http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/09/20/comment-why-demise-zoo-weekly-magazine-notriumph-feminism
20 SEP 2015 - 7:15PM
Comment: Why the demise of Zoo
Weekly magazine is no triumph for
feminism
(Zoo Weekly magazine)
Zoo Weekly’s demise is not a scalp for the feminist movement. It’s a sign of
the enormous shifts that have taken place in how and where young people
consume their media.
By
Catharine Lumby
20 SEP 2015 - 2:56 PM UPDATED 20 SEP 2015 - 7:15 PM
Who will miss Zoo Weekly, which Bauer Media announced on Thursday would close due to “tough retail
conditions in the men’s market”? Well not teenage boys, according to some recent focus groups I had the
privilege of conducting in Australian high schools.
Young men don’t read magazines anymore. Though a bunch of younger ones were so fascinated by the
Dolly magazine I passed around that I had to grab it out of their hands. “Dude,” said one, “This is an
awesome insight into what chicks think”.
Dolly, of course, specialises in talking about what young women think, feel and need. Zoo specialised in
bizarre anatomy – and I’m not just talking about the photos of people with odd shark-inflicted injuries. The
breasts were way weirder.
But now we have this thing called the Internet, with plenty of breasts of all sorts and enough gross-out
comedy to keep an entire planet of teenage boys happy.
So what do we make of the demise of Zoo? Is it a sign of the Feminist
Apocalypse?
Some feminists have spent a lot of time and breath campaigning against lad magazines, most recently with
Collective Shout lobbying Woolworths and Coles to #BinZooMag. I understand why they have. But I don’t
see the point.
Men – or at least straight men – are obsessed with breasts. It might be something to do with being fed by
breasts at an early age. Which makes it even stranger that some of the same men freak out at the sight of
a woman breastfeeding in public while they browse newspaper stands full of – well – breasts.
So what do we make of the demise of Zoo? Is it a sign of the Feminist Apocalypse? And should feminists
make a big deal about media selling women’s bodies to teenage boys?
As a mother of two teenage boys myself I hedge my bets. I have a strict policy of lecturing them about
women’s rights over dinner and then leaving them to roam the internet afterwards.
The boys in the focus groups I conducted were very clear that saying
something outrageous or politically incorrect didn’t mean they had
boofhead views in reality.
The real frisson Zoo offered young men was the opportunity to escape and thumb their nose at women like
me. Bossy, educated women who tell them to stop looking at breasts and start doing their maths
homework.
Zoo, like Ralph, and a host of other lad mags spawned in the UK in the 1990s, was satirical about its own
existence. Like People and Picture before it on the Australian magazine scene, Zoo made fun of its own
nonsense.
Best magazine coverline ever? Picture magazine’s: “The News Without Underpants”. The writers and
editors at these kind of publications never took themselves or their readers seriously.
Zoo was the same – it printed outrageous nonsense and cheesecake shots of girls with large breasts with a
large wink and a nod towards young male readers. The tastelessness of the magazine – so often decried
by commentators – was its stock in trade. It’s mirrored the conversations that the younger male readers
have in the playground or at the footy.
As my colleague Professor Alan McKee discovered, when he conducted research into how to get good
quality information about safe and consensual sex to teenage boys, gross out humour is their preferred
medium.
The boys in the focus groups I conducted were very clear that saying something outrageous or politically
incorrect didn’t mean they had boofhead views in reality. Over and over they made the point that there was
an enormous difference between how some media, including pornography, portrayed women and how they
saw and treated real women.
I found no evidence that teenage boys – or girls for that matter – are being brainwashed by popular media
into regressive ideas about gender. On the contrary, both groups spoke out about the double standards
surrounding boys and girls, which they saw as emanating primarily from the world around them and to
which they largely objected.
Zoo Weekly’s demise is not a scalp for the feminist movement. It’s a sign of the enormous shifts that have
taken place in how and where young people consume their media.
As a feminist myself, I think women would accomplish a lot more if we quit lecturing teenage boys and
started listening to what they have to say.
Catharine Lumby is a Professor Media at Macquarie University. She researches and writes on young
people, sex, gender and social media.