That Maxxis "babes calendar" article…

Junkyard – lazarus
cheers hammy for the link
cumberlanddan » Why single out criticism for Maxxis and not Continental, Michelin and more than likely all the rest. At least this calendar is for charity.
This attitude that having a calendar like this somehow says the company doesn’t value women is a strange idea. I think it says more about the holder of the opinion then the company in question.
TBH I dont GAS what you think
They are being singled out as they are the only one being discussed I am happy to generalise and say all sexist calendars are sexist. I am not sure why i need to do this but you must think more of me now that i have stated the obvious a d that means the world to me
do you miss the 70’s?

If I was going to make a point about being easily offended…

So, let’s take this to the (il)logical conclusion, boycott Maxxis, despite the fact that every other tyre manufacturer does essentially the same thing. Bit pointless and futile no?

Funnily enough, I don’t miss the 70s because I wasn’t born til the next decade.

Maybe you should email their marketing manager to let them know you think they dont value women enough

Here is her linkedin profile…

Yeah, because progressive marketing ideas like this come from the female marketing manager. Of course they do. I’ve got enough experience in exactly this type of environment to know exactly where this will have come from.

Heres how it goes….

The board will have taken a number of their biggest customers on an away day for a new product launch or whatever. After a days golf, and having been at the bar for the night, maybe going on to Spearmint Rhino afterwards, some bright spark will have come up with a flash of inspiration at 2 in the morning.

Still in a haze the next morning they announce this inspired idea to the marketing department, who will respond with a collective eye-roll and a muttered ‘oh FFS!!’, but will just do it anyway, because you choose your battles, and you’re unlikely to change anyones mind in a bunch of inherently institutionally mysoginistic, rich, late 50’s white males, who in a drunken stupor suddenly imagine they’re marketing guru’s

Seen it a thousand times. I’d put my house on it! 🙄

Grum, unfortunately we do not live in a world of logic…..so that doesn’t really work does it?! 🙂

Can I just say I’m offended at Binners suggesting a female marketing manager is too weak to be able to enforce her viewpoint? Maybe she’s just bloody good at what she does and has some evidence this really works.

Oh FFS!

Tell you what… lets stick with that entirely realistic and believable narrative that’s going on in your head

What would I know?

I’m out….

But, here’s a calendar full of pictures of naked women, from your favorite tyre manufacturer.

Point of order, I was under the impression they were merely skimpily dressed; certainly that’s what the maxxisbabes.co.uk link earlier would suggest, that the photos are no more pornographic than your average pit lane or Hooters restaurant. Is that not the case?

Correct Cougar.

Thats the whole point and stated on the FB post lots – they aren’t topless/naked.
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 😆

good grief. dont look at the monster energy girls..
Are they exploited? Do they get paid less than their male counterparts? Is there gender equality? Has someone put a gun to their heads or got them hooked on drugs?

Dont like their marketing then dont buy their products and vote with your wallet.

Yes there are calendars from the Warwick rowers and that horse riding club. And plenty from Kelly brook etc.
Is it ok to use sex to sell when its for charity? Should we stop using the line coke and hookers as that is also degrading to women. arrrghhhh gp2 gp2

Is there gender equality?

That’s an odd rhetorical question for you to ask.

NeanderthalTrackWorld

Apparently lots of woman get their jollies reading erotic fiction.
Are they objectifying men, or sexist knuckle draggers.

Do you like a saucy book cinnamon girl?

As a father of two young daughters I can say in all honesty that this is the most profoundly depressing thread I’ve ever read on this forum.

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

Mind you, as a signpost to point out complete tools to be avoided at all costs, this is right up there with private number plate ownership. So every cloud eh? 😀

Yes binners, funnily enough we can all be judgmental.

Profoundly depressing? Why?

As the father of one young daughter, this is one of the most irrelevant threads to her life I can imagine. Or am I not qualified enough for an opinion?

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)

how long can a conversation about hair straighteners last.

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.

The Brut’s.

Synopsis?

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

When I worked as a dogsbody at a marketing company and organised “promotion girls”, they were all day labourers with zero employment rights. I doubt things have changed much.

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.

You didn’t read the link. 😳

Who is Adele Mitchell?

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.

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.

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.
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!!

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 and 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!

OI! Put your knickers on and make me a cup of tea!

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 noone 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.