Daily Mail ‘Brexit’ Headline Mixes Objectification And Gibberish

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and British Prime Minister Theresa May in Glasgow. Image by Getty Images

By Phoebe Maltz Bovy March 28, 2017

It’s a little-known fact that most women’s torsos are propped up by these things called legs. Are you a woman? Glance down and you might yet see the body parts in question.

The Daily Mail has inspired outrage (and gotten in hot water) for running a cover photo of Theresa May, British Prime Minister, with Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, accompanied by the headline, “Never mind Brexit, who won Legs-it!” Why the exclamation mark, for what was evidently a question? Who knows. Were the two politicians in leggings, perhaps with an eye-catching pattern of some kind? Nope — regular Western business suits.

What’s disturbing about the headline, of course, is that it reminds women — and not just the two in the photo — that no matter our age or accomplishments, society judges us in terms of our looks. Objectification is a problem precisely because it’s about reducing women and women alone to just one facet of the human experience.

But I still can’t get past… What even is a “Legs-it?” Are their legs meant to be… exiting? Exiting Europe? The headline gestures at offensiveness, but falls short of making any sense.

Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at [email protected]. She is the author of “The Perils Of ‘Privilege’”, from St. Martin’s Press. Follow her on Twitter, @tweetertation

Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.

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