Australian actress Caitlin Stasey has accused a magazine of dropping a feature story about her after she would not pose nude for photographs.
Stasey, an outspoken advocate for women's rights, launched a website in January called Herself.com, in which women pose naked, including Stasey, and answer personal questions about themselves and body taboos.
Early Thursday, the former Neighbours star released a flood of tweets claiming the Fairfax Media magazine, Good Weekend, had dumped a piece they were going to run on the actress and her body of work.
The article was to be accompanied by an intimate photo spread, but after Stasey declined to pose nude or in underwear, she said, the publication dropped the interview citing lack of space.
She wrote on Twitter there was a difference between posing nude "on her own terms," and doing so for the media.
Good Weekend magazine suddenly doesn't have the space to run a piece on me because I wouldn't do a shoot in my underwear @theage @smh— caitlin stasey (@caitlinstasey) July 15, 2015
They wanted to team an interview about my upset over the constant objectification of women with a sexualized photo shoot. I declined.@theage— caitlin stasey (@caitlinstasey) July 15, 2015
And miraculously, conveniently after I said I wouldn't do it, they claimed the magazine was downsized & there was no space to run the piece— caitlin stasey (@caitlinstasey) July 15, 2015
U do understand the difference between a woman appearing naked on her own terms & one being coaxed to in order to sell your product?@theage— caitlin stasey (@caitlinstasey) July 15, 2015
Editor of the Good Weekend magazine, Ben Naparstek, told Mashable Australia he "understood and respected" Caitlin’s decision not to pursue their photoshoot.
"[It] would have been a classy shoot with a leading American fashion photographer in line with the beautiful artistic imagery she’d published of herself on Herself.Com, which she’d just launched," he wrote in an email.
"We decided not to pursue the shoot when her agent offered us access to existing portraits instead. But with the Herself.Com peg no longer as strong, we chose to delay the profile until later in the year so it could be tied to the new seasons of her series Please Like Me and Reign."
A photo posted by Caitlinjstasey (@caitlinjstasey) on Jul 9, 2015 at 7:19pm PDT
On Twitter, Stasey strongly pushed back on Naparstek's statement and posted snippets of emails seemingly from discussions with the magazine. She wrote the shoot's direction had never been agreed to by the actress and her team.
You assumed I would pose nude for you. You told people you had cleared it with me and my team @BenNaparstek pic.twitter.com/OkjpbWG3ir— caitlin stasey (@caitlinstasey) July 16, 2015
shoot WAS scheduled after I voiced my concerns & asked for a new theme. YOU thn cancelled @stephharmon @BenNaparstek pic.twitter.com/2BYmuGMbSd— caitlin stasey (@caitlinstasey) July 16, 2015
Stasey said she expected a "half ass" apology from the magazine.
Expect a half ass apology absolving themselevs of any responsibility or wrong doing @smh @theage— caitlin stasey (@caitlinstasey) July 16, 2015
Further details are sure to emerge, but it seems like a safe bet this particular feature won't be published any time soon.