A FEMALE journalist has caused a storm after she penned an article about gold medal-winning “men’s bulges” at the Winter Olympics.
Julie Gerstein’s piece showed close-up pictures of men in tight-fitting body suits competing in the luge at the Pyeongchang games.
The headline – 11 Men’s Luge Bulges That All Deserve Gold Medals – has prompted allegations of sexism and double standards.
Buzzfeed, who published the article, are facing demands that they sack Gerstein, who is a senior lifestyle editor at the online publication.
Above a picture of Latvia’s Kristers Aparjods, who ranked 11th in the luge singles events, she wrote: “These moose knuckles, aka male bulges, flying effortlessly down the Olympic luge track, are a thing to behold.”
She also wrote “These knuckles are fast as f*** and comin’ straight for you” under a picture of Taiwan’s Lien Te-An, whose dedication to the sport in his snowless country involved descending a mountain on a wheeled sled at 70mph.
Twitter user @margot_go_crazy wrote: “Really disgusted to see this article. Why is it ok to brutally objectify men? These olympians are the best in the world at what they do. Don’t reduce them to just their bodies.”
Scott Toland wrote: “It’s Ironic that in today’s climate this article was approved. So is Julie going to be fired over this completely inappropriate article?
These are professional athletes representing their country, show some respect.”
Elizabeth Bath commented: “Woohoo for taking one step forward and five back for sexual equality!
“As any kind of journalist you need to take responsibility for helping to perpetuate ideas. If men aren’t allowed to objectify women…then this is not okay.”
The writer was accused of double standards with one critic quoting her comments about Harvey Weinstein scandal, when she wrote: “Really enjoying watching men learning what this word ‘consequences’ means.”
@markjasper quoted her tweet and added: “I think the writer of this article is going to have a taste of her own medicine at work tomorrow… #doublestandards #EqualityForAll”.
Neither Buzzfeed nor Gerstein have responded to the barrage of criticism and the article remains online four days after it was published.
Twitter user Tina Letter wrote: “This is inexcusable that you’re not responding to the thousands of people calling for you to remove this article. Is it really worth the ad money?”
