Friday, July 08, 2016




Must not describe women in a poetic way



A Vanity Fair cover article on Margot Robbie has sparked outrage on Twitter with critics branding the author 'creepy, slimy and lecherous.'

Rich Cohen, a non-fiction writer from Illinois, wrote the profile on the Australian actress. He describes himself as a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone as well as the co-creator of HBO's Vinyl in his Twitter bio.

Titled 'Welcome to the Summer of Margot Robbie', the piece describes the star of summer blockbusters Tarzan and Suicide Squad - who dons a white bikini to grace the magazine’s August issue - at length.

Cohen describes her as ‘beautiful’, ‘a girl next door’ with ‘painfully blue eyes’ and at one point, comparing her to a ‘second-semester freshman.’

Twitter took him to task for the piece, with many blasting Cohen for the way he described Robbie.

Notably, writer Roxane Gay, the New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist, called him out for the article.

Australian actor Josh Lawson blasted Cohen for the 'stomach-churning' way he writes about Robbie and his lack of knowledge of Australia. 

'The @VanityFair piece on Margot Robbie by Rich Cohen is so gross in so many ways,' wrote Lawson on Twitter.

'Clearly written by a man who knows NOTHING about Australia. It's full of things about the country that simply aren't true.'

He added: 'Not to mention the slimy, lecherous, stomach churning way he writes about Margot Robbie. Yuck.

'Hollywood sexism is very clear here as demonstrated by this creepy, ill-informed journalist. And I use that word very, very loosely.

SOURCE 

Here is the "offensive" text:

"She is 26 and beautiful, not in that otherworldly, catwalk way but in a minor knock-around key, a blue mood, a slow dance."

"She is blonde but dark at the roots. She is tall but only with the help of certain shoes. She can be sexy and composed even while naked but only in character."

"She wandered through the room like a second-semester freshman, finally at ease with the system. She stopped at tables along the way to talk to friends. I don’t remember what she was wearing, but it was simple, her hair combed around those painfully blue eyes."

"It was Wolf that defined her. It put her up with Sharon Stone in Casino and Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull — one of Scorsese’s women."

"Robbie grew up in Gold Coast, a city on Australia’s Pacific shore, 500 miles north of Sydney. In an old movie, you might have seen a crossroad sign demonstrating just how isolated it was, just how far from the known capitals."

"Now and then, she stayed with cousins who lived in the hinterland of the hinterland, where there really were kangaroos and a dingo really will eat your baby."

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Politically Correct Liberals can always find something to complain about !

Anonymous said...

Not impressed with the description of Australia in the article. Perhaps the magazine should take a good hard look at they way it handles international relations.

Christina7 said...

It's probably a good idea to look at a map or read Lonely Planet before you make an idiot of yourself. If this author - I use that term ironically - had done either of those things he would have known there is no city called Gold Coast in Australia. The Gold Coast itself is a tourist Mecca and far from being 'isolated'. And Australia is nothing like America 50 years ago. 'The hinterland of the hinterland' - give me strength, should I laugh or cry at this guy's sheer ignorance. The comments about Margot Robbie are cringeworthy but since he's making a public fool of himself they're OK by me.

Anonymous said...

A romanticized view of the gold coast and outback similar to much written of the American west in a similar vein. Vanity Fair is not Scientific American, it's goal is to entertain and the piece looks like their usual tripe. I am confident that Robbie is privately if not publically thrilled with the positive exposure.

MDH

Anonymous said...

Christina7,

..... he would have known there is no city called Gold Coast in Australia.

Does the City of Gold Coast know they don't exist?

http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/thegoldcoast/default.html

Christina7 said...

Anonymous - can you find a city called Gold Coast on the map? The City of Gold Coast is a government admin area for large regions of SE Queensland.

Anonymous said...

It's offensive because it sounds like it came from a creepy impotent uncle gushing over pictures he took of someone while they slept.

Anonymous said...

In name and structure the Gold Coast is a city. On most maps nowadays it is simply called Gold Coast.

Anonymous said...

Its only an American writer for a teenage entertainment magazine describing something in slightly different words to how you might describe it. What would you? That is why the Brits say Australians have a chip on their shoulder.

Spurwing Plover the fighting shorebird said...

How to realy bug liberals and famiists call up your local DJ and ask them to play POERTY IN MOTION

Christina7 said...

Anonymous 3.41pm - 'slightly different words'? I'd be interested to hear the alternative version of 'throwback people' or 'Australians live and die with the plot turns of soap operas'? Soap operas really. No getting away from the fact that the guy is an ignorant twat and a creepy jerk. Any Australian who objects to demeaning nonsense written about their country has a chip on their shoulder? I don't. I just object to idiots who've never set foot in Australia writing rubbish about us.

Anonymous said...

Christinea,

"Any Australian who objects to demeaning nonsense written about their country has a chip on their shoulder?"

No. But Australians who get upset at Americans and Brits over imagined or petty criticisms have a chip on their shoulder.

The average Aussie who is well balanced would see the humour and the compliments in the article, and even if he doesn't, he is not bothered by it because it is just an article in light reading entertainment magazine.

Clearly the writer meant no offence, and the article is not causing any harm to anyone, except upsetting the fragile emotions of insecure Australian feminists/lefties, but they are upset most of the time about one thing or another anyway. And even when they are not upset it is only a matter of time before something happens to set them off.

There is a well known sort of insecure Aussie male who wouldn't say boo to an Arab, Chinaman or African for fear of being seen as racist. No matter how severely the non-white man derides Australia, the insecure Aussie will stay silent or even agree with him. But, and if he has some mates with him, he will jump down the throat of a Pom or Yank over the least excuse, often because the Pom/Yank dare comment critically on something Australian, which such insecure Aussies think that Poms and Yanks have no right to do. But that kind of Aussie always turns to water when the Pom/Yank that he abused turns front on and moves an inch towards him. There are female ones too who demonstrate the same insecure character in their own way. These are a kind of Australian leftist, insecure and emotional, weak charactered and have a hang up about criticism coming from English and Americans. It is those sorts of Australians that Americans and English are referring to when they comment that Australians need to hear their country praised all the time or they get upset.

Fortunately such Australians do not make up the bulk. Most are easy going, sensible, good humoured, strong and kind people - my favourite people on earth.

Anonymous said...

Christina,

I don't mind someone saying I'm a throw back or that I watch soap operas, even if I thought it was meant as some sort of insult. It wouldn't cause any reaction in me, except perhaps a smile.

The writer did not hurt anyone.
He is not calling for any restrictions to freedom of speech or liberty.
He is no threat.

Though clearly his words touched a nerve with you.