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Lads' mags have 6 weeks to "cover up": your reaction, please!

289 replies

HelenMumsnet · 29/07/2013 09:58

Hello.

You may already have seen/heard the news today that the Co-op has given "lads' mags" six weeks to cover up their front page with sealed "modesty bags" or be taken off sale in its stores.

The Co-op says it's responding to concerns by its members, customers and colleagues about images of scantily-clad women on magazine covers.

We're being asked what Mumsnetters think of this move by the Co-op. So we'd love you to let us know: please do post up your views on this thread.

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swallowedAfly · 09/08/2013 07:31

oh thanks for the update molehill.

so the coop stands alone as the publishers have refused and now we wait and see who has the guts/decency to stand with them and issue the same ultimatum.

it's a good opportunity for retailers to create loyal customers (given as said upthread women are the core customers of all these places) and show some ethics. wonder if any will?

fair play to coop. let's see if anyone else gives a damn?

MolehillAlchemy · 08/08/2013 15:27

I feel the momentum building towards a new era of equality for women. The co-op are legends for this decision, and they've now confirmed they won't be stocking the magazines due the the publisher refusing to accommodate the Co-op's request for modesty bags.

Back into the cave for you Nuts and Zoo! In fact that's a good plan, only allowing the purveyors of this outdated media to sell them from caves and under rocks.

JayGatsby · 04/08/2013 12:28

About time. Lads' mags are totally demeaning to women and having them visible - even at top-shelf level - must subliminally influence children to see women as commodities.

Snog · 04/08/2013 07:20

hurrah for the coop
Thanks Thanks

Hitchy83 · 02/08/2013 21:32

Totally agree with co-op, there is no comparison with women's magazines with women in bikinis or men's magazines with buff men on the cover. These magazines are purely for sexual gratification of men, the pictures are usually of topless models with massive bangers in some seductive pose! It's easier explaining to a child the pictures in women's magazines, yes son that is a woman in a bikini at the beach as opposed to that is a woman showing her assets so that men can titailate over them! They're as close to pornographic as you get and no this shouldn't be available or at least concealed from the vast majority of consumers who do not purchase nor want to see these on their grocery shop!

NicholasTeakozy · 02/08/2013 20:35

Tesco join the bandwagon. Hopefully this will force those other magazines like Chat, Now! and the others to review their front covers. IMO they're as bad at skewing opinion.

swallowedAfly · 02/08/2013 12:44

i think it also changes the climate and changes how the consumer of these mags sees themselves and their consumption maybe. and if they have to buy it under a cover maybe they won't be waving it around in young girls faces on the tube.

GrimmaTheNome · 02/08/2013 12:39

SGB - to be sure. Filters and bags don't tackle misogyny. What they do - the thing that I think most of the posters on this thread like - is simply that they limit the uncontrolled exposure of children to these things.

This is perhaps somewhat analogous to film ratings, which are widely accepted. All sorts of films are made and legally shown; but we control what we allow children to access.

swallowedAfly · 02/08/2013 08:06

look at this one for example. do you see the difference between this image (and all the text) and that of a woman in a bikini on a beach?

swallowedAfly · 02/08/2013 08:00

because it's so equivalent isn't it? a woman happening to be in a bikini and a pornified image of a woman posed to look like a sexually titillating object?

maybe people need to go and look at some of these covers.

queenofeverywhere · 02/08/2013 07:49

By the same token perhaps they should also consider putting modesty covers on some of the women's magazines featuring celeb bikini bodies on the front cover. Fair's fair!

SolidGoldBrass · 02/08/2013 02:03

this is quite good. (Article from the New Statesman, nothing gross, totally work-safe)

swallowedAfly · 01/08/2013 09:56

sorry more mad multiple posting but it certainly didn't occur to him that for the coop, or tescos, or waitrose or most blumming retailers out there women ARE the consumers. we do the fucking shopping 90% of the time and choose the products etc so the coop bloody well should listen to us over the views of some pervy men who want to see tits within a 1metre radius of them at all times.

swallowedAfly · 01/08/2013 09:55

honestly it was as if in this guys world it didn't even register that women were consumers. any collective noun you gave him re: society, consumers etc just conjured images of men for him. women were a little sideline niche market that you sell lipstick to.

just - well - head wall moment really.

swallowedAfly · 01/08/2013 09:53

one of the better lines i heard during this 'debate' here, on tv, online etc (think this one was a tv interview) was a magazine editor saying, "the thing to remember is it is not consumers who want this but feminists".

cos feminists aren't consumers right? they live on a little lentil weaving island making their own stuff out of love and leaves?

DownstairsMixUp · 01/08/2013 09:49

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

merrymouse · 31/07/2013 21:39

Really, most (all?) men I know would prefer it if the most prominent role models for their daughters in the supermarket weren't women who were at the mercy of their partners/weight/tits/cellulite.

AnyFucker · 31/07/2013 20:53

You sound a bit silly, FPH. Did you realise that ?

AnyFucker · 31/07/2013 20:51

"swivelled eyed extremists" now, is it ?

have you been at the sherry, FlatPackHamster ?

I think you need a lie down in a darkened room

They are not all out to get you, you know < soothing >

Thisisaeuphemism · 31/07/2013 20:23

Its amazing though, isn't it, to hear some of the crap men come up with when the status quo is threatened.

swallowedAfly · 31/07/2013 20:20

oh dear oh dear i'm going to have humorous images of babywearing terrorist groups dressed in boden popping into my head all night.

swallowedAfly · 31/07/2013 20:15

forget al qaeda - they're softcore! it's those bloody extremist mothers you want to watch out for. shoot on sight!

swallowedAfly · 31/07/2013 20:14

beware opinionated mothers - the new threat to democracy and human rights. i wonder what level terror alert a group of mum's asking for soft porn rags to be out of sight of children would create? people might be arming missiles right now!

swallowedAfly · 31/07/2013 20:12

come on ffs - read the women here - do they sound like extremists to you? does the fact they don't want sexualised images in their children's faces really make them extreme? hardcore? outrageous? the new threat to mankind? grow up and drop the hyperbole.

swallowedAfly · 31/07/2013 20:10

extremists Grin

average mums who don't want demeaning pictures of half naked women shoved in their children's faces when buying a pint of milk. extremists right? virtually nazis really.

men who get downright angry about the idea of kids not being able to see half naked women whilst buying a pint of milk and outraged at the idea of someone putting a discrete cover on a soft porn mag? not extreme at ALL, perfectly normal rational defenders of human rights.

human rights? male rights perhaps.