Socially aware magazine out of touch with what women want

Social and Personal Magazine celebrated their annual poll of the ‘Top 100 Sexiest Irish Men’ without doubt one of the most eagerly awaited events of the year. As the list was revealed to the 400 party goers in Lillies Bordello, eyebrows were raised. Baz Ashwamy, a relatively new presenter on RTE was the surprise winner. But the biggest surprise of all was the other names that made the list.

With the new edition of Social and Personal just published and distributed, women all over Ireland have become worried. The judges may know the names on the list but do you?

The Top Ten Sexiest Men of 2009:

1. Baz Ashmawy
(RTÉ TV presenter)
2. Jonathan Rhys Meyers
(Actor)
3. Niall Breslin
(Lead singer of Irish group, The Blizzards)
4. Jamie Dornan
(Belfast-born international model)
5. Dave Fanning
(RTÉ star, first appearance on this list)
6. Colin Farrell
(The Castleknock Casanova)
7. Michael O’Leary
(Ryanair boss, first time in Top 10)
8. Brooke Gilbert
(Ireland’s first male supermodel – as voted by Ford Models)
9. Pierce Brosnan
(The former Mr. Bond from Navan)
10. Garrett Tubridy
(Brother of Ryan, currently running for Dublin City Council)

Who are Brooke Gilbert and Garrett Tubridy? How are Michael o’ Leary and Dave Fanning sexy?.The others are stars who are mentioned every year on the list but never make it to number one unfortunately.

As the winner Baz Ashwamy is not your average Irishman as he’s half Egyptian but compared to the others on the list he comes across as the goofy but sexy boy next door- as seen by various roles on RTE throughout the summer from Celebrity Bainesteoir to Failte Towers. High viewings but savaged by the critics. Baz is certainly the best choice here and most importantly at the end of the day Publisher PJ Gibbons could be pretty certain that Baz would be around to collect the trophy and enjoy the champagne reception.
Social and Personal magazine has gained mixed column inches from members of the media and from on-line blogs and discussion forums since the February Publication went out a few days ago. I-Venus.com and Showbiz.ie have slammed the list and the much over hyped event. Beaut.ie one of the most successful on-line Irish blogs has even decided to stage its own’ 100 Sexiest men competition’ in reaction to the dismay of Irish women flabbergasted by the lack of sexual-judgement made by a especially selected panel who supposedly come from the worlds of fashion , beauty, entertainment, business and sport. The judges involved in the final decision of Social and Personals 100 sexiest men list didn’t want their identities to be revealed-which is a pity.
It’s now down to the women bloggers of Ireland to exercise their vote and to enter in their own list of sexy men. With a result by next week from Beaut.ie it will be interesting to see how their list compares to Social &Personals. Publisher PJ Gibbons is either generating any type of publicity that he can for an ailing magazine, has lost sight of what women view as sexy and needs to go to Spec-savers as this list is certainly not doing it for the ladies of Ireland.

One thing for certain-Social and Personal may be Ireland’s original society magazine but it needs some serious sexing up to keep its readers from wandering.