When GQ commissioned a style feature to be shot in the autumn of last year, they probably didn’t expect it to have too much of a reaction. The premise was to show off hip and sexy climbing gear through a photoshoot of a hip and sexy group of friends on a weekend away. A fairly standard piece, if slightly away from their normal urban surroundings.
When they hit publish however, a reaction is what they got. Their premise of taking ‘three premier climbers and a couple of cute friends weekend warrioring in the country’s grooviest high-desert town’ got a lot of people ticked off. Why? The premier climbers were all men and the cute friends? They were women who just came along to pose and watch
When Outdoor Women’s Alliance caught wind of the feature, they had the perfect response, penning an open letter to the magazine and creating their own spoof shoot “we took three A-number-1 climbers and some adorable friends out for a weekend jaunt where all the far-out cool kids go—Vantage.” in response. In an amazing move OWA recreated the photos from the shoot, with women taken off the sidelines and put straight int the middle of the action and the guys put to the side as eye candy.
