In the wake of radical feminist groups in the UK calling for an end to sexist, objectifying “lad mags”, radical masculinist groups have united calling for an end to sexist, objectifying “romance novels”.
The Lose the Lady Porn campaign by UK Masculinism and Object is calling on high-street retailers to immediately withdraw romance novels and magazines featuring pornographic front covers from their stores. Each one of these stores is a workplace. Displaying these publications in workplaces, and/or requiring staff to handle them in the course of their jobs, may amount to sex discrimination and sexual harassment contrary to the Equality Act 2010. Similarly, exposing customers to these publications in the process of displaying them is capable of giving rise to breaches of the Equality Act.
High-street retailers are exposing staff and, in some cases, customers to publications whose handling and display may breach equality legislation. Displaying romance novels and pornographic magazines (under the guise of “fitness”) in “mainstream” shops results in the involuntary exposure of staff and, in some cases, customers to pornographic images.
Every mainstream retailer which stocks romance novels is vulnerable to legal action by staff and, where those publications are visibly on display, by customers. There are, in particular, examples of staff successfully suing employers in respect of exposure to pornographic material at work. Such exposure is actionable where it violates the dignity of individual employees or customers, or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. We therefore call on such retailers to urgently heed the call to Lose the Ladies Porn.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/may/27/lose-lads-mags-risk-legal-action?INTCMP=SRCH
UK Masculinism director Kurt Banyard said so-called ladies porn fuelled sexist attitudes and behaviour by portraying men as “sex objects”.
He told the BBC the images caused “real harm”.
“They promote sexist attitudes and behaviours – attitudes which underpin a view of men as mere utilities that can be used and discarded by women at will,” he said.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said: “Major retailers understand their responsibilities to staff and customers.
“BRC members don’t sell anything it isn’t legal to sell and they have long followed joint industry guidelines, as well as taking their own independent voluntary action, to make sure that front covers which may concern some people are displayed discreetly.
“Our members regard their stores as family-friendly environments which is why conversations with staff and customers about what they believe is appropriate will continue.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22674928
Here at JudgyBitch, we applaud Mr. Banyard and all his followers for their well-guided and well-intentioned demands to censor the lustful, degrading and dehumanizing impulses of female sexuality, and while we understand that women will always hunger for a tall, handsome, partially clad man sporting impressive abdominal muscles, we agree with Masculinism that these images should remain part of women’s interior monologues and the general public should not be forced to look at men’s bodies in a way they may find uncomfortable and disturbing.
Especially all you fat little fuckers.
It’s not fair you chubby little fucks should have to confront images of what real, desirable men look like. There is no excuse for popping off to the local newsagent to pick up a jumbo bag of Cheetos and two litres of cola and then have to look at the image of a man who clearly eats nothing but egg white and spinach omelets.
And what is up with all these “celebrity” magazines with scantily clad men on the covers?
“Fashion” magazines with topless men? Bullshit.
“Fitness” my ass. These magazines are nothing more than an excuse to slobber over men’s firm bodies, and quite frankly, it’s disgusting.
Women’s sexual impulses and their demand for men who adhere to a rigid standard of beauty that celebrates strength and power is undermining our entire society by creating a hostile environment for fat, slovenly men who can barely drag themselves off to the chip shop for that final 4000 calorie snack they need to meet the demands of their pointless desk jobs.
Well, except for all those men who don’t have pointless desk jobs.
At the end of the day, romance novels paint a very damaging portrait of men as heroic, stoic and ridiculously fucking hot, and women’s absurd sense of entitlement to male sexuality must be censored and stamped out, for the benefit of us all.
Only when we are all completely neutered and divorced from our most basic pleasures, particularly those pleasures which are visual, will be have a society in which all individuals are considered equal.
Equally boring, uninspiring, dreary, tedious and insipid. So yay for UK Masculinism!
End visual pleasures! Crush sexuality! Destroy beauty! Kill all of it!
Just remember lads, this can’t be a one-sided battle. If you want images of hot men gone, you’ll have to give up images of hot women, too.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. You don’t want to come across as a pack of raging hypocrites, now do you?
Good. I knew you cared about equality. Fair is fair.
And all is fair in love and war.
Lots of love,
JB
My GOD it’s fucking ridiculous.
In the video alongside this article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22674928), Kat Banyard tells us, quite sincerely, that women haven’t said NOTHING about these magazines over the decades they’ve been on shelves because they don’t give a shit… oh no. According to her, we’ve all been sitting there, clutching our pearls to our chests in fevered emotional agony, just waiting for someone to come along and tell us that we can sue that small business owner who supplies our bread and milk and friendly morning chat, for exposing our fragile girl brains to the occasional glimpse of boob. And now we needn’t wait any longer. Here to save the day is…. *fanfare* FEMINISM!
LOL Forever.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Touché!
LikeLike
I’m going to bet $20 that they’re trolling. Women half-nekkid with beautiful bodies? Sexism! Men who see other men with chiseled bodies? Hell, is there a reason NOT to troll?
Unless JB is trolling/rolling with the trolls for the fun of it 🙂 .
LikeLike
I think that kind of male bodies are not really attractive to women.
I am quite persuade they like slim, soft, tender, almost childish bodies but tall. With long spine and long legs. But not inflate bodies. That is really vulgar.
We men, we do not like either very obvious fake boobs. Not at all fake bottoms. At least me.
LikeLike
Speaking for myself, I like all types of male bodies, excepting fat ones.
I have a visceral disgust for rolls of fat. #sorryfutrelle
That said, I do enjoy overtly masculine bodies. The only thing missing from the romance novel covers, for me, is body hair!
I like male body hair.
LikeLike
I will raise a glass to that Gem!, and as it’s after 5pm, I have. I agree completely. The other day on way to school with little one, we stopped and looked at the magazines, a standard page 3 style girl with the yellow cartoon style nipples was just at my 5yo height.
Not top shelf
Not covered
However, just slightly above the Ben 10 magazine, so of course it wouldn’t register with my boy, I saw it and didn’t think fuck all really, it’s just part of British culture, like chips and binge drinking…
As it’s so cold here these days, maybe we all need a little reminder that we have tits under our wooly jumpers…
LikeLike
DItto on the body hair. I hate this trend that has men shaving their chests. I could live without back and shoulder hair though- blech.
LikeLike
Hmm, i do love the ‘look’ of the toned, tanned, athletic, young and slim. As visual stimulus. However the visual hottie in question in fantasy land also totally digs me, so that has mileage. In Reality, he would call me ma’am and wonder if I’m off my medication. Fantasy be the word here.
LikeLike
Oh god, isn’t that the worst?
The boy restocking the veggies at the grocery store called me ma’am yesterday.
Granted, he was 17.
But still!
Ugh.
LikeLike
I find this entire argument beyond ridiculous and completely inhuman in it’s perspective on human bodies.
You are a mammal. This means that you are part of a biological mass that reproduces itself with chemical triggers. Humans have highly developed brains with the capacity to use their own imagination and act on what they have imagined. This imagination is actually an integral part of our biological urge to mate, which cannot be removed and is a biological necessity if the species is to continue.
Any person who while deciding to be offended at graphical depictions of humans designed to tap into the human imagination on procreation, also seeks to reproduce, is suffering from a form of cognitive dissonance so basic it would take a research project to properly express it. The choice seems to be to be offended at some visual stimuli, while allowing other such stimuli to exist, with no reason given whatsoever.
Can you imagine, if peacocks had evolved to be the intelligent, dominant species instead of apes, what this conversation would be like? Would there be campaigns to restrict the depiction of male feather displays on store shelf wares, while simultaneously allowing such displays by peacocks walking down the street? Would you, as an alien visiting such a planet, not find that completely absurd?
So should we.
LikeLike
“I like male body hair.”
Homosexuals do not like body hair. Otherwise those guys are a homosexual’s wet dream.
Food for thought.
LikeLike
It’s bad. Sad sad sad. I think I made it
Worse by asking him where the ‘gameboy’ section of the gaming store was. That established me as a dinosaur. Aka Ma’am.
LikeLike
As an alien visiting this planet this would fall into the top twenty of things I find absurd, of course!
LikeLike
Blanket market. Nice one.
LikeLike
I like male body hair.
Well, JB, I’d say you’re an anachronism in that case. It seems to me that most women today would rather get physically intimate with a salamander or a mannequin than a man with a normal amount of body hair (not this, mind you, but what normally results from a man with normal hormone levels).
My wife nags me about this all the time (“why don’t you shave that hair on your chest and on your legs?”), to which I usually reply “Why didn’t you marry a woman or a eunuch if you can’t tolerate physical contact with anything but baby-smooth female skin?”
LikeLike
Don’t ban “lady porn”, that’s fucking stupid. I don’t care if it’s just a reactionary response to trying to ban lads mags, I still think it’s a bad idea. It makes men seem like whiny woman. Let them keep their lady porn, just as long as they don’t take away anything from the guys.
LikeLike
I honestly wonder what the mental damage is with these feminists. I’m a normal, married 30-year-old woman and I’ve never felt offended or threatened seeing sexy women on magazine covers. In fact I enjoy a little bit of eye candy in the checkout line (as does my husband), and the most negative thought I’ve ever had looking at them is “wow, I should really hit the gym today!”
No matter how hard they agitate, these feminists are never going to stop men from “objectifying” (i.e. admiring) healthy, young, beautiful women with hourglass figures. They’ve been doing it since the species existed and they’ll continue doing it long after modern Western feminism is just another outdated social trend. Furthermore, in a world where sexual exploitation, human trafficking and child pornography are real phenomena, these feminists sound like overprivileged twits protesting against ADULT WOMEN posing for the enjoyment of ADULT MEN in magazines for hefty paychecks. Get some perspective!
LikeLike
I am here to mourn lost irony.
LikeLike
You must see this, if you haven’t already. http://noshirtsinscotland.tumblr.com/
LikeLike
Wow!
Is it hot in here? Did we just experience a solar flare?
Suddenly very warm….
LikeLike
Yes! Well said! Agreed.
If anything, feminisants, should bemoan the soaring costs of gym memberships and costs of bra sets from Victoria secret.
Seriously, £30 for a hot pair of knickers.
Pretty never hurts..
LikeLike
She wants you to shave the hair on your legs?! I must be a dinosaur because I think that’s weird.
LikeLike
Shave his legs?!?!
Uh….
Ewww
LikeLike
Does your wife now how prickly and ingrown hair prone it is to shave leg & chest hair?
And older male friend of mine, whilst trying to get back on the dating scene, at 53 yrs old, would shave himself like a newborn lamb. (To hide the grey). Poor fella. It looks good and smooth for what? A entire day?
Hair is hair. Hair is hot. Desire has nothing to do with aesthetics, once the lights go down.
LikeLike
Hey now, I’m a very babyfaced twenty-three (I frequently get mistaken for a high school student), and I get ma’amed all the time.
In my part of the country, people say ma’am. Not necessarily a judgment on your age. So don’t start planning your death by meteor and fossilization just yet.
LikeLike
I like a little eye candy myself, but I’m not immune to the occasional little stab of envy and wistfulness. “I’m never going to look like that.” I’m cute, don’t get me wrong, but it’s simply not in the genetic cards for me to ever become a Victoria’s Secret angel.
However, I realize that this reaction is MY problem, and that it is not the world’s responsibility to reorganize itself around my feelings. People like looking at pretty things. Pretty things are marketable. Them’s the breaks.
LikeLike
Me too! Love a scruffy man with a hairy chest. Hate that new hairless trend. WTF? Looks especially weird when the man is swarthy and it all ends at the neck, as though his head was placed on someone else’s body.
LikeLike
Agreed. Proud dinosaur here. Christ, when did men start shaving their LEGS? Outside of competitive swimmers and cyclists I mean…
LikeLike
They should probably wax instead of shave, if they’re going to do that.
LikeLike
I was in my mid-20’s when I worked a job that had me on the phone with a lot of people from the South– I got used to ma’am really fast. I’m glad for that time and the gracious people I met (even if it was just on the phone). Ma’am has never bothered me thanks to that.
LikeLike
All of those guys on the cover:
10/10 Would Bang.
Whoops! excuse my objectification……
LikeLike
must…resist….urge….to….blow entire paycheck…..on Amazon.co.uk……
LikeLike
Must be a generational thing. I LOVE fuzzy men! I don’t do that brazilian stuff, either and hubby’s fine with that. If he asked me to get my lady bits waxed, I’d say “You first.”
LikeLike
Does your wife now how prickly and ingrown hair prone it is to shave leg & chest hair?
Not sure if she’s aware of this or not, but I doubt it would make any difference to her if she did.
And older male friend of mine, whilst trying to get back on the dating scene, at 53 yrs old, would shave himself like a newborn lamb. (To hide the grey). Poor fella. It looks good and smooth for what? A entire day?
This I REFUSE to do, for ANY woman. Even my wife realizes that it’s not practical for the reason, as you cite, that it wouldn’t last much beyond a single day (although it still doesn’t stop her from whining about the hair).
I can’t even stand to shave my face every morning and would have grown a full beard long ago (I already have the mustache/goatee thing going and have for most of my 20-year marriage) if I knew she wouldn’t pitch a fit about that (and she would). Shaving any other part of my anatomy, unless it’s for a valid medical or sanitary reason, just ain’t gonna happen.
Hair is hair. Hair is hot. Desire has nothing to do with aesthetics, once the lights go down.
Would you care to publish a book on this topic? I’d buy at least a dozen copies, for my wife and several other women (female relatives, colleagues, and wives and GFs of friends) who seem to have the same hang-up on male body hair and who would definitely benefit from your enlightenment on this topic. Since they won’t listen to me (or any other man who isn’t/has no intention of becoming a hairless metrosexual), maybe, just maybethey’ll change their minds if the message comes from a woman’s perspective.
LikeLike
No matter how hard they agitate, these feminists are never going to stop men from “objectifying” (i.e. admiring) healthy, young, beautiful women with hourglass figures.
Speaking for myself, the flip side of this is that no matter how physically attractive any woman might be, the minute she opens her mouth to reveal herself to be a misandric princess bitch, she might as well be the spawn of Godzilla and the Medusa.
LikeLike
Lol, I haven’t brought a girly mag in ages. I would love to have this battle go full out. Take out modeling completely. See who complains more. The women models or the men who now can’t buy ladies mags.
The funny thing though is that trying to outlaw sexy pics of sexy people will just create a black market for sexy pics of sexy people and just like the drug cartels, the people producing it will love you for it.
LikeLike
Wow. Seriously. Wow. I have a whole new love for tartan.
LikeLike
You would be happy in Spain, then.
More good news: seven men for every three women.
Spanish women are pretty but extremely unpleasant and aggressive.
Spanish men love North European type women.
I know you are married. Just joking.
LikeLike
There is a contradiction here (another one) about feminism:
Feminist hate seeing sexy women in the cover of magazines showing skin.
Feminists (because they are “female chauvinists”) love the deification of women in the cover of magazines and men gawking about them.
Feminists (sex positive feminists) are in favour of prostitution and porn.
Feminists are anti prostitution and anti porn.
This is crazy.
As said: “feminism” means NOTHING.
Here some lines by Arthur Schopenhauer. “Uber die Weide” (“On women”) writen in middle XIX Century:
“Women they think that they are like the sacred monkeys of Varanasi. They are convinced that everything is allowed and owed to them”.
The “problem” is not feminism. The problem is female condition.
LikeLike
No “feminism” in XIX Century.
LikeLike
TO ADAM:
I like your comment on Julius Evola a couple of posts ago. Evola is extremely interesting. I think all this “female mistery” needs (and had) a lot of philosophical investigation: Evola, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Weininger, Wilde, Vilar… and all of them are bloody well right.
LikeLike
They obviously forgot femspeak. It’s only sexist when it hurts women. Since men aren’t real people you can do whatever you want to them.
LikeLike
Men should NOT shave their legs, underarms or forearms. Chest-it really depends. Some guys DO need to shave the chest area.
And balls. You should definitely shave your balls.
LikeLike
What?!?!
Why??
LikeLike
I think men should keep their goodies neat, too. That’s a nice trend. It’s considerate.
LikeLike
Cause its sooooo nice. Who doesn’t like hairless party parts?
Honestly, no one really expects any man to be hairless all the time down there, but consistent maintenance is a nice guideline to go by.
And I don’t understand why women complain about brazilians, or being bare. It feels amaZing. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
LikeLike
I’m with you on the balls. I like hair, but the hair in nether-regions is best trimmed if you want me down there often. Like brazilians too. Sugaring is my one big monthly splurge (it’s like waxing, but less ouch, goes back to ancient Mesopotamia don’t know why they don’t do it more here).
LikeLike
I suppose if you’re about to star as the male lead in a porn flic, it’s obligatory. Otherwise, I would pose the following rhetorical question to the ladies:
“Most of us don’t mind trekking through your “savannah,” so why do you object to trekking through ours?”
LikeLike
If you’re in for a good laugh read the reviews here
Veet for men….
As to what Emma said. I’m a fairly hair fella and I try and keep the twins clean shaven and the rest trimmed. Balls are not all that attractive to begin with let alone with a fur coat on….
If I want a lady friend to engage in party games, well it’s only polite to make it pleasant. I feel the same the other way. Not necessarily fully shaved, but If I need a machete and a compass to get through the bush to the goods, it takes away from the experience.
LikeLike
JB, another great piece – thanks! I’ve put links to two of my blogs along with a recommendation that people subscribe to yours.
Mike Buchanan
JUSTICE FOR MEN & BOYS
(and the women who love them)
http://j4mb.wordpress.com
LikeLike
“And balls. You should definitely shave your balls.”
I would if I had any. Sadly, and quite painfully, they were damaged in an accident and had to be removed. I’m afraid that my ball-less sack, just hanging there like a deflated balloon, looks quite sad regardless of whether it’s hairless or hairy.
LikeLike
If women, rather than men, had been taken seriously as philosophers during the Enlightenment and thereafter, then Western thought would be wrought with psychobabble about how men “are convinced that everything is allowed and owed to them”, not much different from the feminist psychobabble that we see in some circles today.
Schopenhauer, et. al.’s groundless statements about women and the modern feminists’ negative portrayals of men are two stems of the same branch.
LikeLike
If a feminist looks at themselves in a mirror while they’re naked or does the sight of their own naked boobs offend them?
Must be a joyless existence being a feminista.
LikeLike
Great blog by the way. Where is this petition?
LikeLike
The sixpack looks are only the minor part. Most of these romance heroes are not just handsome, but rich, successful doctors that are intelligent and witty.
This really creates an unrealistic picture of men in women. Real men can not fulfill these fantasies, not even real bodybuilders that might not have the riches and brains these heroes show.
LikeLike
I think this is a mock campaign by the UK Masculinism group designed to ridicule the femisnist anti-lads mag campaign that used the exact same laws as a excuse for their petty censorship demands. Just because some bloke can make a living off his appearance does not bother me in the slightest, I just do not like the double standard of these women who are hating on other women who are prettier and more daring than them and make harmless money out of their appearance.
LikeLike
I know this is an older post, but we had a similar campaign in my country. In a much smaller scale but the same idea and intent, where some bookstores that book covers with clad men were appropriate and wanted to censor it. If you ask me, nothing good comes out of cencorship and these “masculinists” only aid to harm their own cause with their insecurity and aggressive approach.
My bookstore didn’t take part in any of this and instead of giving in to cencorship we did a stunt to provoke them a bit. We had a “shirtless salesman” day and made a shirtless charity calendar as well. Not surprisingly we were able to collect quite a bit to causes that matter with some humour and flexibility over cencorship and grumpiness.
LikeLike
Jesus, this is the sort of level-headedness that makes the rest of the species look like a herd of cats.
LikeLike
The only article I’ve found on the JB site that I didn’t agree with.
I certainly didn’t see the petition as anything more than a jab at women who always complain about how men objectify them and don’t see them as anything more than a set of tits. Very surprising to see JB treat it with such vitriolic comments.
I don’t know of any man that’s ever been ‘offended’ by male models on a book or magazine, but I do know of hundreds that have complained about women complaining about being objectified all the while objectifying the shit out of guys. We all just shake our heads and wonder how feminists can’t see the conflict between their words and actions.
LikeLike
I meant it as a joke, Ferrum. Guess it fell kind of flat? I just think it’s amazing that feminists can campaign against something like “objectification” when women do the exact same thing to male bodies. And those Lad mags they’re up in arms over are generally sitting right next to romance novels with absurdly proportioned men on the covers!
How can they miss their own hypocrisy?
Never ceases to amaze me.
LikeLike