Feminist Fridays: OBJECT takes action against ladmags

www.object.org.uk campaign on women's rights issues, such as the objectification and exploitation of women by the ladmag industry. On Feminist Fridays they carry out guerrilla rebranding missions to magazine outlets with prominent displays of these magazines.

This week they target WH Smith stores in Paddington Station, London. Repackaging the shelves of ladmags with countersexist statements is not looked on favourably by the manager. He follows them from store to store undoing all their good work, but the police officer he summons can't think of any offence they could be committing apart from littering.

OBJECT will return week after week until these magazines are put on the top shelf where they belong. Death to the patriarchy.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• object
• feminist
• friday
• feminism
• ladmag
• porn
• whsmith
• london
• paddington
• railway
• station
• police
• officer
• british
• transport
• shopdrop
• direct
• action
• protest
• nvda
• civil
• disobedience
• patriarchy
• antiporn
• pornography
• activism
• sex
• women
• commodification
• exploitation
• degredation

[matrix4022]

I have no respect for feminists simply because they are bigoted towards me as a man. I have no respect for biogts. However, I agree that no one should be sexualised. That is men AND woman. None of these feminists complains during the "Diet Coke break" adverts, the Galaxy chocolate male strippers adverts, the Calvin Klein stuffed-underwear adverts ... yet they are the first to complain when it is women..that is wrong, and that is sexist.

[phemefilms]

@matrix4022 Which feminists are you talking about? OBJECT is opposed to any form of objectification/commodificatio­n of women's and men's bodies. If you'd like to feel less victimised by the bigotry of 'all feminists' why not find out about the actual work of feminist groups like OBJECT?

[KezSince1992]

I work in WHSmith and if you started asking me shit like that I'd crack up. :')

And then tell you to fuck off.

[SpiritFlux]

Well done!! I admire your strength in standing up for womens humanity. I'm a man and I hate lads mags, not because i dont like women but because I do! I think its shocking these mags are forced onto the top shelf with age restriction by law !

[shinokiba]

I love pornography, stop trying to take my freedoms away. If you don't want to look at dirty magazines, don't. Its your choice not to, but don't force your views on me.

[MadMooky]

@HateGrind

Also, and I know I'm taking far too much issue with this, but I would like to stress that this isn't a recent development. In the Victorian century, where women did only want to marry and start families, there was a brothel on LITERALLY every corner visited routinely by their husbands.

Also, there's a significant difference between a woman's sexuality and a woman (or indeed a man's/man!) being sexualized - one is something which makes you, human and the other makes you an object.

[MadMooky]

@HateGrind

As for the latter statement, that's really a more complex issue. It's a fine line between self esteem issues and genuine self expression. Change the thought process behind the dress style, not the style itself. The real problem is that people make such a huge deal about women who do wear revealing clothing and give them attention, meaning instead of people dressing in a way because they think they look nice, they do it to avoid disapproval or to seek approval of total strangers.

[MadMooky]

@HateGrind

Porn has existed for thousands of years, as a concept it's not really objectionable. Porn industry at current is another thing entirely, it is to sex what McDonald's is to food - it'll get the job done, but it's still shit. But when you stop to think about it, the porn industry is bad to women for much the same reasons and in much the same ways as pretty much EVERY industry is so if you take issue with one you take issue with them all (I do).

[HateGrind]

@HateGrind - I want to say personaly i hate porn and female objectification . but this society has been moulded that way by the social advancement of feminism over the last 50 years. Even going out is disgusting . Why do young women feel the need to dress like utter tarts? . As a man i find it off putting . it would be nice to look at a woman and think it would be nice to take her out for lunch rather than shag her . But this is our fine british culture now unfortunatly , The gentleman is dead

[HateGrind]

if women dont want to marry and start famillies anymore then sexualisation is going to rise . Feminism is an all out war on the male hormone Tostesterone . Nothing more . We have a situation in this society where men are attacked and demonised on every damn level . They turn their noses up at most decent men that make up about 80% of the population . Men now take salvage in porn , dirty mags, football and computer games. Congrats feminists

[sharris234]

I agree that objectification of women is not good, but I don't believe that slapping some flyers on magazines and "Objecting" to anything that this group don't like is the way to do it. On their web site they are opposed to beauty competitions! It seems like the frustrated actions of a minority of women. Why not try to elevate the perception of women rather than try to slap attack anything that annoys you or that you perceive as dirty.

[animalpins]

absolutely inspiring. any time a strange man thinks he has the right to access to my body or my attention, i fall in love with this organization all over again. wish there was a US branch.

[shinokiba]

I honestly don't care what these women think of me for watching porn. If you want to hate me for watching porn, then go ahead, it is your right. But if you try to take away my right to watch porn, I will continually fight against your freedom hating agendas until I win.

[EUmustBjoking]

@insomniajo I doubt that Cosmo is anything like Loaded. Besides, women face a daily barrage of misogyny. Do men open newspapers & find a topless man on p.3? No, we don't. That's why Object doesn't really focus it's campaigning on male objectification. For instance, in the US there are a small number of hate attacks perpetrated by gay people on straight people. Using your argument, would you think it necessary & reasonable for a anti-homophobia campaigner to talk about 'straight bashing?'