Racist jokes are unacceptable but tarted up women in the sidebar are?
Daily Mail Screenshot - click for larger version
Via Twitter my attention was drawn to this article in the Daily Mail about Tory toffs in OUCA behaving like racist idiots. Tell me what’s new, although this does seem more extreme than normal…
But look at the sidebar of the Daily Mail website. Almost every picture is of some woman tarted up, many displaying breasts rather prominently. What the hell is this? Is this the state of the British press when a newspaper’s website features all of this in a sidebar of their site? Is the Daily Mail aiming to become a slightly more reputable version of The Sun, or is this just a sign of how the British media more generally portrays women?
But Jo, why do women perpetuate this myth? It’s not about being taken seriously, it’s about titillation. I don’t think Glenda Jackson’s political career was helped by images of her rolling around buck naked in early films.
this is what I keep going on about… naked women sell.
PS do you know the story about getting taken seriously as an actor? Men have to play Hamlet, women have to strip and play a role that involves some sort of physical abuse. Double standards.
It’s an amazing mix of moral outrage and prurient voyeurism.
For me, the classic Daily Mail moment was when they were loudly demanding Kate Moss should be dropped by all the companies that used the ‘disgraced model’s image, whilst putting her on the cover day after day, because they knew she sold papers.