Groping Encouraged by the Washington Post Magazine

I understand in this time of layoffs that it may be financially imprudent for the Washington Post to print complaints about advertisements or to alienate frequent advertisers.

The Post Magazine frequently prints an ad that I find offensive toward the highly educated women of the Washington area that I presume are a large portion of Washington Post readers. It consists of several pictures of large, naked, faceless breasts with the words “We empower individuals” and a nonsense blurb by some male doctors. Normally I brush off the ad, rather than dwell on how professional women would more likely be ridiculed behind their back if they increased the size of their front, or wonder how the male readers would react if the ad suggested enlarging their body parts.

But this week, the ad was placed opposite a story about a young woman who had to endure groping by an 80-year-old man as a part of a class assignment. Proof that the last thing women should do to empower themselves is enlarge their breasts. And not a very good picture of what the Post’s male editors think of the empowerment options for its female readers.