"Token Attractive Woman"

[Karla]

Oh dear, Cycling Weekly!



BBC: "Cycling Weekly sorry for 'token attractive woman' caption"
Graun: "Cycling magazine apologises over 'token woman' picture caption "
Indy: "Cycling Weekly apologises after printing sexist picture caption that read 'token attractive woman' next to female cyclist"
Evening Standard: "Cycling Weekly forced to apologise over 'token attractive woman' caption"
Wail: "Rider is ‘gutted and disappointed’ after Cycling Weekly publishes her photograph with the caption ‘token attractive woman’ "
Scum: "WHEELY STUPID Cycling Weekly magazine forced to apologise after ‘idiotic’ picture caption calls female cyclist ‘token attractive woman’"


It looks to me like someone put this in as a placeholder while they thought of something better, then forgot to take it out.  Oops!

[mattc]

oh dear indeed!


(but isn't this just exactly what 90% of main-stream media does? They just made the mistake of getting caught! )

[trekker12]

If that is the case - and it's still pretty stupid if it is - does no one proof read anything anymore? It's not like it's buried in the text of the article, it's a bit more obvious than that.

[Kim]

It looks to me like someone put this in as a placeholder while they thought of something better, then forgot to take it out.  Oops!

Agreed.  Which is why you should always use inoffensive placeholders like "[insert caption]" "[cyclists's name]" or whatever rather than the above, or the now legendary "[type some shit in here]".  The same goes for populating databases with comdey test data.  It *will* leak out eventually.

On the other hand it means whoever does the layout is at least aware of how women are often represented.  It's a start, I suppose.   

[ian]

You probably all know that I'm the extremely rich web entrepreneur behind ethnicfriends.com (Add a Little Color to Your Annual Report™), the world's leading diversity management service for busy companies that simply don't have the time to deal with promoting ethnic minorities and women.

Anyway, we recently debuted a plugin for InDesign that automatically populates images from our royalty-free diversity bank. Unfortunately, it's still in beta. We'll be working with Cycling Weekly to address the problem of lingering comment fields before we launch the full service.

Thanks for your patience.

[mattc]

 

[Ripio]

It's still there in their Readly online edition too, you'd think they would be able to change it fairly quickly in an online version?

[Aunt Maud]

Too late, The Graun has it and is now inspecting its collective navel.

[ian]

To be fair to the sub, he or she was probably being knowingly ironic. Irony is the element in the nonperiodic table between sarcasmium and satirium. Reacts poorly with the nonhumorous elements.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Just to make it worse, Mrs Cudzo says "She's not even that attractive, just average"!

If that is the case - and it's still pretty stupid if it is - does no one proof read anything anymore? It's not like it's buried in the text of the article, it's a bit more obvious than that.

It probably has to be done at a compressed, hyperspeed rate. Or it might even be done without the photos and captions.

[Polar Bear]

It looks to me like someone put this in as a placeholder while they thought of something better, then forgot to take it out.  Oops!

Agreed.  Which is why you should always use inoffensive placeholders like "[insert caption]" "[cyclists's name]" or whatever rather than the above, or the now legendary "[type some shit in here]".  The same goes for populating databases with comdey test data.  It *will* leak out eventually.

...

Argos once had a towel on their website described as "arse / face towel".

[Kim]

Just to make it worse, Mrs Cudzo says "She's not even that attractive, just average"!

If that is the case - and it's still pretty stupid if it is - does no one proof read anything anymore? It's not like it's buried in the text of the article, it's a bit more obvious than that.

It probably has to be done at a compressed, hyperspeed rate. Or it might even be done without the photos and captions.

Or worse, done by the same person who wrote the text.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Quite frequently been in that situation. But never with anything for publication (as opposed to for a limited, specific readership eg corporate bumf).

[citoyen]

It's still there in their Readly online edition too, you'd think they would be able to change it fairly quickly in an online version?

You might think that, but Readly is a third-party service. Making a new page is trivially easy but getting it up on to Readly will require jumping through several hoops and largely depends on the willingness of the low-level lackey at Readly responsible for maintaining several hundred online magazines to make the effort to change an already published title when it makes no difference to him whether he does it or not.

DAHIKT.

[citoyen]

Or worse, done by the same person who wrote the text.

Unlikely. But in any case, there's no excuse for it getting past the editor.

[ian]

Usually someone would at least soft-proof a final PDF but print publishing is deadline-driven. If an issue has to be with the printers at 3pm then it needs to be there at 3pm. It's not a job I miss (mostly because it was never as civilised an hour as 3pm).

People on Twitter are angry. They're idiots, it's the stuff of stock photography really. Got to hit the quota. That's why ethnicfriends.com is so successful that I fly everywhere in a solid gold helicopter. Of course, our board is very diverse, you should see the cover of our annual report.

In other news, I hear George Osborne is editor of something or other these days. Hopefully his proofing skills are better than his towel folding.

[Cudzoziemiec]

In other news, I hear George Osborne is editor of something or other these days. Hopefully his proofing skills are better than his towel folding.

The proof of the pudding is in the... let's stop there.

[ElyDave]

Usually someone would at least soft-proof a final PDF but print publishing is deadline-driven. If an issue has to be with the printers at 3pm then it needs to be there at 3pm. It's not a job I miss (mostly because it was never as civilised an hour as 3pm).

People on Twitter are angry. They're idiots, it's the stuff of stock photography really. Got to hit the quota. That's why ethnicfriends.com is so successful that I fly everywhere in a solid gold helicopter. Of course, our board is very diverse, you should see the cover of our annual report.

In other news, I hear George Osborne is editor of something or other these days. Hopefully his proofing skills are better than his towel folding.

I think you've been selling a lot to the people who produce our on-line training packages, unless that was Tick Every Box Inc.

[Smeth]

No actual journalism required when all you produce is a padded promo for expensive sportives

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[The Family Cyclist]

I'm guessing like most forms of printed media the number of editors have been cut drastically which leads to things like this.

[Exit Stage Left]

My sympathies are with the editorial team. Someone has provided captions about the other members of what looks like a thriving club. Have they received any information about Hannah?
Those presenting the package should have made sure that there was a balance of detail attached to each picture. In the absence of that, the picture becomes a form of tokenism.
It has however provided a lot of publicity for Hinckley CC.

[fruitcake]

According to a questionable source, it was a member of the sub-editing team who inserted the sexist caption. In other words, he added exactly kind of problem he is supposed to remove.

Editor of the magazine, Simon Richardson, apologised for the caption, blaming an “appalling lack of judgement” from one of his staff. He said: “Unfortunately during the magazine’s production process a member of the sub-editing team decided to write an idiotic caption on a photo of one of the female members of the club."

[Exit Stage Left]

I'm not assuming that the sub-editor is a man. Attractive women get grief from many quarters.

[citoyen]

I'm guessing like most forms of printed media the number of editors have been cut drastically which leads to things like this.

None the less, it remains the editor's responsibility to read every page before it goes to print. Whether he actually does read the pages or not, being signed off for publication implies tacit approval by the editor.

Simon throwing the sub under the bus shows pretty poor judgment on his own part.

[T42]

Actually, the subed is to be lauded for his ironic attack on the expectations of his mag's predominantly male readership, and the manner in which the magazine's policy dictates that it should be pandered to.

Of course, irony didn't work on the Red Guard either.