3 Linda Schwartz on the 'oink-o-meter'

Transcript:

We had the idea that to draw attention to sexism a pink marzipan pig would be the award, and we would all vote and it would be done by oink-o-meter. And when the time came to vote, Jane said, ‘Well, here are the nominees, and let’s go for it girls!’
So we voted and whichever had the loudest oinks got the award.
And basically it was jacket art that had women with heaving bosoms advertising something that really didn’t have much to do with heaving bosoms. And using images of women in sexual situations to sell books. And it was done quite a lot back then.
Anyway, it was quite good at focussing the light on what was actually being published at the time, and where perhaps there was room for improvement.
It did raise everybody’s consciousness.  A lot of men made it a joke; some men bragged about it ‘Oh, we’ve got the Pink Pig Award’, you know, ‘How Wonderful!’
But I think it was a good, general consciousness-raising exercise.