Forgive me for jumping on the bandwagon, and most of you are probably tired of hearing the arguments from this so called feminist debate, but I just couldn’t resist having my say as well after reading the article and comments that appeared on the Guardian website, along with the comments from CUSU representatives.
As a woman I feel I have the authority to say that I find Miss Rowenna Davis’ ‘argument’, or lack there of, and the various comments supporting it completely ludicrous. They are vilifying the young male founders of the Tab for ‘promoting’ sexism by posting scantily clad women on their website, and making out that the women themselves, specifically, ‘the pink bikinied model’, are victims of their misogynistic regime. This I find much more insulting and degrading to women. Are we so pathetic, naïve and easily led that we need the so called minority of intelligently sound women, like those within CUSU, to protect us by taking away our personal freedom, not even allowing any young woman to have the choice of whether to take her clothes off or not for a publication? Are we so subjugated that when we choose to do something that perhaps another woman wouldn’t do, it must be because a man influenced us in our decision? For god’s sake, can we not give ourselves some credit? We need to face the fact that some women actually want to pose provocatively for the cameras, for whatever reasons, while other women find it repulsive. For those in the latter category, it is not your place to tell these women what they can and can’t do, particularly those intellectuals from Cambridge who actually might have made an informed decision. For those in the former, you need to take responsibility for your actions and try not to pass it off as someone else’s mistake.
I find it a real shame that the integrity of women has been undermined, not by other women taking off their kit, but by those women who think that they shouldn’t even be given the opportunity to. By those women who believe the models have been coerced by much more powerful, influential men than themselves (three of the richest students in Cambridge my arse).
I find it a real shame that these women feel so powerless in combating the real feminist issues within Cambridge that they attack a student run tabloid paper and the men and women who have worked hard to make it happen – but then again, I suppose it’s easier to tackle the little people than it is the establishment.
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Read closer: Davis isn’t saying that women taking their clothes off for a publication is intrinsically wrong. Davis’ argument is that the Tab removing the Tab Totty photo in the wake of media criticism and then ALMOST IMMEDIATELY putting up a “smashing sexism with my smashing boobs!” piece smells fishy… very fishy. The Guardian article isn’t condemning women for taking their clothes off, it’s comdemning the Tab’s cynical exercise in revisionism.
Why not stick by your guns and keep the pictures up? And if you had to take them down, why not put up a public statement explaining why, instead of (as far as I can tell) only ever addressing it in the comments section of a single article? And if the only issue at stake was the original model being uncomfortable with the pictures, why the Heidi-Hi photographs?
You’re telling me that in the same week that the Guardian covers The Tab and finds Tab Totty, only for it to be criticized online, Tab Totty not only gets taken down but is REPLACED by a high-kicking feminist who claims that taking your clothes off is okay? Sounds way too convenient.
I quote Davis: “I’m sure it felt like a strategic move at the time, but in reality it’s an embarrassingly clumsy move”. Clumsy and hamfisted? Sounds just like a tabloid. In that case, carry on, Tab, you’re doing well.
Lizzie, as elsewhere has suggested the original tab totty model requested that the pictures of her be taken down after receiving a call from the Guardian. Presumably she did not want to get caught up in this media storm, the TAB editors have merely done as she requested. The Heidi-Hi article was planned as the next in a series of shoots and perhaps the other recent articles by Katy King and George Osborn shed light on this.
No, Davis is not saying that – nor did I say that she did. She did however imply that ‘the pink bikinid model’ had been influenced against her wishes, and I quote the following:
“At least the original pink-bikinied model will be pleased. When I contacted her to talk about her experience, she said that she’d agreed to do the photos as a “favour for a friend” but the whole thing was “so embarrassing” she’d asked them to take the pictures down.”
This quote makes the editors appear manipulative, and the young woman in question appear naive and mis-guided.
Further, as my article states, I am not just attacking Miss Davis’ article, but also the comments that have accompanied it:
” I am not surprised but disapointed these three cambridge guys have chosen to try and make bucks out of the exploiting their friend into posing for something like this (the original model).
From the comments she’s made it seems pretty clear this wasn’t what she wanted but that didn’t seem to bother them. I find that repellant.
As a former CUSU women’s officer this brings back a lot of memories. Elements of the Cambridge lad culture can make for pretty unpleasant situations like this and it’s not new.”
This is simply ridiculous – again, someone else undermining womens’ intelligence and autonomy. The young woman only asked for her pictures to be taken down once she’d spoken to Rowenna Davis (as Miss Davis makes clear in her first article), but the fact is the young woman still posed for the photos; the underwear she is wearing is her own and she CHOSE to wear it – if anyone can find any evidence of coercion I would love to be made aware of it.
The point is, naked students are a distraction to the real issues at play – as Heidi states, as Hannah Perry states, as Katy King states, even as Rowenna states. It seems we’re all making the same argument – that female fellows SHOULD be paid the same wages as males; that women SHOULD be awarded the same full blue status as men – but this is not acheived by a minority of women saying whats best for everyone, and making out like we, as women, are weak and powerless and need to be guided by those who know better (for example, the CUSU womens officer fighting to have such nude publications banned).
The fact is the Tab is being made a scapegoat, and I personally do not think this is the way to go about raising the profile of female equality – as Hannah states ‘you are alienating’ quite a large demographic of the student body of Cambridge.
We can talk about what Davis ‘implied’ all night long, but the fact is that she quoted directly from the model. I didn’t think that quote made the editors came off as manipulative or the model as naive, but obviously interpretations differ. I think we can all agree that portraying women who choose to model nude as naive is terrible, but that’s not all Davis is saying (the commentators on the other hand are a mixed bag).
So what if Hedi-hi was always going to appear after Tab Totty? So what if the original Tab Totty wanted to take the photos down? No official explanation is being given (I’m still waiting for a proper article by the editors explaining the photos being taken down – so far, the only acknowledgement is in the comments, and what editor seriously tries to justify their decisions in the comments page?) No reader is subject to the internal editorial decisions of any newspaper. We’d just have seen it as a ‘kickboxing feminist in a sports bra says posing naked is okay’ Totty following a ‘a Page 3 girl in stripper shoes in a punt minus all the commentary, let’s just look at how hot she is’ Totty. The tone of both Totty pieces, positioned one after the other, just seems really contradictory.
What I’m saying and what Davis is also saying is that the editorial team made a poor series of decisions regarding the timing and the tone of the Tab Totty series. There are now way too many articles on the defending the nude photos and saying “everybody else is missing the point, what’s really at stake is female equality and equal pay omg!!!!”. It makes the Tab come off as incredibly defensive. You’re not being made a ‘scapegoat’, but you’re acting like one. The Guardian and other media outlets get the shit ripped out of them every day online, but you don’t see billions of articles posted in rapid succession trying to defend their every action. Suck it up and be professioal – that’s what the Tab is trying to be, right?
It IS sad that it takes a naked photoshoot to talk about female equality, but that’s exactly what the Tab is doing – would it even have raised the issue of inequal pay for women if it hadn’t been criticised over the nude photos? Plus, there isn’t any reason we can’t talk about the possible sexist implications of both the Tab totty photos and inequal pay for women – the former isn’t a ‘distraction’ from the real issues, it’s part of the wider debate over sexism in the University. Who are you to judge what is or isn’t a ‘legitimate’ women’s issue? When a woman can pose nude without all the comments and all the people rushing up to condemn or defend her, then that’s a sign that it’s not a real issue. But obviously, we’re not in that position.
Ok, I’m going to do my essay now.
My actual essay, I mean. I should probably just email that to my supervisor and say that was what I was doing all night.
this is absolutely laughable..
the womens union can cry all they want, it wont change the fact…
women can and do use their sexual powers to get jobs or their way.. they use and manipulate men and women to get what they want. the realise in the real world that their sexuality has power and a lot of it. and they are not ashamed to use it at all..
i have no problem with women wanting equal pay and status.. but that is a two way street.. women want equal status they get equally punished for mistakes. same punishment level for both. but yet this does not happen and the womens movements frown and discourage this. or when marriages break down and both are working, he the man has to pay her alamony.. i ask you why.. its equal world right…???? but no when it comes to $$$ womens movement, the courts and even the women themselves back pedal..
also the womens movement has done something.. it hasnt freed women as they expected.. but removed teh responsibility from men. men are freerer now then they were 30 years ago (eg, couple has baby, man can pack up and go and no questions… she can not do the same…or another one a women can simply call rape and the world jumps to her aid… and this occures when there was no rape (and its been proven) and yet there is no punishment for her, yet the accused live with the damage done for the rest of there lives… its also removed the respect and taking responsibility from men..
while i find it great women are in the millitary, they should not be front line soldiers. this is dangerous for women. and if captured by the enemy, they will rape her and use sex to break her, and in times of war the geneva conventions mean squat.. it only means something to the victorious or winning side. we are wired to respond to certain things differently, and a women being assualted daily will lead to a break down.. so no women should not be front line soldiers..
Hi ,
I have just read about this in Australia and then imediatly went to “THE TAB” website , so firstly good job on getting world wide publisity
Secondly , i totaly agree with the person that has made the comment above , Woman have a choice in this day and age and if the union are that Draconian that they think that they have the right to tell woman what they can and can’t do then it is them themselves that are being prejudges.
.
Just like many years ago when woman were not allowed to vote , oppressed by men , but now woman are being oppressed by other woman and eventually there will be an uprising just like when they burned there bras and I say bring it on
Good work guys and all the best from Australia (although I’m English through and through)
Dave
@ Derek juniper
"women can and do use their sexual powers to get jobs or their way.. "
Wow, really? I thought the problem was that women were being discriminated against because of their gender. You watch way too much Mad Men. Or am I crediting you with too much taste?
"r another one a women can simply call rape and the world jumps to her aid… and this occures when there was no rape (and its been proven) and yet there is no punishment for her, yet the accused live with the damage done for the rest of there lives"
Okay, this is just stupid and factually untrue. Britain has the lowest rape conviction in Europe, and while some of it stems from the incredibly difficult and emotionally exhausting (for the victim) trial process, it is also because judges are reluctant to "damage" the accused and tar them.
"and yet there is no punishment for her" – what, if she's been lying in court? I think you'll find that that's called perjury, and it actually is a punishable offence.
"if captured by the enemy, they will rape her and use sex to break her [...] a women being assualted daily will lead to a break down.. so no women should not be front line soldiers.. "
I'm sure prisoners at Guantanamo would beg to disagree. Sex is used to break male prisoners too. It's not a matter of gender – torture can cause anybody, male and female, to break down.
Congratulations, Tab, you've finally got the moronic, facile commentators you've wanted. The comment boards now look like the Daily Mail threw up on them. Hey, all in the spirit of intelligent debate, right?
And seriously, people need to get it right – the Cambridge Students' Union aren't trying to shut the Tab down, so they're not being draconian. They're merely expressing a distaste for it, which I figure, in the spirit of free speech and expression which everybody here is seems so keen on, they're perfectly entitled to.