Grazia SA accused of slut shaming on social media

Grazia SA, a weekly women's fashion and celebrity gossip magazine, has come under fire after posting a controversial question on their official Facebook and Twitter pages. The magazine asked: “We’d like to hear from Grazia readers: What is it that makes a girl a slut? Is it the way she dresses? What she says? What she does? And with who?”

A few of their followers said things like “It has always meant: when a girl sleeps around a lot.” And “The way she carries herself. And her desperation for sexual attention from men. If she is always throwing herself at guys, fucking a different man every day, flashing her private bits at all times, she is a slut. Love yourself honey.”

But, mostly, the post was met with disbelief and anger from many readers and Facebook/Twitter users who do not like their page or follow their account, but had heard about the incident and decided to air their opinions.

It seems that Grazia was not aware of the backlash they would receive by posting the question, and did not reply to the many angry comments on the post for several hours.

An apology was posted numerous hours after the original anger-inducing question on both Facebook and Twitter. The publication thanked everyone for their opinions and said that they are in the process of creating a feature on shaming women and wanted to see what reactions they would receive.

“We do apologise for any offense cause, but we’re also pleased (thrilled even) to know that so many of our readers are defensive of women and their right to behave in whichever way they please (sic),” says Grazia.

Post by Grazia SA.

Kerrie Simon-Lawrence, editor of Grazia South Africa, said in a statement:

"Grazia South Africa is categorically opposed to any type of bullying, particularly against women. It’s because of this that we have been working on an expose' feature on ‘slut-shaming’ - the idea that a woman’s character or worth is judged based on her wardrobe, her words or her actions. While slut-shaming is something Grazia South Africa vehemently opposes, the purpose of the social media posts was to ascertain how women themselves feel about the notion.

"Concerningly, recent studies and reports have suggested that women are the main perpetrators of bullying against women. And this is what motivated the feature article.

"We live in a society where the abuse of women is worryingly commonplace. Grazia South Africa takes our role in voicing our concerns and empowering women very seriously.

"Our readers are clearly very passionate and it’s a comfort to us that our audience is as vocal about this topic as we are."

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