The actor is backing the campaign by feminist activism groups UK Feminista and Object to get magazines such as Nuts and Zoo removed from supermarket shelves
"If I went in to this shop with my daughter we wouldn't have to see girlie calendars pinned up on the walls. Because obviously that would be sexist and could break the law," says actor Romola Garai. "So what's the UK's biggest retailer doing lining its shelves with lads' mags like Nuts and Zoo – page after page of women shown as dehumanised sex objects? How am I supposed to explain that to my daughter?"
The actor has made a film to launch a planned national day of action against Tesco as part of the Lose the Lads' Mags campaign run by the feminist groups UK Feminista and Object. The campaign highlights the sexist and degrading lads' magazines, its front pages filled with bare breasts, its back pages with adverts for escort agencies and chat lines ("ram them hard" invites one; "dirty slags need a hardcore shag" says another), available in the UK's biggest retailer.
The day of action, 24 August, will involve campaigners visiting local Tesco stores to talk to customers and get petitions signed. Kat Banyard, director of UK Feminista, says: "Stocking sexist publications which fuel sexist attitudes that underpin violence against women is in complete contradiction to any claim of corporate social responsibility."
Since the campaign started at the end of May, it has been gathering momentum. On Monday, the Co-operative announced that from September it would require publishers of lads' mags to cover the magazines in pre-sealed plastic bags, described as "modesty bags" if they were to remain on sale. This is a sign that retailers are listening to the campaign, but the Co-op's move is misguided, says Banyard, who describes it as "a half-measure, which still allows it to profit from sexist lads' mags but do so a bit more discreetly. That's not corporate social responsibility. The Co-op has called the wraps 'modesty bags', which is completely misleading because the issue is absolutely not nudity, the issue is sexism. A more accurate description is 'misogyny bags'. If a product is so sexist that you have to cover it up then it should not be in your stores."
The Home Office commissioned the Sexualisation of Young People Review, published in 2010, which found "the 'lads mags' targeted at young male readers typically feature highly sexualised images of women that blur the lines between pornography and mainstream media. At the same time, they promote an idea of male sexuality as based on power and aggression, depicting women as sex objects and including articles that feature strategies for manipulating women."
The campaign began after UK Feminista and Object got legal advice from Aileen McColgan, a barrister at Matrix chambers, which raised the possibility that retailers that stock lads' mags could be vulnerable to legal action from their staff or customers under the equalities law (a letter, printed in the Guardian in May and signed by 14 lawyers, said that because shops were workplaces, displaying 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").
It has focused on Tesco in particular as the UK's biggest retailer. Within days of the campaign's launch, and supporters contacting the supermarket via social media and emails, the company agreed to a meeting. The supermarket already has a policy of not stocking adult or pornographic magazines, so, says Banyard "one of the key things we asked was why do they have sexist, pornographic magazines like Nuts and Zoo on their shelves? It's in complete contradiction to their policy."
Campaigners held a protest outside Tesco's AGM at the end of June and spoke to shareholders, many of whom, she says, were supportive of their campaign. One shareholder asked the chairman, during the AGM, if Tesco would stop selling lads' mags and the chairman responded that he was "startled" by their content and was "willing to look at changes".
This week, a Tesco spokesperson had this to say to the Guardian: "We are looking into the issues that these groups have raised and were happy to meet with them for a constructive discussion. We are also talking to our customers, to find out what they think, before we make any decisions about next steps."
"Our aim," says Banyard, "is for high-street supermarkets and newsagents to stop selling them and stop profiting from the sexism that is inherent in these magazines." Reported by guardian.co.uk 11 hours ago.
"If I went in to this shop with my daughter we wouldn't have to see girlie calendars pinned up on the walls. Because obviously that would be sexist and could break the law," says actor Romola Garai. "So what's the UK's biggest retailer doing lining its shelves with lads' mags like Nuts and Zoo – page after page of women shown as dehumanised sex objects? How am I supposed to explain that to my daughter?"
The actor has made a film to launch a planned national day of action against Tesco as part of the Lose the Lads' Mags campaign run by the feminist groups UK Feminista and Object. The campaign highlights the sexist and degrading lads' magazines, its front pages filled with bare breasts, its back pages with adverts for escort agencies and chat lines ("ram them hard" invites one; "dirty slags need a hardcore shag" says another), available in the UK's biggest retailer.
The day of action, 24 August, will involve campaigners visiting local Tesco stores to talk to customers and get petitions signed. Kat Banyard, director of UK Feminista, says: "Stocking sexist publications which fuel sexist attitudes that underpin violence against women is in complete contradiction to any claim of corporate social responsibility."
Since the campaign started at the end of May, it has been gathering momentum. On Monday, the Co-operative announced that from September it would require publishers of lads' mags to cover the magazines in pre-sealed plastic bags, described as "modesty bags" if they were to remain on sale. This is a sign that retailers are listening to the campaign, but the Co-op's move is misguided, says Banyard, who describes it as "a half-measure, which still allows it to profit from sexist lads' mags but do so a bit more discreetly. That's not corporate social responsibility. The Co-op has called the wraps 'modesty bags', which is completely misleading because the issue is absolutely not nudity, the issue is sexism. A more accurate description is 'misogyny bags'. If a product is so sexist that you have to cover it up then it should not be in your stores."
The Home Office commissioned the Sexualisation of Young People Review, published in 2010, which found "the 'lads mags' targeted at young male readers typically feature highly sexualised images of women that blur the lines between pornography and mainstream media. At the same time, they promote an idea of male sexuality as based on power and aggression, depicting women as sex objects and including articles that feature strategies for manipulating women."
The campaign began after UK Feminista and Object got legal advice from Aileen McColgan, a barrister at Matrix chambers, which raised the possibility that retailers that stock lads' mags could be vulnerable to legal action from their staff or customers under the equalities law (a letter, printed in the Guardian in May and signed by 14 lawyers, said that because shops were workplaces, displaying 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").
It has focused on Tesco in particular as the UK's biggest retailer. Within days of the campaign's launch, and supporters contacting the supermarket via social media and emails, the company agreed to a meeting. The supermarket already has a policy of not stocking adult or pornographic magazines, so, says Banyard "one of the key things we asked was why do they have sexist, pornographic magazines like Nuts and Zoo on their shelves? It's in complete contradiction to their policy."
Campaigners held a protest outside Tesco's AGM at the end of June and spoke to shareholders, many of whom, she says, were supportive of their campaign. One shareholder asked the chairman, during the AGM, if Tesco would stop selling lads' mags and the chairman responded that he was "startled" by their content and was "willing to look at changes".
This week, a Tesco spokesperson had this to say to the Guardian: "We are looking into the issues that these groups have raised and were happy to meet with them for a constructive discussion. We are also talking to our customers, to find out what they think, before we make any decisions about next steps."
"Our aim," says Banyard, "is for high-street supermarkets and newsagents to stop selling them and stop profiting from the sexism that is inherent in these magazines." Reported by guardian.co.uk 11 hours ago.