Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Bewbs

I know I've probably brought this up a few too many times, but it bears repeating: theage.com.au, the website of one of the more respected broadsheets in the country, cannot seem to stop posting pictures of scantily-clad women. And it's becoming more shameless.
A survey of women about breastfeeding in public on their "catering to bored mums" site essentialbaby.com.au (as opposed to ... the other kind? The expendable, non-essential tykes?) ran with the title "Breastfeeding in public: do you?" and this picture:



Fair enough? Sure. Breastfeeding. No problem.
The link to this survey from another page contained a little image with it, you know: to catch the eye and illustrate the nature of story.

This image, of course:


Did you even read the last few sentences?
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5 comments:

  1. ShippyTuesday, February 16, 2010 at 2:28:00 PM PST

    hmmmm... Bewbs.

    Franzy what's your problem!!! Let them publish as many as they like!!!

    It's all good in my books.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kath LockettTuesday, February 16, 2010 at 4:51:00 PM PST

    Hmmm. I can't say that the boobies issue has worried me greatly, dear Franz but The Age has published some photos that have been dodgy at best and mean-spirited at worst.

    Lord Monckton is an insane and bitter old bugger, but they published a close-up of his googly Marty Feldman eyes which wasn't cricket. When Serena Williams beat Casey Delacqua (sp?) in the Aussie Open, the photo was of Ms William's arse, revealed as her skirt flipped up. No line underneath saying, "Serena serving the match-winning ace", just a photo selected to humiliate her.

    ReplyDelete
  3. franzyTuesday, February 16, 2010 at 7:45:00 PM PST

    Shippy - You'll notice I'm publishing more these days!

    Kath - I don't know. It's that tedious sexualisation of breastfeeding that gives me the shits. Not even the shits, I just can't get over the irony of advertising a website that purports to be on the side of breastfeeding mothers, (who, I presume (perhaps foolishly), don't want to be seen as sex objects when they're trying to feed the kid), with tits-only photos designed for exactly that purpose!

    It's like advertising a gun-control website with pictures of Rambo.

    ReplyDelete
  4. RiverWednesday, February 17, 2010 at 1:52:00 AM PST

    Of course I read the sentences, I'm not at all distracted by bewbs, or boobs either for that matter.
    I have no problem with breast feeding either. Anywhere, anytime. Kid needs lunch? Kid gets lunch. So what?

    ReplyDelete
  5. RiverWednesday, February 17, 2010 at 1:55:00 AM PST

    p.S.Maybe The Age should stick to real news instead of chasing sales through publicity based hoo-ha type articles.

    ReplyDelete

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An explanation of The Joy Division Litmus Test

Although it may now be lost in the mysts of thyme, the poll below is still relevant to this blog. In the winter of 2008, Mele and I went to live in Queensland. In order to survive, I bluffed my way into a job at a Coffee Club.
It was quite a reasonable place to work: the hours were regular, the staff were quite nice, it wasn't particularly taxing on my brain.
There were a few downsides: In the six weeks or so that I worked there, there was about a 90% staff turnover (contributed to by my leaving). This wasn't seen as a result of the low pay, the laughability of staff prices or the practice of not distributing tips to staff, rather it was blamed on the lack of work ethic among Bribie Island's youth.
However, one of the stranger aspects of the cultural isolation that touched our lives during our time "up there" was the fact that nobody at my work had heard of the band Joy Division.
The full explanation is available here.
But please, interact a little further and vote in my ongoing poll. The results are slowly mounting up, proving one thing: people read this blog are more well-informed about Joy Division than anyone who works at the Coffee Club on Bribie Island.

Have you heard of the band Joy Division?

Chinese food, not Chinese Internet!

Champions of Guess The Header

  • What is Guess The Header about? Let’s ask regular “Writing” reader, Shippy: "Anyway, after Franzy's stunning September, and having a crack at 'Guess The Header' for the first time - without truly knowing what I was doing mind you - I think I finally understand what 'GTH' is all about. At first I thought you needed to actually know what it was. Don't get me wrong — if you know what it is, it may help you. I now realise that it's more Franzy's way of invoking thought around an image or, more often than not, part of an image. If you dissect slightly the GTH explanatory sentence at the bottom of his blog you come up with this: “The photo is always taken by me and always connects in some way to the topic of the blog entry it heads up.” When the header is put up, the blog below it will in some obscure way have something to do with it. “Interesting comments are judged and scored arbitrarily and the process is open to corruption and bribery with all correspondence being entered into after the fact and on into eternity, ad infinitum amen.” Franzy judges it, but it's not always the GTH that describes the place perfectly that gets it. “The frequent commenters, the wits, the wags and the outright smartarses who, each entry, engage to both guess the origin and relevance of the strip of photo at the top (or “head”) of each new blog and also who leave what I deem the most interesting comment.” It generally helps if you're a complete smartarse and can twist things to mean whatever you feel they should mean - exactly the way Franzy would like things to be twisted." - Shippy Blogger and GTH point scorer.
  • Nai - 1
  • Lion Kinsman - 2
  • Will - 2
  • Brocky - 2
  • Andy Pants - 2
  • The 327th Male - 3
  • Mad Cat Lady - 3
  • Miles McClagen - 4
  • Myninjacockle - 4
  • Asheligh - 5
  • Neil - 5
  • Third Cat - 5
  • Adam Y - 6
  • Squib - 6
  • Mele - 6
  • Moifey - 7
  • Jono - 8
  • The Other, other Sam - 14
  • Kath Lockett - 15
  • Shippy - 19
  • River - 32