British supermarkets stocking magazine covers displaying scantily clad women could face sexual harassment claims from their customers if a collection of British feminist groups have their way.
The Lose the Lads’ Mags campaign, instigated by UK Feminista and Object, says that high street retailers could face legal action if they don’t remove the ‘lads’ mags’ from their shelves.
“For too long supermarkets have got off the hook, stocking lads’ mags in the face of widespread opposition, but this time we have the law on our side,” UK Feminista founder Kate Banyard told The Guardian.
A group of 11 legal experts, including a QC, have signed on to the campaign, threatening supermarkets with legal action unless they remove the publications from sale, saying that displaying “pornographic” publications in stores and requiring staff to handle them equates to sex discrimination or sexual harassment.
The letter, published in The Guardian states:
“Each one of these stores is a workplace. Displaying these publications in workplaces, and/or requiring staff to handle them in the course of their jobs, may amount to sex discrimination and sexual harassment contrary to the Equality Act 2010. Similarly, exposing customers to these publications in the process of displaying them is capable of giving rise to breaches of the Equality Act.”
Despite the campaign being launched under the guise of equal employment under the Equality Act 2010, the campaign appears to be more concerned with how harmful these magazines are to women.
Sophie Bennett, the Campaigns’ Officer at Object says the magazines featuring naked, or nearly naked women “dehumanise and objectify women”, and that these depictions further reinforce attitudes that underpin violence against women.
“Reducing women to sex objects sends out an incredibly dangerous message that women are constantly sexually available, and displaying these publications in everyday spaces normalises this sexism” she told The Guardian.
But despite the support of 11 lawyers, the campaign hasn’t garnered much positive publicity. Former Loaded and FHM writer Piers Hernu told the BBC the campaign was “deeply sinister”, and that no “right-minded individual” would see the content of the magazines as pornographic.
And author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People Toby Young told Britain’s Telegraph that the campaign was “nonsense” and tantamount to “threatening” free speech.
“If it’s true that supermarkets are legally at risk for selling lads’ magazines, that’s pretty clear proof that the “Equality Act poses a direct threat to free speech.”
Young added that UK Feminista and Object are wrong on the law, and they don’t even have logic on their side.
Do you believe that some men’s magazines could constitute sexual harassment for those handling them in stores?