British Supermarkets Could Face Sexual Harassment Complaints Over Lads' Mags

Here's the latest in the ayatollah feminists' campaign to ban men's magazines in Britain, at the Guardian UK, "Lose the lads' mags or risk legal action, say lawyers" (via Memeorandum).

As I always say, the more progressives harass and intimidate over babe blogging (and Page 3 girls) the harder I'll be hitting the Rule 5.

From Toby Young, "First they came for the lads' mags… then they came for me" (via Memeorandum):

Today's Guardian contains more proof, if proof were needed, that Harriet Harman's Equality Act poses a direct threat to free speech. It has published a letter from 11 lawyers, including a QC, threatening supermarkets with legal action unless lads' mags are immediately withdrawn from sale. "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," it says. "Similarly, exposing customers to these publications in the process of displaying them is capable of giving rise to breaches of the Equality Act."

The letter is written in support of Lose the Lads' Mags, a campaign that's been launched by UK Feminista and Object, two Left-wing lobby groups with a history of opposing free speech. Indeed, Object was one of four "women's groups" to submit evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and was instrumental in persuading Lord Leveson to recommend that the new press regulator be empowered to investigate third party complaints "from representative women's groups", i.e. groups like UK Feminista and Object. (The basis on which a handful of Left-wing feminists claim to be "representing" half the human race remains unclear, though Leveson appears to have taken that claim at face value.) I blogged about the danger this posed to free speech here.

UK Feminista and Object assert that lads' mags "harm" women – a claim also made by those who want to ban Page 3 like Harriet Harman. In an article in today's Guardian pegged to the lawyers' letter, the founder of UK Femnista describes lads' mags as "deeply harmful" to women. Sophie Bennett, the Campaigns' Officer of Object, spells out in detail what form this "harm" takes:

Lads' mags dehumanise and objectify women, promoting harmful attitudes that underpin discrimination and violence against women and girls. 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.

Continue reading.

Violence against women in Britain has actually declined at the same time that access to lads' mags has increased. Protecting women isn't why the radical feminists are pushing this. The left wants to suppress speech it disagrees with, and giving people agency over what shops they frequent and what they read goes against the left's program to criminalize thought that deviates from the so-called progressive agenda.

More at Guardian UK, "Supermarkets could face harassment complaints over lads' mags, say lawyers."

IMAGE CREDIT: Laura'Jane Hollyman on Twitter.