I'm (not) sorry, Dr Christian

You were wrong. And the backlash from feminists isn't a joke, it was what you should have expected the moment you compared topless men and topless women in a way that made them the same.  For people who haven't seen this argument, Dr. Christian objected, on twitter, to the idea that selling 'lad's mags' without covering the cover could be seen as illegal.

In many ways, thank you for applying an equal idea to the two sexes in terms of relative states of undress, but unfortunately, that is not how Western society sees the two problems.

The issue, as far as I can see, is the disconnect between what is socially acceptable and what is published on the cover of magazines. If a man was seen in public without a shirt on, little comment would be made. If a woman was publicly topless, she could be arrested for public indecency/indecent exposure. Last week a friend and I walked past a man stood outside a pub not especially near the beach topless, and although we agreed it was a little ridiculous, there was no question that he was doing anything wrong by standing there without a t-shirt on. Yes, the two are increasingly equally sexualised, but if a woman cannot be legally, physically, in public topless, why should it be legal for the image of it to be displayed publicly? Yes, women and men are shown in television in increasing undressed states, but those images are reserved for after the watershed, and there is no watershed in shops. Society does not see these two images as equal, because pecs and breasts are sexualised in very different ways.

I freely accept that the women on the covers of these magazines are willing and paid for modelling for these images, and that if you wanted to get rid of these magazines then magazines like Heat would have to cancel their ridiculous 'torso of the week feature'. I don't have an issue with images of nudity - nudes can be beautiful.

Thinking of people who think like this as overreacting is avoiding the issue, and double standards like this, that in some way benefit the patriarchy, are an issue.