Sex and violence sell and Maxim knows it. The February issue achieves journalistic bliss with its remarkably insightful headline, “Bikini Blitz! The real swimsuit issue’s here.” That’s to be expected from the people who make marketing consumers of popular culture look easy.

But that’s not all the dear editors at Maxim have bestowed upon their readers in this issue.

In this month’s installment, the magazine announces, ” ‘Two-fisting:’ Let’s Get Physical.” It innocently declares, “Beating people up is more than just a day’s work. If you do it right, it can be an awesome fitness regimen. Knuckle up.”

Then we’re treated to a 21-scene illustration of a man wearing a muscle shirt hitting, kicking, choking and throwing Mohandas Gandhi (clearly labeled) to show that fighting is a good way to work out. They call for “a healthy regimen of violent assaults” and urge readers to “teach those pacifists a lesson about aggression.” It also instructs readers to “ask Gandhi if he can see a change in your physique,” playing on the man’s famous words, “Be the change you wish to see.”

I can see it now: “Oh come on, can’t you take a joke?” “What are you, some sort of freakin’ peace-loving pansy with your briefs in a knot?” “It’s just a little fun.”

Joke or no joke, Maxim was irresponsible in publishing the illustration making light of a man who stood for strength, as much as any other characteristic.

Indian and civil rights groups reacted. Tolerance.org, an activism Web site of the Southern Poverty Law Center, published an alert and encouraged readers to make their offense known to Maxim editors. India Cause, a North American advocacy Web site for South Asians, said that between 3,000 to 4,000 visitors wrote in to Maxim.

Orange County Asian Pacific Islander Community Alliance’s chairman Michael Matsuda told tolerance.org, “It’s promoting hate crimes. In today’s context, after Sept. 11 and with the anti-war movement, this article is telling people to beat the crap out of Asians and pacifists.” The groups have called for a formal apology from the magazine and a promise of money for tolerance education. Tolerance.org went on, “In a ‘Total Wimp Workout’ sidebar to the main story, Maxim depicts the Gandhi look-alike huddling in a closet, arms wrapped around his knees, head bowed. The accompanying text encourages ‘wimps’ to ‘tighten your arms around your legs like the time your mommy tried to take away Malibu Ken’ and to ‘cry like a kid enjoying his first rectal thermometer.'”

One could tirade endlessly on the sophomoric nature and ridiculousness of Maxim magazine, but that’s giving them too much credit. They are merely master marketers who found “men’s lifestyle magazines” profitable and are happily lining their pockets. Mix in equal parts ego-stroking violence, objectification of women and soft-core sex details and you get the idea. Along with several competitors, Maxim is locked in a “double-dare-ya” race to the bleeding edge of tastelessness that would make a junior high boys’ locker room proud.

But this is not an issue of whether the article can be published, for the beauty of our First Amendment is that it allows such things. Rather, mine is a call to Maxim to exercise some humility. Their irresponsible portrayal of a man who is hero to a nation of nearly a billion people and the man in large part responsible for that country’s independence was discouraging. Moreover, they imply that violence against South Asians and peace advocates is funny and jokingly give instructions to their millions of readers on how to assault these people.

Would the folks who read Maxim stand for a similar portrayal of national heroes George Washington or Abe Lincoln? Not likely.

But the issue is still more complex. The illustration is indicative of a fundamental illiteracy on the part of the American public on the principles of nonviolence. Gandhi was aman who, from his very core, rejected all violence, but he never shied from risking everything to face it in his struggle against injustice and subjugation.

Maxim’s illustration equates nonviolence with inaction. Nothing could be further from the truth. Nonviolence is by definition action. Gandhi taught that he would rather have someone acts in violence than not act at all out of cowardice.

Today’s followers of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others believe deeply in the necessity of action to stop violence before it happens. To risk it all in a tough, courageous act of love in the face of injustice is nonviolence. Nonviolence is action.

Gandhi is the man who introduced the world to strategic nonviolent conflict resolution on a massive scale. He is the man who drew on the powerful nonviolence teachings of Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. He is a symbol of strength and courage for countless people and his portrayal as a coward comes as the great insult to a man whose life exemplified great courage.

Much more than its expected tastelessness, Maxim has demonstrated clearly the need for education and awareness of nonviolence not as passive spectatorship, but as proactive engagement.

Omar Tesdell is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Slater.