[Closed] That Maxxis "babes calendar" article...

If you read the front page article, Adele Mitchell explains, in a very straightforward and unsensational way, why she objects to this marketing material. You have to be particularly hard of understanding not to follow her argument, even if you don't agree with it.
I think she's pushing at an open door and Maxxis are on the wrong side of history here. They'll get a short term bump from the controversy, but long term it just makes them look a bit old fashioned and out of touch.

I was having a great brand experience with you.

A what?

kcr - its not a bad article but there are a couple of things wrong with it in my opinion.

1 its a bit OTT to suggest that it somehow makes her look bad to use maxxis tyres
2 if she is willing to take the position that by using a product she tacitly gives her approval to everything they do, then she'd better be very careful about a lot of other products

(because we don’t just talk about hair straightners and men)

I just despair in the attitudes being expressed by some of you

They are simply not man enough to live in the new century.

I have been struggling for a while now to put into words why this sort of advertising is damaging and deeming towards women and men. The best way I can think of is to explain how the objectification of males and females differ.

When a man is objectified he is generally seen as strong, and in a position of power, he is able to demand attention and is considered to be good at getting what he wants. If his sexual prowess is considered it is usually in a positive light, he is a "stud" for want of a better word. He is generally viewed as dominant and in control.

When a woman is objectified she is usually in a submissive pose, there to be controlled. If she is using her sexuality to try to show power she is seen negatively as promiscuous, possibly even "asking for it". The woman is there for the pleasure of the man, to enable him to feel powerful and dominant.

How many glamour models are younger women? How many lusted after men are on the older side?

There is also the issue that whilst many women who work in the glamour industry feel empowered and that they are taking men for fools, there are many other women without that self-confidence. It is those women who suffer at the hands of men who believe they have the right to dominate women and tell them how they should behave. Teenage girls who feel they have to shave themselves because it is what their boyfriends expect from what they've seen in the magazines/online. Men who expect their women to passively respond to their search for power or dominance.

Yes, thankfully most men are wiser than this, unfortunately many are not and it is those men who cause the damage.

Apologies if this rambled, I got a bit carried away! I hope I got my point across.

They are simply not man enough to live in the new century.

I bet half of them don't even moisturise either.

I dispair having children and looking at the state of the world but rather than rely on other people to alter their opinions I'd educate the children to make the change to benefit the generation.

I feel women also play a part in via the media / fashion.

When a man is objectified he is generally seen as strong, and in a position of power, he is able to demand attention and is considered to be good at getting what he wants. If his sexual prowess is considered it is usually in a positive light, he is a "stud" for want of a better word. He is generally viewed as dominant and in control.

When a woman is objectified she is usually in a submissive pose, there to be controlled. If she is using her sexuality to try to show power she is seen negatively as promiscuous, possibly even "asking for it". The woman is there for the pleasure of the man, to enable him to feel powerful and dominant.

This pretty much sums it up. Of course now with equality on the agenda, this pretty much messes up the "traditional" gender roles, which is why in that bbc6 program there are men with serious issues.

I bet half of them don't even moisturise either.

[url= http://www.superdrug.com/Brut/Brut-After-Shave-100ml/p/343194?gclid=CJ7M0_2q4ckCFc-6GwodNPAOzA&gclsrc=aw.ds ]The Brut's.[/url]

Synopsis?

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dont look at the monster energy girls..
Are they exploited? Do they get paid less than their male counterparts? Is there gender equality?

I don't know if the Monster Energy models get paid less than their male counterparts (first you'd have to work out who their counterparts are) on the day that they work there. We do know that women generally get paid about 10-20% less than men: http://www.equalpayportal.co.uk/statistics/

Kona that Stat isn't as cut and dry as you thin a few exceptionally highly paid individuals vastly increase the male average earnings and skew the figures.

Also women leaving the work force etc when they have children rejoining later on reduced hours or a job share also affects the female average as it's more unusual for men to do this.

As for the calendar, don't much care for it, wouldn't put it up at home.

I caused a stir when I had my team remove the boobs and bits out calendars from the work shop based on the thought if they want that stuff they have plenty of wall at home so don't need to use the ones at work, it's not the perception I want people to have when they visit the work place.

Kona that Stat isn't as cut and dry as you thin a few exceptionally highly paid individuals vastly increase the male average earnings and skew the figures.

Who is Adele Mitchell?

1 its a bit OTT to suggest that it somehow makes her look bad to use maxxis tyres

2 if she is willing to take the position that by using a product she tacitly gives her approval to everything they do, then she'd better be very careful about a lot of other products

[url= http://adelemitchell.com/2010/07/29/lisa-snowdon-spa-fabulous-and-being-late/ ]adele on lisa snowdon[/url]

Here she is gushing over Lisa Snowdon who is not shy about putting her wares on show.
I wonder if she fired her off an email about letting her down.
[url= http://strictlycomedancing.info/celebrity-dancers/series-6/lisa-snowdon-4/ ]lisa snowdon[/url]

No Kona, I didn't!! No Kona, I didn't!!

Stupid mobile signal! 😳

argh!!! For some reason my post won't show on here!! Right I'll try this!!!

I had more to say!!

[URL= http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/s554/Wookster31/9DC42D77-B5E2-4BC3-BCED-73331AACC337_zpsnx0qmzxq.jp g" target="_blank">http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/s554/Wookster31/9DC42D77-B5E2-4BC3-BCED-73331AACC337_zpsnx0qmzxq.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

5 pages and no pics... WTF.

TBH I'm pretty much bemused by the attitudes on here... It's a charity cancer made for non-profit to raise assistance for Macmillan. The girls would have been paid well for their time and obviously in their chosen career path.

STW being FAR to politically correct as usual.

The delicate soul should really have done a bit of research before buying the tyres as the Maxxis Babes look to have been going for some time...

I've designed many calendars over the years - some arty and creative some just with dates and nice pictures. If i was given the task of creating a calendar for a performance tyre supplier, who wanted to sell it to make as much money as possible for charity, i'd struggle to come up with something more suitable. Sure you could do something more creative/clever but there would be no doubt be 'costs' involved and there's no guarantee anyone would buy it. From the branding side, Maxxis doen't seem to be a creative/clever type of client - they sell tyres so i'd imagine anything too highbrow would be wasted on them.

From my perspective, it's badly laid out, with poor photography/photoshopppping, doesn't look to be a great print job [i]and[/i] the girls are orange!!! But i'm not offended by it in a sexual way nor am i likely to stop using my Sid the Sexist Minion + HR combo.

p.s. I don't have any daughters and am a male man.

Let's not forget that a lot of ladies in this sport like ladies too!

[b]OI! Put your knickers on and make me a cup of tea![/b]

[img] [/img]

I've not read all the posts, but there is a bit of an irony that as I got to the bottom of Adele's article and the comments, there is a "related stories" set of links that take you to STW forum threads. The first is a picture of a naked Julia Bradbury, the second is Rachel Atherton looking glam in a nice dress next to her bike, and the third is a female MTB'r stood in her shorts and bra top by her bike, the link of which is for comments in the Daily Mail.

Just thought I'd mention it....

As an aside - Bikini Boulderers.
Check it out.
Not a single - not one bad comment about them.
The fact that they are all very, very highly respected and seriously good climbers/boulderers doing what they love in the clothing that they mainly wear in the full sunshine, whilst bouldering and just happen to have started a massive following doing so.
But no feminists spewing their distaste over it.
No threads pages long extolling the skill sets of those who decided to come up with it.
Because they came up with it themselves - those very talented girls who are in the pics and now get to show the climbing community many of the beautiful places around the world where they climb.
They just happen to climb in bikinis

None of that's true though, is it? The Bikini Boulderers took staged photos in their smalls because outside of those who like on the beach [b]noone[/b] who's not DWS-ing climbs mostly in their bikini because at the first sign of a shitty topout you'd lose most of the skin on your body. They amassed a big following because they made a calculated attempt to cash in on their looks and willingness to pose in bikinis - emphatically not their climbing abilities. The majority of their photos were posed bumbling around on 5+s and below - no idea if this changed - a quick look at their feed suggests that they'vew deleted all of their pictures and gone quiet. Looking at the "liked by" it reveals a few of the more misogynistic of my climbing friends are the only people I know who Liked them.

There's also plenty of the same issues in the climbing community - see for instance the earning power of Sierra Blair-Coyle and the likes of Sasha Digiulian. Both you, attractive women, one quite a good climber, the other an absolutely world class climber but the former is willing to pose in her bikini a lot so she generates a lot of attention. As a wishy washy metric SBC has half as many facebook followers again as SD. You can compare that with any number of other female climbers and I can't find any who get close.

All of which seems to reinforce the idea that it's more important to be willing to titillate than to actually be the best at climbing.

Lemony,

Surely that's not just women though, think of Valentino Rossi for example, he's the god of motorbike racing, but would easily argue he's not the fastest racer.

In MTB Downhill, there's splits between who's the fastest compared to who's the most exciting to watch.

etc etc.

The biggest exponent of this loved by the forum is Guy Martin... Argably not the fastest road racer, but commands 10X the appearance money of someone like Bruce Anstey (GM btw is the highest paid TT racer by a LOT), but Bruce beat him this year. Hutchinson for example is also a low pay bloke...

It's marketing, it's character, looks of course play a part, we are humans after all and we mate with people we find attractive to look at.

It's a great shame that it's seen as a valid form of promotion and from that point the article is fair enough. However given that you only need to have a quick glance in any number of shops selling calenders to see a fairly large number of similar products featuring both ladies and men so it does sell like it or not.

The article does suffer with singling out Maxxis though, let's face it they aren't alone in this (and the author is very sheltered if they think they are) so taking one particular company to task appears to be personal. Most other tyre manufacturers (certainly ones in motorsports) use grid girls or make calenders, and more revealing ones at that. Assos and Northwave haven't been shy in using attractive women in little clothing before now either. Knog have managed to shoehorn it into advertising lights FFS.

Honestly I don't know, it just feels a bit short sighted and lacking in depth, but hey I'm not being asked to write a blog about it.

I remember when this forum used to be fun with Kylie Fridays, that French newsreader and other amusing posts from some quality people many of whom i had the pleasure of meeting....now.... this place has changed!!

kcr - Member

1 its a bit OTT to suggest that it somehow makes her look bad to use maxxis tyres

She says she feels "stupid", I assume because she's riding around prominently displaying the logos of a company which she believes is displaying casual sexism and not taking her seriously as a person. Pretty straightforward. You may disagree with her analysis, but it doesn't seem an OTT position. I wouldn't walk around in a Daily Mail t-shirt, because I dislike what they stand for and it would make me feel stupid.

Thats because the primary thing the Daily Mail does is overtly sexist and low brow. The primary thing Maxxis do is sell tyres. Its OK to say the calendar is a bit cheap and crass but it is also OTT to say that it somehow translates across the whole brand and company as some sort of institutional misogyny. Shed be perfectly entitled to feel upset if the pictures were on the tyres, but they're not.

2 if she is willing to take the position that by using a product she tacitly gives her approval to everything they do, then she'd better be very careful about a lot of other products

I can't see any part of the article where she takes the position that she is giving tacit approval to everything a company does when she uses their product. In fact, I think the whole article is about explicit disapproval of something a company has done, isn't it?
Why should she be careful about other companies? If she doesn't like something another company does, she's free to complain about it in the same way.

Thats the same thing written the other way around! And you make the same point I do - if she is going to be offended by this then she'd better not buy, for example continentals or michelins. I don't know about the rest but I would imagine you could find something to be upset about if you look hard enough. And thats just tyres. Good luck coping with the rest of life.

Yes its a crass, cheap calendar. Don't buy it then.

I remember when this forum used to be fun with Kylie Fridays

IIRC, 'Friday Kylie' got vitoed because given an inch people repeatedly took a mile.

you mean some of us are no longer teenage lads looking for one for the **** bank?

On the bright side, who'd ever heard of this Adele before now?

TBH, when I first heard about this I was thinking "she rides mountain bikes too? No bad for a big lass."

Here she is gushing over Lisa Snowdon

An image even Maxxis would draw a line at.

[img] [/img]

[b]binners[/b] - Member

[b]I'm out....[/b]

[b]POSTED 14 HOURS AGO[/b] # REPORT-POST

Who is Adele Mitchell?

Can we still be doing this when google is just a mouse click away?

Lemony - have you ever climbed abroad?
Where your in 30+ degrees?
Little or no shade?
No one cares about a sketchy top out or otherwise - its too fricking hot.

As for the BB's - it has/did change.
They made a point of yes - being on show but also climbing the routes they would climb normally, not poncing about on crap.

Stone Nudes is another - don't even think about trying to make out they are just pretty little girls on baby routes.
The likes of Lyn Hill and others have all posed for it over the years and always on very technical grades where they've needed spotters and sometimes medics whilst capturing the images.

Anyway - HUUUUUGE digress!
The woman in the original article got massive butthurt because a few girls doing something for a good cause were semi-clothed.
Guess she'd better not go anywhere warm on holiday next year.....

hats the same thing written the other way around! And you make the same point I do - if she is going to be offended by this then she'd better not buy, for example continentals or michelins. I don't know about the rest but I would imagine you could find something to be upset about if you look hard enough. And thats just tyres. Good luck coping with the rest of life.

It's funny because you're clearly pretty 'upset' and 'offended' about the article she wrote. Good luck coping with the rest of life.

Oi, boys.

The problem with sexism is that it happens in our heads too. So when you see stuff like that you think 'I should be like that too'. Unconsciously.

Consciously, of course, I am very well educated woman able to discern between reality and fairy tale and images of women all draped over stuff in their knickers instead of being shithot riders, drivers etc really annoy me.

But I know that I'm affected by social stereotyping just in my own riding. I'm pretty fast on a bike, but I feel guilty and bad and that I shouldn't be better than my OH (who's a boy, just in case you were wondering) in a secret corner of my head. That's how internalised sexism becomes. Obviously I fight it with my conscious brain...

So yes, Maxxis, get with the current century. Boring, tired and not good for the next generation of kickarse mountain biking grrlz.

[url= http://adelemitchell.com/2015/03/24/review-urbanist-bettie-cycling-pants/ ]http://adelemitchell.com/2015/03/24/review-urbanist-bettie-cycling-pants/[/url]

Possible not safe for work

So the lady promoting the wearing of a cycling specific g-string (in another post) who posts about "sexy" cycling pants on her own site (and promotes them) moans about a tyre company being stupid using sex to sell.

pot kettle black

The biggest exponent of this loved by the forum is Guy Martin... Argably not the fastest road racer, but commands 10X the appearance money of someone like Bruce Anstey (GM btw is the highest paid TT racer by a LOT), but Bruce beat him this year. Hutchinson for example is also a low pay bloke...

It's marketing, it's character, looks of course play a part, we are humans after all and we mate with people we find attractive to look at.

I see what you're saying but still disagree: Guy Martin* seems to generate his additional worth by being a very competent presenter and an engaging speaker and writer. I'm not sure I'd consider that comparable with his earning potential increased based on being willing to ride the TT circuit in a banana hammock**. This type of attitude doesn't exist in men's sport to anything like the same extent. To go back to Climbing, Magnus Midtbø doesn't outshine Adam Ondra in spite of arguably being a far more photogenic person.

*I should note that I can't stand the guy so I'm basing this on the little I've seen.

** "Obvious (and unpleasant) oversimplification is obvious"

^^

But the seller does not speak for all woman. She is doing it on the basis that sex/porn sells. That is not the way the world is now.

But the seller does not speak for all woman. She is doing it on the basis that sex/porn sells. That is not the way the world is now

Really ? Tell that to 1direction, Little mix, or any other the out hundreds of boy/girl bands over the years recently.

There definitely seems to be quite a powerful resurgence in the 'nudity as feminism' movement amongst young intelligent women..

I'm not sure if a group of middle aged men raised on razzle and the littlewoods catalogues are best placed to decide what is best for women in this fast changing computer age

Edukator - Troll

So the lady promoting the wearing of a cycling specific g-string (in another post) who posts about "sexy" cycling pants on her own site (and promotes them) moans about a tyre company being stupid using sex to sell.

pot kettle black

You can't see the difference between a female cyclist writing a review of some cycling specific underwear, and a company selling tyres by draping scantily clad models over their stuff?

Oh... sorry... my mistake.... its you. So just the usual trolling then?

Carry on 😀