14 DAY TRIAL // Esquire Editor-in-Chief Alex Bilmes is finally coming clean: the women featured in the pages of the magazine and on the cover, be they celebrities or not, are merely ornamental, there to be objectified – just like cool cars.
During Advertising Week in Europe, Bilmes spoke about how Esquire was actually more “honest” than other men’s magazines because they, at the very least, never pretended they cared about the women’s brains when all they were looking at was their body.
Just like men browse magazines for pictures of cool cars, they browse Esquire for photos of hot women, and that’s the reality of it, Bilmes explains, as cited by The Guardian.
Not lying about it should earn Esquire points with their female readers, he seems to imply.
“The women we feature in the magazine are ornamental. I could lie to you if you want and say we are interested in their brains as well. We are not. They are objectified,” he says.
“[Esquire] provide pictures of girls in the same way we provide pictures of cool cars. It is ornamental. Women's magazines do the same thing,” Bilmes adds.
He believes that men “see women in 3D” in most aspects of life but, every once in a while, they only want to see them as hot – and not wonder about their brains or their accomplishments.
Unlike other “anti-feminist” publications, at least Esquire doesn’t lie about this, while also being more diverse, Bilmes continues.
“We are more ethnically diverse, more shape diverse. In fashion magazines women are much thinner. We have older women, not really old, in their 40s,” he says.
“Most women's magazines don't put them [older women] in their magazines,” Bilmes notes, adding that one of their most recent issue is with Cameron Diaz, a woman in her 40s.
Speaking of Cameron, her Esquire spread was shot by Terry Richardson, a fashion photographer famed for the way in which he objectifies women. Cameron came to his defense in the interview, saying that every woman must want to be objectified occasionally because it “empowers” her.