Where “Peace And Tranquility” = Wet T-Shirt Contest
Posted by Clem Bastow on July 7, 2008
Through starting The Dawn Chorus, I have come to the realisation that the Travel section of many Australian newspapers is where the worst examples of sexist photo selection hide – who would’ve thought, eh?
The latest example is this piece from The Age/Sun-Herald (sent in by reader billyjoebob) from a week or so ago on Koh Samui; the article, ‘Leisure island’, by Isobel King, takes in the Fisherman’s Village, cooking courses, local wildlife, elephant treks and the local health and beauty spa. It follows, then, that the image illustrating the piece should be a picture of a woman draped alluringly in a wet sheet:
There is no mention of whether or not this is King herself, so I think we can assume it isn’t – and while I’m happy to be proven wrong on that front, why this pic? Why not the elephant treks? The 12-metre high Buddha statue? Fisherman’s Village? A shot of the beach, or the rainforest? Anything other than an anonymous woman’s nearly naked form?
audrey apple said
The Age doesn’t exactly have a stellar reputation for their accompanying photographs. Remember the article about the sommeliers back in February?
They never did explain why the only woman featured needed to be nude…
Clem Bastow said
Yes! I remember sending that to Feministing; all I could come up with to sum up the image was the incredibly witty “uh…”
audrey apple said
Oh that was you who sent them the link! Have to say as well, I love that you guys have started The Dawn Chorus…
audrey apple said
And am clearly geeking it up big style by trawling through the posts so far and joining in the rants.
Clem Bastow said
Do it. I’m all about commenting on age-old blog posts, all over the internets.
Anyway, it’s only been a week, so geek away!
Mel Campbell said
I got a Humourless Feminist™ letter published in The Age about that.