UK Tabloid's Brexit Cover Is Being Ripped as Sexist

A Daily Mail editor looking for a clever phrase to sound like "Brexit" should've perhaps plumbed the rhyming dictionary a bit further. Instead, the UK tabloid's Tuesday front cover settled on "Legs-it!," which sounds somewhat like "sexist," which is how many are now describing the paper's efforts, the Guardian reports. The complete title—"Never Mind Brexit, Who Won Legs-it!"—accompanied a photo of Prime Minister Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first minister, calling attention to their limbs instead of their difficult conversation about the fate of the United Kingdom. The inside pages didn't fare much better, with a headline blaring, "Finest weapons at their command? Those pins!" and a column describing Sturgeon's legs as being "[tantalizingly] crossed … a direct attempt at seduction."

Outcry has been swift, with one ex-Labour Party head tweeting, "The 1950s called and asked for their headline back." Labour MP Harriet Harman called the cover "moronic," while Labour chief Jeremy Corbyn noted the year we live in and said, "This sexism must be consigned to history." Tony Blair's ex-press secretary went so far as to tweet that people should rip up their copies of the Mail. Memes that "fixed" the original also cropped up. Per the Guardian, Sturgeon's spokesman calls the cover treatment "slightly surprising" and notes "there is no need for coverage of events to lead the way" back to the '70s. The Mail doesn't seem especially apologetic, however, with a rep noting the paper often remarks on male politicians' appearance: "For goodness sake, get a life! … Is there a rule that says political coverage must be dull?" (The Daily Mail has been banned as a Wikipedia source.)