A reader submitted this knife sharpener from Fark to us and said it promotes violence against women.

I’m sure we can argue for years and years over whether or not the concept of the Beautiful Assistant is sexist or not, and I’m sure we can all agree that at some point some sexist arsehole is going to see this knife sharpener and think to themselves, “Yes! Stabbing women with knives! I love it!”, but do either of these things make the item itself sexist?

Personally, I’m not sure. So far as I can see it’s just a knife sharpener modeled on an old magic trick. I don’t think it’s any more sexist than ThinkGeek’s pizza cutter shaped like the USS Enterprise, or, perhaps more appropriately, that knife set with a stand shaped like an abstract, genderless human body.

That said, I’m a male, and that means I have male privilege, which may very well be preventing me from seeing this as something other than an innocent and humorous bit of kitchenware. I’d love to hear your feedback.

~Ben