Found a couple more

[dreamer_easy]

Challenging The 'Sex Sells' Cliche. This is a 2006 article about the porn that saturates the scum British press. The point it makes that stuck with me was that it's not sex that sells, but one narrow stereotype of "sex" out of the endless variety of human sexuality, numbingly repeated over and over and over.

And also: Championing Ourselves, a Pagan essay about the role of the woman warrior. "Most of our battles will not be fought physically, however. We need to sharpen our voices, our wits and our wills, on many fronts. Once we take on the mantle of the warrior and harden it by learning how to protect ourselves physically, that power can translate itself to any battlefield if we truly integrate it. A warrior may find that the path leads her to become a victims advocate, chain herself to a Redwood, or lobby at her statehouse. One can even find a warrior way by being a caregiver, feeding the homeless, or comforting the wounded. If we take the name "warrior" we will always find battlefields, and a warrior should have the skills to adapt to wherever she needs to be. Warriors make changes in the world, no matter how the changes must be made."

Comments

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that first link. It brings home the insanity of a situation that, in the UK at least, we've long got used to just tutting over and moving on.

I remember saying to a colleague one day about... 8 years ago, I think... as we both walked through the magazine section of Tescos, how frustrated about sudden rise of the lad mags in our newsagents: I joked that they just made it harder to find any *proper* porn.

Since then, the lad mags have got harder and more in-yer-face, and basically have filled out the childish/mysoginist ecological niche that mainstream porn - thanks to both feminist pressure and the realisation there was in fact a whole new market available in female-friendly and couples-friendly porn - had mostly vacated during the previous decade (not that there was still that stuff being produced, but it was ghettoised as being "specialist material" rather than being the default).

Meanwhile, how exactly the Daily Sport has been allowed to continue being sold as a "newspaper" for 20-odd years, alongside genuine claimants to that title, right down where the kids see it but their busy mums don't, baffles me! As my regular readers will know I like my opportunity to ogle some female flesh as much as the next guy (no not him, he prefers the other end of the shelf... the *next* next guy!)... but it shouldn't be necessary for me, far less for a child or their mother, to have to walk past an entire wall of the stuff just to pick up the new "Doctor Who Adventures" or to buy a pint of milk! =:o\

Meanwhile, I can't remember when I last saw a copy of Scarlet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_(magazine)) anywhere. (I'm proud to say I bought the very first issue! =:o} )

On the up-side, at least there are promising signs (http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/article2523264.ece) that some of the youngsters growing up in this environment can see through it.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

And then there's the Daily Mail.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Ah, but at least they run Peanuts and Garfield... =:o\