Skin Mags? Not at This Department (Condi and State Dept)

[TomInTib]

BUT DO NOT MESS WITH THE BEST SELLERS! Got it?


Foreign Affairs, the Economist, and certainly U.S.News & World Report are titles you'd expect to see at the two State Department newsstands visited by the public, employees, and their kids, but Playboy and Penthouse? Yikes! Or so thought Condoleezza Rice a while back when she began receiving briefings in Foggy Bottom before her confirmation hearings as secretary of state. Alerted by an aide that the skin magazines, partially clad in brown paper covers, were placed beside newsmagazines and close to candy, nuts, and stuffed animals, she said, "I want them out."

A few weeks later, when she took over from Colin Powell, the eviction began. "The secretary wanted them gone immediately," says senior adviser Jim Wilkinson." She didn't understand how a department that claimed to fight for the rights of women worldwide could sell pornography that degrades women." And, he adds, the magazines "could be seen as contributing to a hostile work environment." He teamed with State's internal manager and several State women who had been campaigning against the publications but had gotten nowhere. Now that they have succeeded, some of those women are eyeing other lad mags like Maxim and FHM. But State News's Richard Williams isn't listening. It was no problem banning the XXX fare: It didn't move very fast. "But Maxim," he says, "is a bestseller."

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/articles/060410/10whisplead.htm

[SoCalDem]

1. Actually, I have no problem with this..

"Skin" magazines have NO place in a "workplace".. It's not as if these magazines cannot be sold or found elsewhere.

It's rather disconcerting to think that people who work at the State Department are or could be reading that stuff at work. If they want to read that at home, I have no problem with it, but an integrated workplace is not the place for "skin" magazines.

[Atman]

3. Agreed

I have no problem with "girly" mags, although even lumping Playboy and Penthouse is a stretch these days. Penthouse isn't a nudie mag anymore, it is full on hardcore pornography, while Playboy is still pretty tame. But neither of them belong in a work place.

[TomInTib]

4. I fully agree. My point in making the post was they are keeping

the "best sellers". Penthouse and Playboy weren't selling well, so no one cared.

Time for a little confession here.
I used to fly a lot on business. I absolutely cannot stand to spend four hours sitting next to certain types of people.

The Hustler in my briefcase worked every time. I never had to say a word.

[SoCalDem]

6. You reminded me of a funny story from my youth.

I visited my cousin for the summer when I was about 15.. She was 17 and a knock out. She rode the bus in Miami all the time, and "dirty old men" would always hit on her..She told me how to stop them from staring.. If a guy was ogling her and acted like he might sit next to her, she would pick her nose:)

We laughed and laughed at that tactic, but it really worked..

[TomInTib]

8. Here is another one.

I am now and always have been a musician.

Quit cutting my hair the night I saw the Beatles on Sullivan, which caused quite a stir in rural East Texas.

In public, I would invariably be heckled by some cracker with his family in tow.

"Hey, look at that! Is that a boy or a girl?"

My retort worked every time and only resulted in a couple of fights.

"Why don't you suck my **** and find out?"

I still feel no guilt about saying that in front of those fools' wives and kids.

[sproutster]

2. Jeeze, I bought the first edition of Maxim...

It's a cosmo for men.

I bought it coz it was talking about swiss bank accounts and interesting stuff. LOL, and yes I got chit from my male friends for buying it all that year.

I fully believe if you want to get rid of Maxim, then get rid of Cosmo.

Hehe, Maxim even had a "health" article in the early days. What happens when a ...male genitalia hits the bone near the female genitalia. Flipping scary. *shudder*

[LostinVA]

9. Maxim is a lad's mag with 97% nekkid women... Cosmo doesn't do that

They have a lot of sex/relationship-related text, but don't do just-this-side-of-a-skin-mag centerfolds... or so my straight friends just told me.

[Iris]

10. so? what does happen

when male genitalia hits the bone near the female genitalia? I mean, one's skin and one's bone so I'm assuming it's uncomfortable for the guy?

[Neil Lisst]

5. Call The Guiness Book of Records! Finally, I agree with her on something!

There's a time and a place for such mags, and that wasn't the place.

[onehandle]

7. This is the business of the Secretary of State?

I guess it's a few less minutes of her destroying our relationships with the world.

Next I guess she'll be covering the breasts of statues with drapes.

Our tax dollars at work with the Republican party.