Danny Dyer article in the Swedish press.

This is a translation of a Danny Dyer article from the Swedish magazine Resume.se on the Dyer Zoo affair. It quotes Dr Petra, a rare voice of clarity, rationality and sensible discourse in the media.

Celebrity magazine column axed
Posted 2010-05-10

In a relationship column in the British lads magazine Zoo, the actor and celebrity Danny Dyer advised a reader to mistreat his former girlfriend. Dyer has been fired, and the column has been stopped but the question remains: is this enough?

It was in the column 'Ask Danny' in last week's issue of Zoo that a reader asked how he could forget his former girlfriend. Danny Dyer said he was mad to either go out with the guys and pick up at anything that moves or "... Is to cut her face, and then no one will want her."

Danny Dyer is a well known actor in Britain and started his career at the age of 16. In recent years he has made TV shows about British football culture. Dyer has been criticized, inter alia, because he identifies too much with the ‘lads’ mentality. His contribution in Zoo fits Dyer’s profile well; Zoo is a down market version of the now dying British lad magazines.

When Dyer recent contributions in Zoo came out last week it caused an immediate media storm.

A spokeswoman for Zoo's owner, Bauer Media, said that it has stopped the 'Ask Danny' column, with immediate effect. The editor Tom Etherington has apologized and Zoo will donate money to women's charities.

Danny Dyer argues that he was completely misquoted. He does not write it himself but leaves the answers over the phone to the news editor. “This is not advice I would give to the public, I do not condone domestic violence, " he told The Sun.

But it is not the first time that Dyer gave advice that could be considered grotesque in his column. Just a month ago he suggested a reader that he should set fire to his girlfriend's pubic hair.

Zoo will now examine what has happened.

British sex advice columnist Petra Boynton believes that it is not enough but urges advertisers to stop advertising in Zoo until the editors changed their attitude to women and domestic violence.

Zoo has a circulation of just over 100 000 copies.