The Co-operative has given so-called
lads' mags six weeks to cover up their front pages with sealed "modesty bags" or
be taken off sale in its stores.
The 4,000-outlet retailer said it was responding to concerns by its members, customers and colleagues about images of scantily-clad women on covers.
Titles such as Front, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo have been given a deadline of 9 September to act by the Co-op.
One campaign group called for Co-op to stop selling such titles altogether...
But campaign group Lose the Lads' Mags said the Co-op was not going far enough.
Spokeswoman Sophie Bennett said: "The so-called 'modesty bags' they are demanding from publishers are designed to allow the Co-operative to continue profiting from sexist, harmful lads' mags - but just a bit more discreetly."
BBC News.
Sometimes you wake up and read the news and just despair and wonder if the world's gone fucking mental while you were sleeping.
Maybe the Co-op - our benighted overpriced moral overlords - should put bananas, courgettes and their good-looking staff in "modesty bags" - lest we become overcome with disgusting carnal thoughts while shopping for pasta sauce.
Perhaps all customers - male and female - should be made to wear burkas?
Not sure I'll post again today - think I'll just smash my head in with a frying pan.
Bye.
PS You could have guessed the "spokeswoman" would be called something like Sophie.
Why is it only women who sound like ex-Roedean schoolgirls think this is an issue?
Cause you were taught you have some God-given right to tell people what to do?
Oh matron! etc etc.
Time for a new class war.
Update: A quite sensible piece by Andrew Creagh, editor of DNA, about how this new puritanism threatens gay mags in Gay Star News. As far as I'm aware this is the first time the mainstream gay media has addressed an issue which threatens to bag and ban them out of business.
Update2: Tesco announce they will only allow lads' mags titles to be visible, and will now only sell them to over-18s. Another victory for the new puritans.
Posts
Need to start a boycott the Co-Op campaign
ReplyDeleteOr start an online petition.
Deletex
Better still, email all main supermarket customer service departments with a request to keep things as they are. It's all a question of who has the loudest voice.
ReplyDeleteI'm a member of the Co-op and don't remember being asked about this.
ReplyDeleteTell Co-op that you are concerned about the changes. Find out the proportions of Co-op customers, members and staff who have actually made complaints about the magazines. If, as I suspect, the proportions are miniscule, the implication is that the vast majority are satisfied with the status quo.
ReplyDeleteI heard Cameron the other day defending the Sun's right to feature page 3 girls, how does that fit with his moral crusade for protecting children ? It's amazing how different it is when the immoral offender is a "newspaper" that's backing you- I'd like to think people will see through this hypocrisy but knowing the morons in this country I won't be holding my breath.
ReplyDeleteIt's fucking madness. Collective fucking madness.
ReplyDeleteWe seem to be entering an era of conservative puritanism; and I'm still convinced the recent gay rights movement conveniently appropriated by the right away from sex towards love and marriage is a small part in this.
PS You could have guessed the "spokeswoman" would be called something like Sophie.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it only women who sound like ex-Roedean schoolgirls think this is an issue?
Cause you were taught you have some God-given right to tell people what to do?
Oh matron! etc etc.
Was the above written by Richard Smith or Richard Littlejohn? It's you men who believe you've some God-given right to tell people what to do.