In a fell swoop the martial arts clothing line Manto offended female MMA fighters, women in general and evolved men when the company Tweeted photos of a female models –complete with nipple slip-- fighting over a Manto shirt and the company’s owner argued it was essentially their duty as men to objectify women.
The company purportedly pissed off fans by Tweeting the photo of “Two girls fighting over a Manto Tshirt,” with the accidentally-on-purpose nipple slip, which sparked the company to issue the following apology on its Facebook page, according to Jezebel:
"We had no creative control over the photoshoot" and "We have for years been sponsoring (also with cash, which not many other brands do for women competitors) multiple female athletes at both amateur and professional levels, and we will continue to do so."
Here's the offending photo:
One fan offered his thoughts on how anyone could possibly be offended by a good ole-fashioned nip slip, writing, "People especially women need to just relax! The women who were offended were probably gay women who like women anyway but yet felt threatened."
Meanwhile, Manto owner Alberto Marchetti weighed in with the oldest logic in the book – that women were put on the planet to be objectified by men and it’s essentially against God and country to interfere or bitch about it.
“I wouldn't have apologized, the photo shoot is not intended for women, it's for men.
Men don't need to apologize because they like sexy women! It's the 21st century! If women's skin offends u too bad for you!” Marchetti wrote, according to Jezebel.
He later added the movingly groundbreaking sentiment that “Women are sex objects to men, just as men are sex objects to women. That’s the nature of the game, and we must thank the Great Architect for that, or none of us will be here now!”
If thanking the “Great Architect” weren’t dramatic enough Marchetti brought his justification for the shoot down to a matter of life and death. “Women/Men are definitely more than that, but when it comes to 1+1 and simple essence of a human being the attraction towards the other sex is one of the strongest impulses next to hunger and fear of death,” he added.
While Marchetti was waxing philosophical in his unabashed misogyny female MMA fighter Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blogger Georgette Oden had the audacity to try to make sense writing, “I'm neither gay nor felt threatened by (other) attractive women — not that it matters. Note we're not complaining about hot girls, nudity, porn or the like — the problem is the derogatory message. Why do women grapplers need to be sexualized? Why can't they/we be appreciated for being badasses instead of T&A grabasses? BJJ is a great way for women/men to learn self defense. Why muddy the waters with softcore?”
Jezebel contacted Manto requesting that Marchetti clarify his statements but rather than clarity they received a statement from a spokesperson using the “ignorance is bliss” defense, insisting that Marchetti was not aware of and had nothing to do with the offending photoshoot. Case closed.
