Danny Dyer advises cutting women’s faces in Zoo
I don’t think I have the requisite expletives for this. But those fucking wankers at Zoo have published an ‘advice’ column suggesting that a guy who can’t get over his ex should cut her face “so then no one will want her”:
First spotted by @SarahDitum
The good people of Twitter got very angry about this and ‘Danny Dyer’ started trending pretty damn quickly. I, of course, complained to Zoo along with lots of other people. And I offered to collect the crowd-sourced contact details for the Zoo Editorial Staff and the magazine’s advertisers so that other people could complain as well (details at the bottom, I’ll come on to that).
By the end of the day, Zoo had offered a groveling apology (this is a link to Zoo’s website please go and leave a comment), Danny had said he was ‘misquoted’ and even the bloke who wrote the original letter came out of the woodwork (in a great post on this from Dr Petra). I really do believe that such a quick response came due to the involvement of social media in all this. Here’s the apology from Zoo:
Email response from Zoo Editor, sent by Claire Hodgson:
Dear Naomi,
Thank you for your email regarding this week’s issue.
Firstly, let me unreservedly apologise for the inappropriate and
indefensible response to a letter which appeared. I am very sorry for any
offence it has caused.
Danny Dyer, and everyone else that works on Zoo condemn any violence against women, and by way of a sincere apology we are making a donation to Women’s Aid.
An internal enquiry is underway to find out how this extremely regrettable production error occurred and I will be tightening up any procedures necessary to ensure it cannot happen again.
We have already posted an apology on our website and will also be printing a fuller apology in next week’s issue.
Regards
Tom Etherington
Editor
Zoo Magazine
*****************************************
Right, I’d like to make a couple of points….
1. Has any one noticed the line above the face slashy bit in Danny’s advice:
I’d suggest going out on a rampage…and smashing anything that moves
Now, when I first read this I thought it meant going around smashing things like bus shelters and cars. Then I realised that it said “anything that moves“, so men, women, children, animals, animate objects. I’m just saying, he might have a fucking problem.
Update: I didn’t believe this at first, but apparently ‘smashing’ means fucking. Which is much less disturbing… It just means he’s advocating sex with anything that moves; woman, man, child or animal. Yeah?
2. Danny Dyer has claimed that his words were taken out of context which makes me fascinated by what context would make face slashing acceptable…
…the other option is to cut off contact with your ex and face reality…?
Doubt it.
3. “Production error” my arse. Who accidentally lent on a keyboard and “slash a woman’s face” came out? If this stuff is being written in your office, you might want to remove any cutlery and sharp objects.
4. I would believe that this was a “production error” that had been left in by accident by some dumbass intern if it wasn’t for the fact that these errors seem to happen EVERY FUCKING WEEK. Last month, Dyer recommended setting fire to a woman. Another error? Or just business as usual in this wankstain of a rag.
So this is why I’m still recommending that you complain to Zoo and to their advertisers. Their ‘apology’ demonstrates that they are open to criticism and correction, they just have never got it so hard and fast before. Plus it didn’t just come from a bunch of ‘usual suspects’ who they have easily dismissed before. So let’s keep it up.
Below are the contact details which I am still happy to collect by crowd source (tweet them to me@naomimc) and repost as I get new ones.
And just to remind you who we are dealing with here….!
Zoo twitter: @ZOO_UK
Zoo email: info@zootoday.com
Tom Etherington, Editor: Tom.Etherington@zootoday.com
Claire Hodgson, Editorial Asst: claire.hodgson@zootoday.com
Bauer Media, who own Zoo:
Jane Windsor, Corporate Communications: jane.windsor@bauermedia.co.uk
Sarah Ewing, Consumer Magazines – Trade: sarah.ewing@bauermedia.co.uk
Jess Blake, Consumer Magazines – Consumer PR: jess.blake@bauermedia.co.uk
Genevieve Potter, Specialist Magazines (Peterborough): genevieve.potter@bauermedia.co.uk
Catherine Gort, Big City Network Radio: catherine.gort@bauermedia.co.uk
Hermione Clulow (Braben), Magic & KISS: hermione@braben.co.uk
Sarah Ewing, National Radio: sarah.ewing@bauermedia.co.uk
Zoo Advertisers
Kellogg’s: pressoffice@kellogg.com
@KelloggsUK
Aloud.com: feedback@aloud.com
Virgin Media: lucy.atabey@virginmedia.co.uk
Love Film:
Marketing: m@lovefilm.comm@lovefilm.com
Public Relations: pr@lovefilm.com
Advertising and research: advertising@lovefilm.com
Other good links on this story:
Ophelia Bottom (heh)
Dr Petra
Index on Censorship – Nigel Warburton guest post.
May 5th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Oh my word this is horrible. I will be tweeting them, of course I am fully expecting to be told that it was just a joke and I should have a sense of humour. That won’t stop me though
May 5th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Wonder if we could report Dyer/Etherington for Encouraging an Offence under Serious Crime Act, part 2… http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2007/ukpga_20070027_en_5
May 5th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
We already knew Danny Dyer was a colon!
May 6th, 2010 at 12:31 am
[…] was accompanied by swift action (yet another example of activism and advocacy immediately at work via social media outlets). As a […]
May 6th, 2010 at 4:26 am
Thank you so much for helping us get in touch with ZOO! and their sponsors so we can let them know exactly how disgusted we are with what has occurred. Sharing with everyone I can. Thank you. You rock my socks!
May 6th, 2010 at 11:22 am
Excellent blogpost, as is Petra’s (where no comments are possible).
I don’t think I have ever seen anything so vile in a MSM publication.
What makes it so bad – so sickening – is the context: this is not a Clockwork Orange or a Tarantino film, nor even some dumbass slasher fiction.
This purported to be in an advice column published by MSM with a celebrity endorsement (at least) aimed at young men.
One suspects (hopes) that no one would take the advice literally, and so go off and cut a face as a direct and immediate response.
But it does normalize the prospect of violence against women (indeed violence generally as a response to a personal issue – urging a man’s cut face or penis is actually no better).
In this context, whis was a deeply inappropriate and irresponsible publication by Zoo, and Petra and Naomi are completely correct to keep the pressure on.
This is not censorship – no one is seriously urging criminal or civil liability for Dyer or Zoo – but it is censure; and quite rightly so.
May 9th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Zoo are clearly run by a bunch of smash-wits. Smash off, mothersmashers. Heh.
May 10th, 2010 at 11:44 pm
If DD is so concerned that he’s been misrepresented, then why does the trailer for his new film on YouTube (a responsible little number called ‘pimp’) have keyword tags including ‘cut face’ and ‘snuff’? Misogynistic little tosser.
May 16th, 2010 at 12:53 pm
I abhore this kind of clichéd ‘oh we’re just blokes having a laugh, get a grip ladies’ magazine, and I do have to wonder if this wasn’t a deliberate publicity stunt on Zoo’s behalf. ‘No, no it was a terrible production error, of course we respect women – but you’ve heard of our magazine now, haven’t you…?’ I’d be very interested to see their before and after sales figures.
May 18th, 2010 at 11:03 am
May I also suggest you contact various US feminist organisations, blogs, magazines as well as ‘progressive’ news sites like Huffington Post, etc. and ask them to contact Kellogg’s in particular.
The feminist movement is very well-organised in the States and targetting Kellogg’s – which has a ‘homely’ front to all its advertsing in the USA would be very effective.
June 8th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I’m fairly certain that men who can count up their money well enough to be able to work out £1.70, and manage to get to the shops without dying and successfully purchasing a copy of ZOO magazine, then having the competency to be able to read it, know the sort of ‘pwopa nawty geezer’ Danny Dyer is, and the sort of lad’s magazine ZOO is.
Since when did ZOO become a rulebook on how men lead their life?
Danny Dyer’s filmography includes a football hooliganism film, and a film about 80’s Spanish ex-pat criminals, I somewhat doubt that young men have tried to go back in time and move to the ‘Costa del Crime’.
Danny Dyer’s advice is meant in the light-hearted style that is in-line with ZOO magazine, Danny Dyer’s attitude, lad’s mags in general and lad culture in England.
I’d say that the people who took offence to this comment, somewhat similar to Russell Brand & Jonathan Ross ‘Sachsgate’ episode, where the outrage is picked up by people who wouldn’t read the magazine under any occasion.
So maybe you should focus your menopausal sights on something that actually offends you in your ‘sphere of conscious’, rather than searching out things that would normally go unnoticed by yourself to get angry about
June 9th, 2010 at 9:34 am
As vile as Danny Dyer and the Zoo lot are, I can proudly say that some of us have turned the offensive commentary, his flop of a new film, ‘PIMP’ + some online technology, into an off-the-cuff fundraising campaign that has tripled PIMP’s opening weekend box office take, in donations to Solace Women’s Aid!
Feel free to check out the fundraising page, make a donation, and share it around here:
http://www.justgiving.com/DannyDyerDonate
Or read my write-up of how it happened, here:
http://www.concretesolutions.org.uk/?p=474
Always love it when a silver lining can emerge from such a nasty situation! 😉
June 9th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
‘commander’mehan
you should focus your menopausal sights on something that actually offends you in your ’sphere of conscious’
ok how about abuse of our daughters, friends, in our sphere of conscious enough.
fuckwit
July 27th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
This coming from a woman who has named her blog “vagina dentata”?
Hmmm…a little ironic, perhaps? LOL
As usual, one rule for them, one rule for us.
August 6th, 2010 at 4:55 am
@Miss Blue: I think that is the problem. If it were only having a bit of fun, I’d have no problem. And yet Dyer repeatedly shows a lack of respect for anyone much less women. There’s ways of being overtly sexual and still respectful.. and Dyer shows that he lacks any shred of respect for anyone else and has a very unhealthy dose of hatred for everyone especially women.
@Jay: There’s a world of difference between a toothed vagina and setting a woman on fire. The fact that you cannot see the difference is a bit frightening. Violence should never be tolerated period. The fact that you equivocate a psychological concept and a mythological one to something that happens /in reality/… Are you absolutely insane?
October 25th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I personally think your just a busy prick and need to get a sense of humor.
October 25th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Well Frank Thomas, Freud would have a lot to say about your turn of phrase.
Luckily I’m massively hilarious AND have the capacity for abstract political thought.
Oh yeah, and you’re an over-employed hairy clam.
June 21st, 2012 at 2:43 pm
Oh yeah, and you’re an over-employed hairy clam.
June 21st, 2012 at 3:04 pm
@ “alphamens” haha. Prick.