Australian Softcore Magazines Shutter In Response To Protests

The end of an era in Australian softcore porn has arrived, as two of the country’s most popular magazines that feature photo layouts of scantily-clad models, often with highly suggestive headlines, announced that they would cease publication by the end of 2019, according to the Australian news site News.com.au. The closures came after protests from an activist group known as Collective Shout, which describes itself as “a grassroots campaigns movement against the objectification of women and the sexualization of girls.” In response to the protests, two of Australia’s largest convenience store chains, 7-11 and BP, agreed to discontinue sales of the Bauer Media Group “lad mags” The Picture and People. (The softcore porn People is not to be confused with the U.S.-based celebrity magazine of the same name, which is published by Meredith Corporation. The Australian edition of the celebrity People magazine is titled Who.)  The activist group objected in particular to a recent edition of The Picture which advertised itself on its cover as “Better than Viagra.” The magazine also featured a cover image of a woman in pigtails with the caption, “I have no gag reflex,” according to a Daily Mail report.  The group also noted the magazines’ depiction of “nurses as sexually available to male patients,” and photo spreads “focused on sexual features of female tennis players.” The Australian People has published continuously since 1950, according to a report by The Guardian newspaper.  After the convenience store chains dropped the magazines, sales plummeted, forcing the German-based Bauer to announce the closures of the two publications. “The magazines have lost ranging, which has affected their commercial viability,” a Bauer spokesperson told The Guardian. “Ranging” is industry jargon for a magazine’s level of visibility on newsstands. Australia employs a magazine rating system similar to the movie and TV ratings used in the United States. “X” rated magazines featuring explicit sex may be sold only in adult bookstores. The two soon-to-close magazines were rated “M+,” which meant that they were intended for mature readers, but their exhibition in retail outlets was not restricted. Photo By Vulphere / Wikimedia Commons