Message to Melinda Tankard Reist

I think the point you are missing Ms Tankard Reist, is that no one is forcing the girls to do this job. In a near full employment economy most of them will have other options. They have CHOSEN this line of work.

Now do I personally think it is a wise choice? Nope.

Would I be upset if, say, my daughter chose this line of work? Yep.

What do I think of men who would frequent "Lynx Lodge"? I think they're twerps.

But in the end the men and the girls have the right to ignore my opinions. And yours.

On the other hand why not organise a boycott of Unilever products? If enought women stopped buying Bertolli pasta or Omo my guess is that Unilever would drop "Lynx Lodge" like a hot potato.

No Steven I do not think you understand the article. The horrible sexism that Melinda describes is making some men into leering idiots and creating a really offensive public space for many women (and probably men too).

There has been a massive increase in really horrible and dismissive portrayals of women and the rise of the violent porn culture makes me wonder what is really going on. Are men feeling trapped or under stress at work or something and that is why they need to have this weird and violent bolster to their "masculinity"?

I am really glad that the article says that people are fighting back against this.

Melinda, I look forward to your next article, in which you fulminate against ads that portray men as either clueless idiots or super-buffed Adonises.

Women are genetically and hormonally wired to infinite consumption on a finite planet. Women sexualise themselves to get onto "EASY-STREET" with or WITHOUT any assistance from men or anyone else.

Both men and women of intelligence will not raise a finger to save them from their own selfishness & excesses. Governments and corporations who encourage this excess (breeding for profit and consumption for pleasure) in women as a way to get more votes, bigger nations and more profits are equally guilty and equally prone to debasement and destruction.

This is a matter of survival, not sexism. Survival is and must be our prime concern as this planet approaches 9 billion souls with not enough fuel and food to sustain us all at our desired standard of living. RESPONSIBILITY for the lifetime of environmental destruction caused by YOUR children is the ISSUE, not sexism. And the cry that it takes two to make a child does not wash anymore for men now KNOW that ONLY ONE person (a woman) ever really decides to have a child because

"You don't have to make love to have a child and you don't have to have a child to make love"

The Author needs to get her mind above her navel & think about the extinction of lesser species with every child women have that is just a token of their supremacy as some god-damned self proclaimed separate species!.

Doesn't this woman have anything else to do, preferable something worthwhile.

If she is going to continue to squirt out these pieces, it would be nice if someone would take her in hand, & turn her mind onto something worth writing about.

I'm a horseman. I used to travel quite a bit towing horse floats of my, or my kids horses. One of my greatest hates is poor drivers towing horse floats, holding up streams of cars, with no thought of courtesy for other road users, or the ill will they were creating for other horse float users.

If I were a lady, I would be most annoyed at the ill will towards women in general, these pointlessly bitching articles of this woman generate for the gender.

Egad Melinda.

There are so many worthwhile examples of sexism in society.

You could be talking about the fact that women still do the majority of the housework.

You could be talking about the fact that women still comprise a small minority of board positions, and the number of female CEOs is smaller still.

You could talk about the difficulties of obtaining affordable childcare in Australia.

Instead, you continually focus on the issue of sex, with the prevailing attitude that any hint of sexuality is wrong.

Women are sex objects - as are men. The key is that they are not 'only' sex objects.
But people have the right to show that side of themselves if they wish. Whilst this kind of advertising isn't the most sophisticated kind, these people do have the right to do it.

And if you were attempting to strip away that right, I'd argue you're no feminist at all, quite the opposite.