A tabloid magazine has ignited intense backlash on social media after it published a list of colleges whose students are "easily available" for sex after drinking, underscoring what critics described as the country's systematic objectification of women.
In its Dec. 25 issue, the weekly magazine Spa! printed an interview with Keiji Isogimi, manager of the matching site Lion Project, who ranked five colleges whose students he said were "sexually easy" at drinking parties. He further described how to "coax" women and judge whether a woman is sexually available based on her clothing and appearance.
In response, a female university student started an online petition Friday on the website Change.org demanding that the magazine publicly apologize, take down the article and promise not to use terms that objectify women. The petition gained further visibility on Sunday when Sputniko!, a renowned Japanese-British artist, urged her followers on Twitter to sign it. More than 25,600 people had signed it as of Monday evening.
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