Maxim rethinks its position on Sarah Jessica Parker

They got it right the first time.

Although she maybe shouldn't have been #1

Actually, I don't. I don't want to put my energy into such a negative site because all I will get back is negativity.

So I go out of my way to avoid online slime.

I have no idea how great or how mean any celebrity or actor is...but I do know that they are human too...so I don't want to join in...it is too easy to be all comfy and safe at home or at work and bash. We have seen it here at AE a time or two...and it sucks.

 Are you bummed out by the culture of catty? Or do I need to lighten up?

It bums me out. For sure. I feel like it is spreading everywhere. The catty-ness, that is. People can't even disagree civily anymore. They resort to personal attacks instead of debating issues or just agreeing to disagree. Look no further than some of the politics threads in the after ellen forums. :( Name calling and put downs are a national epidemic.

I think people ignore that. I can't find anyone hot if their personality is horrible. I find it sad that so many people put so much focus on looks. Maxim is just trying to make it seem like they aren't the sexist pigs they really are.  I find the fact that so many women think it's okay to call SJP ugly disappointing as well . I don't think anyone would want a well known magazine to label them as one of the ugliest women. To me the reason some people label her as being ugly is because she doesn't look like everyone in Hollywood. She has dared to not get plastic surgery, breast implants and no botox. Being unique shouldn't be seen as being ugly. 

this article, very much.

I think it raises some truly philosophical questions ... some of which carry into Linster's Katherine Heigl blog.

I think we are in a time where the term "press" and "media" are drastically changing. The whole blog culture is such a quickly growing phenomenon, often, most of us are receiving news - not through an impartial, balanced report, but through someone else's opionated filter. And I think, unfortunately, the lines are blurring.

You make a good point, Gina, when you say that when SJP became famous, it was a different time. That's a very true statement - "blog" would have sounded like gibberish. However, I think what we're seeing is a frighteningly increased fusion of "news" and "entertainment." And I think this fusion has resulted, like you said, in over-glorified 8th grade gossip - there's usually a very small kernal of truth surrounded by a lot of popcorn fluff speculation and subjective banter.

I think also, with this fusion, our Western fondness for the cult of celebrity is "going viral" as they say, at an alarming rate.

So all of this, again as you said, begs the question - Why?

The gross lack of civility, of ethics, of impartiality is permeating much more of our culture than just entertainment. I think that we, as a society feel out of control. I think that politics, entertainment, and world issues are completely confused. I think that we as a people feel helpless, and afraid, and we turn to mindlessness as a way to numb the panic that has invaded our lives. In no way do I think this is an excuse. I read an article a few years ago on how the majority of US citizens are depressed. And on a larger, perhaps existential level, I feel like this is an underlying, unspoken monster that controls our greater sense of decorum as both a people and as a broken country.

So Yes ... I think as both a people and a country, we really ARE feeling "ignored, ugly, and unpopular." 

As far as desensitization goes - I agree with you. Though I think it's been on-going for the past 10-15 years or so. I think the more "connected" we are to technology, the less connected we are to each other in ways that we NEED to be, the less we're connected to our earth, the less connected we are to our humanity. 

I think there's a great analogy to this, in that if Orson Welles' radio broadcast of War of the Worlds were to air tomorrow for the first time (on Youtube or digital radio), people would laugh; rather than experience the wide-spread news bulletins being issued about possible, impending alien invasion, and strangers having panic-attacks in the streets. 

Words simply don't have the same effect that they had, even 25 years ago. What we say, and what we do have become two ENTIRELY different courses of action. But if sticks and stones break our bones, what are our words doing? Verbal contracts are practically null and void, "promise" has little to no weight anymore. Our words seemingly have lost power, and yet have, through their over-usage and desensitization, have become more dangerous. 

So my question is, if our vocabularly and its usage have become simultaneously ineffective and yet more violently exercised, what happens to our fundamental practice of communication? And even more existentially, what happens to our humanity without it? 

My treasure is my gallant bark,
My only God is liberty;
My law is might, the wind my mark,
My country is the sea.

Maxim is a magazine full of sexist pigs and they're trying to hide that fact. I don't see women's magazines making lists of the unsexiest men. Whoever says women are more "catty" or vicious than men are is completely wrong.

I really like SJP and Sandra Oh, who was also on that horrible list.

And as for meannes towards women celebs, this website just had a post about how to kill off Katherine Heigl's character because she is an outspoken woman.

I think it was so childish and unfair of them to say that about SJP. She seem's like an awesome person and as far as I know keep's herself to herself so why bash her like that!? I would love to see what the guy's look like at Maxim magazine. My guess is fat middle aged, unmarried and can't get some.  They have no right to judge someone like that with our without a reason to do so.  I hate shallow people! There's really no point in them. Just because she idoesn't look like Cameron Diaz does not meen she isn't pretty.  If anything I would pick SJP over anyone on their list basicaly because she is a human being and not just a cloned to perfection air head.

First of all Maxim is a Joke and should be taken with a grain of salt.  As for Ms. Parker, she may not be the most beautiful woman in the world but I think she is a cutie. Another show of how the media can suck.

XOXO Zuri

Uh, am I the only one here who thinks that SJP has a fabulous body? Not to mention a killer smile and incredible acting chops? All of those things to me are things that make her undeniably sexy.

And screw Maxim. The fact that that list even exists is kind of an insult to female sexuality.

Up until the punching, it was a real nice party...

DAMN YOU AE!!!! i can no longer objectify women because i spend too long wondering what their personalities are like! grrrr.....

as for SJP, in terms of looks, she's not especially on my top ten list, but i'm not saying she's unnatractive and the fact that maxim took the time to mention her as "World's Unsexiest Woman" (along with Sandra Oh????? WTF MAXIM?!?) shows a level of cattiness and lack of maturity that smacks of high school. i can just picture a bunch of fat, balding, middle-aged men sitting in a room going "And you know what would be really funny? If we put that Parker chick on the Unsexiest List! Wouldn't that be a hoot! She's so ugly!" Anyway, for me, SJP is lovely because she's a good actress, has an adorable voice, and just seems like a normal woman. is that so wrong? 

as for perez hilton, i'm no psychology expert, but when i (rarely) come across his "articles" (i use the term lightly) i always feel this level of childish vengeance to it. especially his pursuit of celebrities in the closet. there's definitely some unresolved anger issues with that man. on top of that, he just grates on my nerves. 

i think technological desensitization has already begun. just look at cyber-bullying, kids beating the crap out of other kids and then posting it on youtube and laughing. we have become a sterilized nation, sitting at home, at our computers, feeling invincible to the world around us. we are inundated with images and videos of what the powers that be feel we should be influenced by, and when presented with something that doesn't fit that VERY small area of criteria, we panic, we react, we become brutal. it's the spanish inquisition. it's the salem witch trials. it's the McCarthy red scare. it's the AIDS epidemic. it's the terrorism scheme. no, SJP is not beautiful by society's standards, but obviously Matthew Broderick seems to enjoy her company. the millions of viewers who watch Sex and the City religiously seem to like her. maxim is one, sexist, old-fashioned, chauvinist cry in the dark. and it's apparent to me that while they'll probably never change, people might.

I'm not sure if there was a article of AE about the actual list, but while you may not find her attractive the other women she isn't the worst. I can think of a few off the top of my head. What it seems to be is this: Who is famous, but not so powerful and well liked that they will crush us if we say she's ugly because she's ugly? (as opposed to Spears and Winehouse who are unsexy because: The reasons cited for her unsexiness include lack of performance ability and the addition of two kids, two useless ex-husbands, and about 23 pounds. Amy is known for her music and the horse tranquilizer thing. Among the reasons for not digging Amy, Maxim cited her translucent skin, rat’s nest do, and her surgically attached bat lashes.)

No one is going to raise the alarm for attacking someone who is a drunk and out of control most the time, or is a sex symbol and always in the news for her antics (Madonna). And really, Sandra Oh isn't that well loved; she is kind of cold (OR HER CHARACTER IS. The Grey’s Anatomy actress is cited as unsexy for her boyish figure and her cold bedside manner.)

But SJP is nice. In fact I think she's extremely cordial and respectful and I loved her line at Steve and Barry's. The only way to make a fuss is to call out a perfectly nice person whom some people might dislike because of her character of Sex and the City. I mean they could have put Winehouse as number 1, but they didn't they put the nice "girl next door". Forget that she has children and a family... gotta sell magazines. 

The truth is, she (and Oh) have nothing to be ashamed of and yet their children will be picked on because this made headlines. Ridiculous. 

Most of the comments I would have made have already been made, and i applaud those people that did. So moving along I want to point out that we are currently living in a society that raises people up so that we can microscope their physical appearance, relationships, and lives so we can compare our monotonous lives those celebrities. The celebrity worship in this country is extraordinary- and in fact media, in my humble opinion, is quickly undoing years of work by civil rights movements.

Women are more sexualized then ever, and we allow ourselves to be sexulized. Granted the internet allows more avenues to be sexualized through but the fact remains that we allow ourselves to be objectified. As much as we would like to lie to ourselves and say it isn't true, we still live in a world ruled by older middleclass white guys with older middle class white guy values. Some of those values have just been played out- #1 women can't be sexy over the age of 35 and SJP on that list is an example of that myth. Another value that is played out is the Asian either being sexy dragon lady or unsexy frigid ice queen as played out by Sandra Oh on the list.

I vote for a civil rights movement return.

I'd have expected worse from the cheaper magazines - I hate that one week they will me headlining with "OMG FAT AND FLAUNTING" or whatever, and the next week it will be "X's SORROW - HAUNTED BY WEIGHT JIBES". They fuel the fire, douse it, and then set it all alight again. I'm not even sure the truth always comes into it - catiness sells these days.

And the road stretched on like an angry woman...

but she would have crushed the ego of the magazine if she would have said "Who cares!" To even get mad at being on any list that doesn't have anything to do with what she is actually talented at gives them more power. I wouldn't be mad at a mag that list me as unpretty if I make millions of dollars a year and have a closet the size of apartment buildings. Maxim doesnt rule the world and I am pretty sure half of the women on that Unpretty list were probaly on the Pretty list a couple of years earlier.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!! It is too proven that some of the prettiest people can have the ugliest personalites that make them ugly.

If I made the money SJP makes I might give someone a bat so they could make me more ugly and I would still go shoppin!! I am counting change to put some gas in my car. I wish Maxium would call me ugly and then give me 30 bucks for my tank!!

Thanks for this excellent post. Being cool is so profitable at the moment that we're afraid to grow up, and instead we're pursuing mindless conformity where we have to think the same as the everyone else.

Personally, I don't find SJP particularly attractive and I think Sandra Oh is hot as anything.

But who gives a f*** what I think? Maybe my girlfriend. Otherwise it would be no-one else's business, except for the fact that much of the entertainment industry is built on selling women as commodities.

It's very convenient for the film studios if we all fancy the same thing, because then they can sell us bucketloads of Jessica Alba. This is offensive to women but it also makes for boring, predictable entertainment. This is why SJP is Maxim's unexpected crush (she just shifted a ton of product).

It's also why it's our civic duty to fancy as many unexpected women as possible. I look forward to seeing Jane Lynch in a superhero movie and Felicia Day as the lead star in a chick flick.

I'm just appalled by how many peple dislike SJP. I don't find SJP particularly pretty but she has a SUPER sexy voice and her mannerism, the way she carries herself exudes confidence and sexiness.

Look is one thing but it is charisma that makes one person sexy. Those idiots at Maxim looks at nothing but face, ass & boobs.

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"My love life is terrible. The last time I was inside a woman was when I visited the Statue of Liberty."