Cycling Magazine Admits Its Sexist Photo Caption Was Totally 'Idiotic'
A stupidly sexist photo caption has deservedly landed a British cycling magazine in hot water.
Cycling Weekly’s editor Simon Richardson was forced to apologize on Thursday after the publication printed the words “token attractive woman” next to the image of a woman wearing cycling attire in its latest issue.
So my cycling club made it into @cyclingweekly and this happened. I hope @cyclingweekly apologise. Still a lot of equality work to do it. pic.twitter.com/bdSGsYMDlW
— Carlos Fandango (@Chapeau_Velo) August 31, 2017
Richardson blamed an unidentified copy editor for typing out the “idiotic” caption.
He claimed his team then failed to pick up on its inclusion “in the rush” of sending the edition to print.
The caption was “neither funny nor representative of the way we feel or approach our work,” Richardson said via a statement the magazine shared on Twitter.
— Cycling Weekly (@cyclingweekly) August 31, 2017
“This appalling lack of judgment by an individual is just that, and not a reflection of the culture in the CW office,” he added.
But despite Richardson’s “unreserved” apology, many readers remained furious over the incident ― with one commenting that the caption “shouldn’t have been there in the first place, even in draft format.”
this happened because there must be culture of misogyny...? To truly redress it - why not go profile more women cycling pls?
— Yasmin A. Choudhury (@yasminisyasmin) September 1, 2017
Was the editor implying that most female cyclists are unattractive?
— Vinny Virgo 🌹 (@VinnyVirgo420) September 1, 2017
We've all made mistakes but fact these words were ever inserted shows underlying culture of misogyny.
— justinelee (@CRTJustine) September 1, 2017
An apology isn't really adequate - something about your culture conveyed this to be acceptable. How will you prevent this happening again?
— Joanna Melville (@JoannaMelville) September 1, 2017
Caption shouldn't have been there in the first place, even in draft format.
— MollyDogAndMe (@MollyDogAndMe) September 1, 2017
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
