Thursday, 17 September 2009

Fun Online Poll: Pornography in the workplace

That Fawcett Society "report" claims that “While the days when it was deemed acceptable to hang ‘girly calendars’ on office walls may be long gone, the presence of degrading imagery of women in UK workplaces has never been more endemic. Pornographic lads’ mags are openly displayed in over 50,000 retail shops – each one of them somebody’s workplace. But displaying these magazines in this way is in violation of the Sex Discrimination Act, so it is crucial that retail employers cover up pornographic newspapers and lads’ mags and place them on the top shelf."

Being a boring sort of chap, I have spent most of my working life as an accountant and have never seen 'girly calendars' (which they seem to consider to be pornography) on display in the office or at clients' premises, but that's probably not a representative sample.

So that's the topic of this week's Fun Online Poll. I've added "I work in a shop that sells "lads' mag's" as a middle option between "Yes" and "No" as this seems to be the only tangible evidence they have that "the presence of degrading imagery of women in UK workplaces has never been more endemic". And don't ask me to define 'pornography', if you think it is, then it is, and if you think it isn't, then it isn't, I suppose.

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

10 comments:

JuliaM said...

There's no button for 'No, but I wish...'

BTS said...

Julia beat me to it.

Now how does this interweb thingy work again..?

Lester Taylor said...

I dislike porn...and unfaithfulness.

Why have a burger out when you have a rib eye steak at home?

AntiCitizenOne said...

It's better to just avoid employing anyone who might be offended.

James Higham said...

AntiCit might have a point there.

Mark Wadsworth said...

JM, my personal definition of pornography is "something you would prefer to look at when you're in private". But maybe it's different for women.

BTS, I don't know either.

EV, that is the most outrageously degrading-to-women remark ever! How can you compare them to meat?

AC1, exactly, which reminds me of this story. No disrespect to Sikhs or anything, but couldn't they have weeded him out (pun intended) at the interview stage?

JH, see link above.

Anonymous said...

You seem to think that only men look at porn.
And that women should have no free choice in what they pose for.

silicone breast implants said...

Anti social element do this job. I dislike this kind for things.

JuliaM said...

"...hich reminds me of this story. No disrespect to Sikhs or anything, but couldn't they have weeded him out (pun intended) at the interview stage? "

This one's an odd one. He isn't the only Sikh in the police, surely?

Yet, none of the others have complained.

Ross said...

I'm guessing that most of those voting yes will be home workers.