with all day? If you are a man, you have no idea what it is like to to be subjected to this kind of exploitation.
I was so upset I asked to speak with the manager. I don’t normally do this. After all, our society is filled with this sort of sexism. You have to just roll your eyes at it much of the time and move on. Otherwise, you’d do nothing but file complaints and stay enraged all day. But sometimes you have to speak up and I felt that these magazine covers just cross the line. I had to wait to speak with the manager, but she told me that the head office decides the placement of magazines in the shop and then she gave me a card with contact info to complain. Having worked in the magazine industry, I know this is true. Magazine publishers pay for the prominent shelf space inside a shop. The manager was very nice about it and I told her I felt bad she had to work in this shop surrounded by such degradation all day. She smiled but didn’t say anything.
This evening when I got home, I e-mailed a letter to the WH Smith corporate office. I also e-mailed the station manager at Waterloo. I think this issue of degrading magazine covers on display deserves a wider campaign. For now I will see if I get any response from the e-mails I sent. I’ll let you know.
Anglofille said @ 7:53 pm | feminism |
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I hope you get a response. I, too, am disgusted when I’m forced to view things such as these. It’ll be interesting what they have to say, if anything.
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Chris Says:
August 6th, 2007 at 4:35 pmGood for you. I don’t live in the UK, but would do the same if confronted by such offensive material. You probably will get a response from the company as you should.
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Kevin Says:
November 26th, 2007 at 1:33 pmBut you’re calling them “whores” for goodness sake!
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I’m not a warm and cuddly politically correct feminist. In-your-face is more my style!
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Kevin Says:
November 26th, 2007 at 7:44 pmMy point is, why is your comment any less offensive to women than the magazines?
You’ve got an easy retort on this one. I’m not a woman, so what do I know?
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A whore is a person (male or female) who sells their body for money. If the shoe fits, wear it. I don’t write this in a moralistic way. It’s just a fact. That’s what a whore is.
I am a bit of a provocateur. It’s true that I believe I can say this because I’m a woman and if you said it as a man, it would be a different situation.
While I do think the magazines that publish these photos shoulder most of the blame for this misogynist trash being in society, I also think the women who pose need to take responsibility for their actions, unless they were forced into this against their will (which does happen frequently in the porn industry). This is partly my way of saying that the women in these magazines are responsible too. If they didn’t pose, there’d be no trash magazines at WH Smith or anywhere else.
