to not want to be bombarded by tits/porn (i.e. the sport/fhm etc etc when i go to the newsagent with my toddler?

[shazzg]

hello
i am getting more and more annoyed about the ammount of porn in every shop i seem to go in -it seems so in your face constantly and now that my 2 year old is asking questions it's making me really uncomfortabl and angry.
I don't want her growing up with this sad and warped view of girls and women.
I know other people feel the same - so why oes nothing get done.It can't be healthy for kids to be bombarded with sex/naked women/the sport/maxim etc every time they go with mum to buy milk/cat food can it???
Somoene elso tell me i'm not going mad!!!!???

I am so glad to see this topic as thought just me that felt like this. Things I have done include getting big pile of wank mags putting them on counter, explaining that only objection is that are placed at child height - do this in very 'nice' way and have always been met with by agreement or embarrassment suggestive of agreement. Have also got hold of Mgr. at Co-op and flicked through mag whilst making the point that if he sat my (then) 8 year old daughter down and deliberatley showed her these then he would be laying himself way open to criminal/paedophile 'grooming' charges. How is it different when those images are forced in front of kids eyes because of height. When I am doing this I don't lower my voice and do use terms such as 'wank mags' because believe in being upfront (would not do in front of little kids). Only aggression have met with was from pterol station owner who was Asian. Asked if he would describe himself as Muslim and how forcing children to look at these images were compatible with religious beliefs (N.B. am not racist, own more than 1 copy of Q'uran and would do same with other beliefs if opportunity presented itself). My only point is about displaying these at child height, thereby forcing innoecent little kids to consume porn. Have also used @Oh Dear' tactic of deliberately sweeping them from shelf. I woukld like to see a day of action on this - name a day and then anyone who is bothered can use any of the above tactics. Alternatively for the shy we could silently put fliers into/on magazines displayed at offensive height. Would anyone else join in or am I just a stroppy old bag? WTF is the point of politicians and 'experts' bemoaning teenage pregnancy rates when from birth tiny little kids are having Jordan's fanny shoved in their faces via magazine fronts. I can't imagine what I would have made of it as a tiny.

Stickybun. I like your style. (Your name is also wierdly appropriate to this topic

To be honest its just as bad on the TV. I am always switching stuff over before the watershed when my kids are having their drink and biscuit before bed.

I find the stuff in newsagents insulting to my intelligence.

haven't read the whole thread, but I was interested to see in my local Co-op that the Zoos & Nuts etc had a white barrier in front of them, on the top shelf

They obviously don't sell porn magazines, but I was pleased to see the acknowledgement that these type of magazines shouldn't be within eyesight of children's magazines

Not playing anymore Would like to see shop owners and other outlets using blacked out top-shelf with title showing. Re. what is acceptable shop onwers can presumably use common sense if motivated to do so. The approach I took at a Co-op store resulted in permenant moving of stuff. If yer don't ask yer don't get

last sunday there was an old woman trying to get her copy of the 'halifax courier' from the news stand but couldn't because there was a pile of 'the sport' on top.she looked a bit hassled so we stuffed the whole lot down the side of the rack and had a little smile to each other and agreed that it was rubbish to see it if you don't want to.i am 36 she was much older but had a moment of solidarity.

stickybun look at object.org

still no answer to my question

MY DP used to get annoyed when he wanted to buy fast car magazine or a similar one that i forget the name of, because he wante'd a magazine about modified cars, he didn't want a magazine full of tits and thongs and women rubbing against eeach other on ever second bloody page and on the cover. This was when he was 18/19 (i know many of you are going to be going, yeah right a teenage boy who didn't want to see tits!) but its ture he has never been into porn/page 3.

I think Porn and explicit mags should be kept behind the counter and should only be able to be brought by people of a certain age like tobacco and alcahol.

Stickybun, MillyR, yes yes yes-what you said.

It is totally out of control. Looking back at images of sex and porn from the seventies aand eighties now look nearly wholesome-and it was available to those who wanted it really freely.

Now-it is SO available it has become abnormal for young women not to want to emulate fake breasted bald fannied 'teens'. And abnormal for young men not to expect it.

I have a big row on a plane with a young guy (( I was under thirty at the time so hardly old myself-and I am pretty fit so no issues of insecurity thanks very much!) when he was drooling over an issue of Nuts. Loadds of little kids around, and me, and just everyone and it was really inappropriate and unsavoury.

At one point I hissed at him 'Could you keep your self stimulation and erections to your own bedroom'. Arf.

Really sick of getting public transport with glassy eyed men clearly hawking round semi lob-ons in a permanent state of quasi-arousal. One of them started stroking my leg the other day.

I could go on. HATE IN and feels like TOTAL regression

Even HATE IT.

shazzg
"i don't really care what your son wants to reach for." - erm, I wasn't just referring to my son I said "your sons", more as in "ours".
"is that too much to ask.??????" - of course not, but neither is asking what people who feel this way want done about it because just promoting the problem without suggestions on the solution isn't very constructive.
"would it be crazy to suggest that there's a link between the normalization of porn and increase sexual bullying in school?????" - if there is an increase, then, no, probably not. Do you have any further information on this?

MillyR - thanks for the straight answer and I agree with you that I do think that it gives unrealistic impressions to not only children but adults as well, as does the majority of the rest of the media.

stickybun - thanks also . I was interested to to hear about the white barrier which LurkerOfTheUniverse mentioned as it's such a simple idea. As that was in the Co-op maybe it would be worth writing to them to ask whether it can be rolled out throughout the chains.

Agree with OP and Princeonthemove and stickybun. Nothing to add to their v. salient points, just wanted to add to the show of hands as it were.

Forgot to mention that of course, not only does it give males unrealistic expectations of females, but it does make females feel inferior when they can't naturally "compete" with the airbrushing and fake bongos you see everywhere.

verynice.

Reasons why it is rubbish for a two year old to see porn/topless women

1. At two kids are just learning about girls and boys being different. If part of that understanding is that girls get their tits out it will give them a skewed idea of what women do.

1. As they get older they will link this with sex and accept that women are things to look at in a sexual passive way.

3.They will also have a skewed concept as to what most women look like. (bad for both boys and girls)

1. They will find it hard to understand why some parts of the body are private in public when there are boobs out at the newsagent.

On the positive side sheltered kids will be aware that women can have sex together. Though they may think it is allowed if they are 38DD and blonde

Shazzag - I would contact your MP and local paper I find those two places you gf the most comeback.

You can email your MP !

My DDs know about them and generally think the men who read them are sad pervs!

notplaying anymore - i am doing stuff about it.........
go to
www.object.org
have written to loads shops and mp and distribued flyers re my belief that the sport should be classified as non newspaper and that lads mags should be displayed in a certain way and height.

would love others to do same as feel v alone in this battle.spend much more time answering critics than doing positive action.which is weird when you think about it.

the sexual bullying article was in the guardian 6/12/08 .(well it was hardly likely to be in the star or sport wwas it)joke to self.

bollocks nowbaby awake backlater 4 more.

I agree, especially with how MillyR put it, so I won't preach to the converted.

BUT I must admit I found it sort of ironically funny when either of my dds caught sight of large busted ladies on these magazines when they were still little enough to be bfed. They were looking at the mammaries in exactly the spirit that they were originally built for!

I got the news of the world moved to the top of the newspaper display in my local smiths!

Totally agree with what many have said.

Plus it's not just about children, I don't want scores of fake breasts in my face every time I go to the shops.

Personally I don't mind a bit of porn but there is a time and place for it and tuesday lunchtime with your children in the local newsagents is not it.

Re the top shelf/black bag vs nuts etc. I would rather the black bag too, I don't mind porn in general it's the casual pornification of everything every day that gets me.

Also don't like page 3 at all why the need for a big pair of tits in a daily "family" newspaper FFS. I hate it when I'm on the tube and the bloke next to me is sitting there staring at naked breasted women, it makes me really uncomfortable.

Maybe I should buy some gay porn with men with huge erections and start looking at that whenever it happens

Totally agree with general consensus that porn should not be banned, but that all pornographic publications (including the 'Nuts' types) should definitely be out of children's natural height of vision (if that makes sense?). And preferably top shelf/bagged-up etc. so no-one has to look at the covers unless they are adults paying for it.
Just part of this whole devaluing of both propriety and sexuality, that includes questionable advertising and crap TV where 'reality' contestants are basically egged on to all but shag in front of a national audience. Sick of the way it's all inexorably becoming 'normal'.

seems that I am not alone then.
there is an mp who has been campaining for yonks to get the sport moved to a different place away from newspapers - will add info later.

Maybe we should all start talking to our friends/partners/family about this and do a bit of direct action?????!!!!!

speak to the managers of shops and write whsmiths,tescos etc. They have policies on dispalying sexual stuff and coulddo with a serious kick upthe ass.

shazzg - can't find an article of that date but did find this which says "Anecdotally, sexual bullying in the UK seems to be on the rise."

Answering critics can be very positive in any campaign because swaying attitudes towards taking action means half the battle's won so it has a longer term effect than forcing change alone.
In this case, it would be too easy for many to assume that the point's just being made out of prudishness, whereas in fact although in many ways society may be coming more liberal, there obviously needs to be a balance between that and going all the way (no pun intended!).

Why do people always get accused of being prudish if they show a disinclination to have their children force fed images of women involved in/about to be involved in/ready to be involved in sexual acts every day of the week?

I just don't get it...

I'm sick of it too.
It's the mainstream stuff that bugs me most. I was flicking through the channels and couldn't believe some of the music videos. Nothing wrong with a bit of sexiness when it comes to music, but it was so misogynistic and sexist.