That Maxxis "babes calendar" article…

Euro – I am deeply offended by that post and now feel ashamed by my association with Singletrack and indeed all paper and electronic based mountainbiking magazines.

To be fair, never mind the misogyny, there is a fair old degree of misandry in this thread too!

Any psychologists on board?

Really you dont understand what the message is when scantily clad women are used to advertise products and you think this is just a calendar

Junkyard – If its not just a charity calendar, what is it?

One of many charity calendars featuring men. Chosen as it’s safe for work:

The elephant in the room that seems to go unnoticed – why do people care so much about nudity? Why is a nipple in any way titillating? The human body is what it is – we hide all kinds of shapes and sizes under clothes and then get hung up about who/how/why bits get unveiled. Bizarre.

Go and spend some time in SWT favourite nirvana of Scantinavia Scandinavia and a few saunas will sort everyone’s hang ups (or down) out….

Let it all hang out and be free from all the angst

#naturistSWTworld

Folk will be slapping on face paint next….

If its not just a charity calendar, what is it?

Is it a time machine?

Eurgghh

Feel dirty.. Am agreeing with THM

Must go and scrub away the shame

It was the bit about slapping stuff on someone’s face, wasn’t it?

😀 yes that was unnecessary!!

Enjoy the revulsion yunki 😉 but it is so bizarre how hung up people get about the human body.

Manon carpenter letting mountain biking down, who does she ride for so I can boycott there bikes.

Still, it gets her noticed and ups the click count for anyone publishing her stuff.

This.

The women in the calendar aren’t the only women making cash out of this.

Cheap publicity for maxxis too.

Everyone making money out of a bit of manufactured controversy.

Really you dont understand what the message is when scantily clad women are used to advertise products and you think this is just a calendar

there is no message. Its a calander with ladies on it and no different to other calanders that have men on them.

Yeah that’s the problem, a lot of men don’t.

Not got time to compose a proper reply unfortunately, will try later

well its not sexist, its not mysoginistic, its not racist or insulting religons or anything else for that matter. If you are offended by this calandar then I can only assume you are offended by all the male calandars, all the males used to sell females products and never make any comments towards men.

For anyone who’s been looking for more examples of this in the bike world and not really been given an answer, I just googled ‘interbike babes’ and there a quite a few others.

Bianchi, Trek, Muc off, Pedros … to name a few, and remember all the Marzocchi babes back in the day??

Just watched that manon carpenter video again and saw it was sponsored by shimano and continental.
Hope Adele likes SRAM because I wouldn’t want her to feel stupid.

Agree with THM too but I don’t see how it’s relevant here. In fact the kind of relaxed attitude to nudity in places like Scandinavia (and Germany/Austria) is sort of the opposite of our culture of being hung up about nudity but with media that’s full of sexualised pictures of (mostly) women.

Could someone explain why it’s not sexist? People keeping making that statement but not explaining why..

But don’t use Poah’s point of male calendars.. That’s sexist two and two wrongs don’t make a right…that’s like saying if I abuse Africans and Jews then I’m not a racist…

Sexism or gender discrimination is prejudice or discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender. Sexism can affect any gender, but it is particularly documented as affecting women and girls.

How are the calendar girls being discriminated against?

And why are you comparing it to abuse.

I do think the article was written to be emotive clickbait.

From the “I can’t see what the problem is” to this. The dismissal is quite staggering.

The reason I started this thread was not really because of the Maxxis calendar alone, Its the attitudes that support it. Its been disheartening to watch people get stuck on first base and go round and round arguing over a calendar, how people are so stuck in their attitudes is quite something.

And what clearly has been demonstrated with the “I can’t see what the problem is” brigade is the ingrained social conditioning that has happened. There’s a thing called system justiifcation theory and I quote:

“It proposes that people have several underlying needs, which vary from individual to individual, that can be satisfied by the defense and justification of the status quo, even when the system may be disadvantageous to certain people.“

I wonder who those “certain people” are…

And with all the men stripping off business as a what about, as mentioned earlier in the thread these ads play on the “man is strong/successful etc,” gender role. Some men are clearly having problems living up to these expectations, and are looking for something to blame…and that in a lot of cases are Women. Hence the link I provided right at the beginning.

Now I’m sure that most of you don’t think that way and are married, have girlfriends(Possibly both at the same time) and so on, but you are still feeding that system with “sexism lite” and with the changing times and equality, there will be casualties.

So all I ask is that you think before you speak, and think of the potential consequences however distant you feel you are from them. Sounds a bit PC doesn’t it, or just being decent as I like to put it.

This will fall on deaf ears, so carry on at first base.

I posted on page 5 about the differences between objectifing men and women. I have no idea how to quote a post but my argument basically came down to the fact that men are generally portrayed as being strong and in control, whereas women are portrayed as being submissive.
I am female, and as another person posted, although my smart brain says this advertising says nothing to me about how I should behave as a female, a tiny piece of my social conditioning says it does.
Oh, but none of the group rides I have ever been on are a hotbed of sexual tension. Innuendo yes, tension, no!

I am sure no one will have explained it at all on the thread so far and you stumped me with that poser. Have we got any geniuses on here who can perhaps unlock this complicated conundrum .

You can agree or disagree with them but lets not pretend we dont know and lets not pretend it 9 pages in to a thread eh.

there is no message. Its a calander with ladies on it and no different to other calanders that have men on them.

If only. You will be telling me the swastika i just a shape and the word **** just an abbreviation of pakistani and neither has any other meaning next.

Anyway el bent has covered it for you now so hopefully this helps you see the bigger picture rather than just insisting its just a calendar that does not do or say anything other than the date.

@chip – If question of comparing abuse was to my post..that wasnt the intention…I was using that as example of two wrongs not making a right but within a different context…..

OK, so junkyard is just trolling. Thats fine I suppose. Unless you would actually like to answer straight questions. I genuinely dont know what message, hidden or otherwise you read into this calendar.

To respond to El-bent – there is an undertone in your posts that suggests you read far more into these pictures and imagery than most men would. Its just some people standing near tyres. They look pretty, like decorations. OK, it would be nice if they could all be super intelligent and make some amazing impact in the world, but whats to say they cant? I think you make two assumptions which i would dispute:
1 that any man looking at the pictures is in some way deficient and depraved, and
2 that the women in the pictures are somehow worth less because of it

This is not ‘system justification’, although it does seem to be a very clever theory. Its just a calendar. As a gross generalisation, men like to look at women in a way which women don’t like to look at men. There really isn’t a message. Just tits!

And by the way, the polite implication in your post which suggests that men (not women though of course) might cheat is equally pernicious as any hidden message in the calendar.

so junkyard is just trolling.

see you can read into things and see things that are not there if you try really hard 🙄
You do the reasons as you were able to give an example and it has been answered numerous times so why are you stil asking. Just disagree and say why.

Ps it is brilliant the way you accused him of reading to much into things then you said this

1 that any man looking at the pictures is in some way deficient and depraved, and
2 that the women in the pictures are somehow worth less because of it

OH the irony

men like to look at women in a way which women don’t like to look at men

As true as it is that men are more likely to have affairs

If only. You will be telling me the swastika i just a shape and the word **** just an abbreviation of pakistani and neither has any other meaning next.

Anyway el bent has covered it for you now so hopefully this helps you see the bigger picture rather than just insisting its just a calendar that does not do or say anything other than the date.

only in the western world since the 1930’s has the swastika been associated with the nazi party which is a shame since it’s the symbol of auspiciousness in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

and he hasn’t covered it for me. I used to be a photographer and I have taken many pictures of models both male and female in different states of undress. The models that pose love their job, they love seeing their pictures and who are you to tell them that it is objectifying or sexist or what ever. I personally couldn’t care less if maxxis have ladies on their calandar or diet coke use muscular fit men to advertise their products. If the calandar was somehow sexist then sure I could understand but its not, its just a pretty girl.

men like to look at pretty ladies and ladies like to look at pretty men.

Where was this female’s article when magic mike was released or an article on a fireman holding a puppy calandar. If anyone is being sexist or degrading its the woman that wrote the article.

To respond to El-bent – there is an undertone in your posts that suggests you read far more into these pictures and imagery than most men would.

Interesting. So what does having Women in various states of undress got to do with advertising tyres?

1 that any man looking at the pictures is in some way deficient and depraved, and
2 that the women in the pictures are somehow worth less because of it

I’ll check…no didn’t say that at all.

And by the way, the polite implication in your post which suggests that men (not women though of course) might cheat is equally pernicious as any hidden message in the calendar.

Well done. You might just be getting off first base.

As true as it is that men are more likely to have affairs

The fella behind the bar at my local told me our milkman had slept with every woman on my road but one.

When I mentioned this to my wife she said, “I bet it’s that stuck up cow at number 30”

As true as it is that men are more likely to have affairs

Who with ?

Junkyard – give it a rest eh. Can you really not articulate what you find so objectionable on your own without someone to help you?

In case you didn’t notice, in my post I was quite careful to say my reading of el-bents post made me think they had made two assumptions, effectively I asked for clarification and gave the writer some credit as to their intelligence to work that out for themselves. Unfortunately this is the internets and i should know better.

Ohh. el bent does have more sense!

I make the point about assumptions because if you dont think that, then why are the pictures remotely objectionable.

So what does having Women in various states of undress got to do with advertising tyres?

Precisely nothing.

Its a charity calendar of women, funded by someone who makes tyres. The maxxis babes on the other hand are presumably paid by maxxis to “raise their profile” at motorsport events, which I agree are widely reknowned for their work in raising the profile of feminist issues. 🙄

Who with ?[/quote]Women they go riding with 🙄

Are you not keeping up?

Precisely nothing.

Precisely everything according to maxxis; since they’ve just released calendar featuring tyres and naked women

Another woman here. I am not offended – i am disappointed and saddened but not offended, that is far too strong a reaction. The impression their advertising in this way creates for me is that it is aimed at men to the exclusion of women. Obviously advertising is aimed at particular market segments. If you market segment is fairly unform then you can be very specific. In using this type of advertising i feel that women are being actively excluded as an unimportant market segment and i dont think this reflect a modern understanding of the market and society. Women can be interested in cars (and tyres) and also biking. The impression i gain from this approach to advertising is that I and other women are unimportant to Maxxis. It reflects gender stereotyping that i am hoping will lessen in society as my daughter grows up.

You can disagree with my conclusions but you cannot tell me that i am not allowed to feel or react in a particular way. This is my reaction to this sort of advertising and it does have a negative impact on my attitude to the brand. I have as much right to feel this way as you have to your own reaction. So men telling me i am over reacting or ‘offended’ and it is because i am ‘PC gone mad’ or naive comes across as controlling. You might believe that i am these things but that isnt the same thing as saying that i am. If you dont recognise the difference between the statements then that is rather sad.

davidtaylforth – Member

Precisely nothing.

Precisely everything according to maxxis; since they’ve just released an advert featuring tyres and naked women

No.They.Haven’t.

Not an advert.
Not Naked.

Have you totally missed the point that it doesn’t matter what the models think (one of them popped up on FB saying she was happy doing it and therefore there was nothing wrong with it)? That’s fine for them – and I’d be quite worried if they were doing it against their will. However it’s been explained quite well in the posts just above you seem to be ignoring that the problem with things like this is the way they are part of reinforcing a general attitude in society. It’s quite subtle, but real.

Where was this female’s article when magic mike was released or an article on a fireman holding a puppy calandar. If anyone is being sexist or degrading its the woman that wrote the article.

Are you rehashing the “what about pics of half-naked men” argument? As also explained several times, if we lived in a totally equal society with no difference in power then you’d be right about them being the same.

here is no message. Its a calander with ladies on it and no different to other calanders that have men on them.

It’s very different indeed. We are still part of a global society where wealth, opportunity and power are largely controlled by men. If you are a woman unfortunately how you look and present yourself physically to the world affects how you will be perceived in terms of capability, intelligence and unfortunately how much respect people think you deserve. If you are a man this is less true.

Not an advert.
Not Naked.

TBF; I’ve not bought the calendar.

But the front cover looks very much like an advert to me. And if the women aren’t naked, then they must be wearing very tight clothing 😉

Ginger – Member

You can disagree with my conclusions but you cannot tell me that i am not allowed to feel or react in a particular way. This is my reaction to this sort of advertising and it does have a negative impact on my attitude to the brand. I have as much right to feel this way as you have to your own reaction. So men telling me i am over reacting or ‘offended’ and it is because i am ‘PC gone mad’ or naive comes across as controlling. You might believe that i am these things but that isnt the same thing as saying that i am. If you dont recognise the difference between the statements then that is rather sad.

Believe it or not I largely agree with your conclusions, though I still think its a little strong a reaction.

Why people read so much into words which haven’t been said ie pc gone mad, naive etc is ridiculous and proves the point that many here appear to be delighting in taking offense where none is due.

Could you name one, and quote your evidence? Like many others I’m not offended, but don’t think such promotional calendars are a good thing. FWIW I have a Y chromosome and the usual sexual drives (though less hung up about naked bodies than your average Brit)