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The end of guitar buyer's guide "bikini models"?


Phil O'Keefe

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https://reverb.com/news/guitar-world-publisher-announces-end-of-swimsuit-edition-gear-guides?_aid=newsletter&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=85527b4607-rn160403_content&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5889ed6702-85527b4607-58136921&mc_cid=85527b4607&mc_eid=ddb94dbcf7

 

So what do you think? Is this a good thing and is it "about time", or do you think this is PC gone amok? Will this change help encourage more females to pick up the instrument?

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Personally, I think PC has gone insane. No one I know of, male and female alike had any issues with the swimsuit editions of just about anything. Did it sell guitars? Somehow I doubt a scantily clad girl holding a Paul made that many more sales. It seriously has gotten stupid in America.

 

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I never really paid much attention to the models and when I did I thought they just looked cheesy. As a mainly acoustic guy, there was never a whole lot to see anyway since the buying guides were always electric-centric. If you're getting a lot of complaints maybe reconsider or hey, put a few male models in the mix for a more balanced perspective.

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While I fully support equal rights for scantily clad women, I will say that I was never, not once, enticed to buy the buyer's guide because of them. I know on the internet pics of hot women and guitars go together like peanut butter and jelly, but I just don't care to have a magazine of it. And trying to disguise it as a buyer's guide? Come on, just make a swimsuit edition like SI does and stop pretending.

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While I fully support equal rights for scantily clad women' date=' I will say that I was never, not once, enticed to buy the buyer's guide because of them. I know on the internet pics of hot women and guitars go together like peanut butter and jelly, but I just don't care to have a magazine of it. And trying to disguise it as a buyer's guide? Come on, just make a swimsuit edition like SI does and stop pretending.[/quote']

 

Have you ever been to a NAMM Show? There used to be a couple of booths that had some of those scantily clad young ladies that they'd feature in their guitar ads in attendance - and invariably there would be a long line of (mostly) middle-aged men lined up to get their picture taken with them. It's something I haven't noticed or seen happening for a few years though.

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"Sex Sells" is more time honored and enduring than any brief flirtation with PC ads for gear.

 

Although I only bought one Dean guitar, as a starter git for a nephew, the thread title immediately reminded me of my all time favorite ads featuring a bit of our species' primal yearning.

 

160975776_the-dean-hardtail-select-guitar-ad-8x11-frameable-angel-.jpg

 

I mean, it's totally ridiculous, but I totally love this ad.

 

Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! Innuendo, beauty, allure, and emotion, and the guitar's not bad looking either. ;^)

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It all seems pretty juvenile, and a little seedy and sad. Maybe they're just trying to pander to teen boys and "adult" guitarists still living in mom's basement. It's a wonder they're still in print at all. Not to mention, they tend to use cut-rate bimbo models clad in outfits that belong in 80's hair metal videos. By removing the bimbos from the ads, they're not being PC, they're catching up to two decades ago. If I want to look at scantily clad, or better yet, naked women, I can get a magazine a couple of racks up. Or, I can look at it for free on the Internet, along with a bunch of unbiased guitar reviews.

 

And to all you people saying PC is ruining America - get a {censored}ing clue. Corruption, a widening income gap, declining education, and failing infrastructure are ruining America. Sure, there are people who take the PC thing too far and go looking for excuses to be offended. Those people have always, and will always exist. For most enlightened people though, I think PC means thinking before you open your fat mouth and not being an a$$h013 to others. It's basically "do unto others..." Or if you prefer, "if you don't have anything nice to say..." That's stuff you should have learned with a good upbringing. I'm not sure how that is making things unbearable for you. Nobody's taking away your freedom of speech, they're simply suggesting you not be a racist/sexist/bigoted halfwit. Or if you have to be, keep it to your f'ing self.

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There was a great thread, either here or at Guitar Jam, I think Brian Krashpad started it, that was all just pictures of women who actually played guitar. I agree. Way more sex appeal.

I only remember Krashpad for posting numerous pictures of himself, lol.

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I play at the beach in Thailand most days, and have a rule that I never let someone without shirt play my guitar. It is a bother to wipe off suntan lotion, as I learned from loaning once. However if one of the Russian hotties asked me to show her how to play, where to put her hands.... hmmm

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These days there are a lot of women who actually play the guitar.

 

Yes, and that's a positive development IMHO... but women are still outnumbered by men by a considerable margin in several fields in the music industry... not only guitarists, but drummers, bass players... even recording engineers.

 

Isn't it possible that some of the reason for that has been the attitudes exhibited in some of the gear ads and the way some of them have portrayed women over the past few decades?

 

 

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I haven't been to NAMM, but I've been to tradeshows for my industry (powersports) and there was a very definite line of off demarcation on the T&A. One year I went and they had the dance group from that Wild Horse saloon shows doing a strip tease act right in the middle of the main floor.. There was also the booth that had their own stripper who let people peel off her costume that consisted entirely of stickers. The next year, very few girls and the few that were there were totally covered in non-sexy outfits. The next year, the event provided booth babes that would walk from booth to booth to take photos with attendees. Not surprisingly, attendance took a nose dive and the show moved from Indianapolis to Orlando.

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Yes, and that's a positive development IMHO... but women are still outnumbered by men by a considerable margin in several fields in the music industry... not only guitarists, but . . . . .

 

Isn't it possible that some of the reason for that has been the attitudes exhibited in some of the gear ads and the way some of them have portrayed women over the past few decades?

 

 

 

To the latter, I think not.

 

I once attended a really remarkable touring show in 1991 called "Masters Of The Steel String Guitar". it included many types of steel string genre, Hawaiian slack key, Appalachian folk, etc, and included Jerry Douglas and Albert Lee. Woo-hoo!

 

Point of the story is that a narrator would describe the history of each genre before each artist would take the stage for their mini-set.

 

Part of his opening dialogue was how "The guitar started off in history primarily as a woman's instrument...", [Obviously, the lute and guitar would have been a nice and somewhat gentile instrument for parlor music back in the day,] "but that now it's primary become a man's instrument"

 

My point being, the change from the guitar being primarily a woman's instrument to primarily a man's instrument occurred way before what some or most would now consider to be sexist or even misogynistic advertisements for guitar gear, and the change happened long before electricity was added. I doubt even Robert Johnson could have pinpointed the turning point. Maybe if you went back another 100 years.

 

So for that, I would still ask "why?"

 

Maybe the real reason had more to do with the esteem in which the instrument was once held.

 

Albeit most likely a bit tongue in cheek, note this quote: We didn’t have any instruments, so I had to use my guitar.” – Mother Maybelle Carter

 

OTOH, images like this don't help with creating a unisex perception of electric guitar.

 

prince_140203_getty.jpg?itok=8xS-htSB&mtime=1391401078

 

But also look at the consumers - you get someone who is a very very fine talent like Orianthi, who I love to listen to when she's allowed to showcase her talent, but for record sales, she has to pump out songs that sound more like they were penned by Taylor Swift than Santana or Jeff Beck. So maybe the ladies need to support the ladies a bit more too.

 

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I have never bought an issue because of that single issue women portrayed as cheap objects. And for as long as I have been able to via email I have written the editor and voiced my displeasure of the practice telling him I would never buy that issue.

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Always lame - that crap always put a magazine in the don't buy camp back when magazines were a thing.

 

How did you feel about them if they were in ads from a manufacturer, and not placed in there by magazine editors? Did say, Dean ads in Guitar Player make you want to not buy it or cancel your subscription?

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