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| Lalupate*Joban | Posted
on 28-Jan-03 12:49 PM
MAXIM(UM) MIS-STEP: Taking a Jab at Gandhi By Brian Willoughby | Senior writer, Tolerance.org Jan. 23, 2003 -- The latest edition of Maxim magazine, in an alleged “humor” article headlined “Maxim’s Kick-Ass Workout,” depicts a strapping man in a “Muscle” T-shirt beating up an image of Mahatma Gandhi. The article, attempting to show how fighting can bring fitness, calls for “a healthy regimen of violent assaults” and urges readers to “teach those pacifists a lesson about aggression.” The three-page article includes 21 different scenes of the man hitting, kicking, choking and throwing Gandhi, who is named in the text, when the reader is urged to “ask Gandhi if he can see a change in your physique.” Protesters are seeking, instead, a change in Maxim’s attitude. “My first reaction is, ‘How stupid.’ My next reaction is, ‘How sad,’” said Michelle Naef, administrator of the M.K. Gandhi Institute in Memphis, Tenn. “How sad it is that they don’t understand how special a person he was.” Special and incredibly strong, Naef said. “Mahatma Gandhi spent his life fasting and being tortured,” she said. “Clearly, they have no clue who they’re dealing with, to depict him this way.” The article and illustrations, Naef said, are “the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen.” Stupid, and dangerous. “It’s promoting hate crimes. In today’s context, after Sept. 11 and with the anti-war movement, this article is telling people to beat the crap out of Asians and pacifists,” said Michael Matsuda, chairperson of the Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance in Garden Grove, Calif. Naef and the OCAPICA are seeking a formal apology from Maxim. OCAPICA also is calling for Maxim to donate funds toward tolerance education to, in Matsuda’s words, “show that they’re truly contrite.” Calls and e-mails to Maxim from Tolerance.org went unanswered Wednesday. In a “Total Wimp Workout” sidebar to the main story, Maxim depicts the Gandhi look-alike huddling in a closet, arms wrapped around his knees, head bowed. The accompanying text encourages “wimps” to “tighten your arms around your legs like the time your mommy tried to take away Malibu Ken” and to “cry like a kid enjoying his first rectal thermometer.” “There is a deep and fundamental misunderstanding of what nonviolence is all about,’ Naef said. “Gandhi was an incredibly strong person. Muscle strength can’t possibly come close to the kind of strength Mahatma Gandhi had.” As Gandhi himself said, “A person who has realized the principle of nonviolence has the God-given strength for his weapon, and the world has not yet known anything that can match it.” Magazine previously ridiculed Gandhi Maxim magazine’s Web site introduces the article with somewhat innocent sounding words. Under the headline, “Two-Fisting: Let’s Get Physical,” the promo reads, “Beating people up is more than just a day’s work. If you do it right, it can be an awesome fitness regimen. Knuckle up.” Illustrations found in the print magazine are not present on the Web site. However, the Maxim Web site does include a “Stupid Fun” article in its archives headlined, “Oh, Calcutta: Three Reasons to Hate ... Gandhi.” That article, which claims Gandhi was a “lousy husband,” a “rotten father” and a “poor role model,” was published in November 2000. Ironically, just two months ago, Maxim launched its first Asian edition, in Korea — just in time, Naef said, for the magazine to make fun of “one of the most revered men on the Asian continent.” The magazine was named Adweek’s “Hottest Magazine of the Year” in 2002 and Advertising Age’s “Magazine of the Year.” Maxim, which promotes itself as “the largest-selling men’s lifestyle publication in the world,” is edgy and known as much for its images of scantily clad women as for pushing the limits of good taste. The joke-of-the-day earlier this week, for example, involved two nuns discussing condoms found in a priest’s room. While such offensive material isn’t unexpected in Maxim, protesters say that doesn’t make it acceptable. Gandhi fasted more than 30 times in his life, protesting such things as low wages earned by mill workers and promoting such things as Hindu-Muslim unity. Born Oct. 2, 1869, Mohandas Karamchand “Mahatma” Gandhi was assassinated on Jan. 30, 1948, on his way to evening prayers. Such a life, protesters say, should not become the punching bag for sophomoric humor. “It’s fanning the flames of hatred and bigotry,” said Matsuda, of the OCAPICA group in Southern California. “That should be offensive to everyone.” ************************************************************** Supplement: Oh, Calcutta Three Reasons to Hate…Gandhi! (Maxim, November 2000) 1. He was a lousy husband. Gandhi may have loved all humanity, but in 1906 he stopped loving his wife, Kasturba. He denied her sex and once almost threw her out of the house in a fit of anger (presumably brought on by low blood sugar). 2. He was a rotten father. The mahatma expected his children to follow in his own saintly, emaciated footsteps, and he was so overbearing that his disgruntled eldest son, Harilal, denounced his father, converted to Islam, and eventually died a drunk. 3. He was a poor role model. His hunger strikes and trim physique created an unrealistic body image for peace activists to live up to. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, and other leaders battled Gandhi-inspired eating disorders all their lives. |
| surya | Posted
on 28-Jan-03 04:15 PM
What an outrage! I am not a pacifist (as if you didn’t know by now!J) and I am not a blind follower of Gandhi. I have questions about his view/relationship to women, his religiosity and his role (or lack there of) in the succession of Pakistan. But come on. What an outrage! Of course freedom of press and yeah lighten up.. .blah blah blah! I would like to see the jerks at Maxim make similar fun on Martin Luther King… if they think it’s a free for all, lets here them ridicule MLK and beat him up in jest. From the top of my head I say some of the stuff I have heard about the guy could be potentially very funny like his two timing and cheating on his wife, the accusations of plagiarism, his betraying one of his strongest campaigners/supporters because he was gay, his money grubbing kids, and his famous speeches too I guess is reminiscent of all that gospel infused, head nodding, hand-waving, hallelujah style sermons of black churches. Why is Maxim not making fun of that? How about Jesse? Now he is easy and stooped! Or Al Sharpton?? Why not Al? He with his coiffed hair and myriad scams, he is the biggest buffoon there is! Why is it okay to poke fun at Gandhi and not at any of these people? I guess the reality is that Gandhi is one of “them”… a ferner and MLK and the others, as black as they are, are still Americans. And in these xenophobic times, making fun of great leaders from other countries is the safest best. I totally agree with the article author that such articles promote hate crimes. BOYTCOTT MAXIM!! . . . . Okay I will admit, since I had never read Maxim I went and checked out their website!! What trash!! There is an article today about dating a rich girl! It was worse than any “Marry a Millionaire” article I have ever read! http://www.maximonline.com/world_o_sex/articles/article_4994.html Do men really read this stuff? I guess its equivalent to Cosmo or some other women’s glossies. But I can’t imagine Cosmo ever saying beat Mother Teresa though! “You’ve got a long way to go baby!” isn’t that what those Virginia Slims ads say… well, I’d say the same to Maxim and its readers! |
| Koko | Posted
on 28-Jan-03 04:26 PM
He also frequently bedded with his english female friends. Rumours about him getting massaged by 18 yr olds did not get out because of his image issue at the time. He definatelty was a very bad husband and a bad pops no arguement to that point. The truth about the true MOHAN DAS is still yet to come out(he was human after all). |
| whine and chij | Posted
on 28-Jan-03 04:59 PM
yo, sunshine, best to check yo chij befo' yo whine...'cause there's a whole lot mo swill where that comes from. keep yo powder dry, dear. one could argue that folks who hold up gandhi, mlkjr, et al, as justifications for protecting despots like hussein, castro, mugabe, et al, do far greater damage to the formers' legacies than the bigoted chumps at maxim. |