Feeling Special: Zoo’s last issue and Tyler’s new song dedicated to us

Tyler’s ‘F—k It: a tantrum set to music It’s not every day you get a magazine and a song dedicated to you. But this week, my friends and I received both. Now defunct Lad’s Mag Zoo Weekly devoted its final issue to us with this cover. Apparently, protesting the objectification of women and messages promoting […]

Zoo shuts down: one less vehicle for sexism and promotion of male entitlement

Collective Shout takes credit for hastening Zoo’s demise: Coles dumping title was ‘catastrophic for sales’ Four months ago, young Melbourne activist and designer Laura Pintur, 23, launched a campaign through Collective Shout calling on Coles and Woolworths supermarket to act consistent with their corporate social responsibility, ethical framework, care for communities and commitment to safety […]

Why Zoo and Tyler are a threat to women: MTR and Caitlin Roper take on Brendan O’Neill

Fueling sexist attitudes which contribute to violence against women Last month I responded to a piece by Brendan O’Neill, in The Australian, critical of our campaign against Tyler the Creator and Zoo magazine. It appeared in the on-line version at News.com (paywall means only subscribers would see it). Following this, my colleague Caitlin Roper took […]

The publicly visible spread of casual porn

Perhaps we should decide, as a society, whether we are happy to allow two groups – media moguls and the multi-billion dollar porn industry, to have all the ‘freedom’ and dictate that freedom to the rest of us Last week I attended Generation XXX, a symposium on internet porn organised by Eleanor Mills, Associate Editor […]

Lads’ mags content mirrors attitudes of convicted rapists – new study

Magazines aimed at teen boys condition them to pro offending attitudes Are sex offenders and lads’ mags using the same language? Far from being harmless or ironic fun, lads’ mags could be legitimising hostile sexist attitudes, according to new research. Psychologists from Middlesex University and the University of Surrey found that when presented with descriptions […]