THE OLYMPICS ARE underway and you know what that means — lots and lots of articles and photo galleries to peruse.
Ahead of the Olympics, Cosmopolitan published an article entitled 36 of the Greatest Summer Olympic Bulges, which, as the headline suggests, was just a gallery of Olympic bulges.
“These peens deserve the gold!” Cosmopolitan wrote alongside images of male athletes in very tight outfits that leave little to the imagination.
The magazine was immediately criticised for objectifying male athletes and, in turn, promoting double standards.
And when internet sleuths unearthed this tweet, the magazine was accused of hypocrisy.
This unfortunate side-by-side comparison soon spread like wildfire.
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The image then made it to r/KotakuInAction, a gaming subreddit that is synonymous with the Gamergate movement. (Kotaku in Action users have previously been accused of targeting and harassing female game developers.)
And now Cosmopolitan’s mentions are filled with dozens and dozens of tweets from Kotaku in Action users accusing them of sexism and misandry.
Last night, Cosmopolitan shared an article originally published in 2014, defending a woman’s right to objectify bulges.
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The author argues that since female athletes and celebrities are regularly objectified and scrutinised, it’s only fair we do the same to men.
To malign male objectification as condescending and unfair while embracing the objectification of women is a problem. Athletes and performers’ bodies are their tools, so I’m not calling for everyone to suddenly stop judging them on their looks or physique. But it’s only fair that both sexes are objectified equally. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go Google “Michael Fassbender penis.”
But some people still aren’t having any of it with many uncomfortable with the notion of reducing an athlete to a body part, regardless of gender.
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Would it be acceptable if a men’s magazine published an article entitled Best Olympic Boobs? Absolutely not.
Are male public figures objectified as much as their female counterparts? Not even close.
Is Cosmopolitan guilty of hypocrisy? Sure. But this is also a magazine that regularly publishes slideshows of celebs in bikinis, which is arguably much more tiresome/hypocritical for a publication that prides itself on being a feminist publication.
Just some food for thought.
