Ann Simonton

Simonton began as a fashion model in Los Angeles and New York City in the early 1970s, {{cite web |url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068186/index.htm |title=Ann Simonton fights for feminist issues—and against the SI - 02.07.89 - SI Vault |website=sportsillustrated.cnn.com |access-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025074621/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068186/index.htm |archive-date=25 October 2012 |url-status=dead}} working for a period of time at Ford modeling agency.

{{cite journal |last=Faludi, Susan. |date=April 1988 |title=Miss Teen Covina's revenge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA32 |journal=Mother Jones |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=32–34, [https://books.google.com/books?id=NOcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=RA1-PA22 52–55]}} (Responses by Nikki Craft and Ann Simonton, Mother Jones 13(5):[https://books.google.com/books?id=bOcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PP6 4,7] (June 1988).) On June 24, 1971, she was gang raped at knifepoint in Morningside Park on her way to a modeling assignment. According to Simonton, this event was a key motivation for partaking in activism to help end sexual assaults on women.{{Cite web |last=Lieber |first=Jill |title=The Woman Warrior: Ann Simonton fights for feminist issues—and against the SI swimsuit issue |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1989/02/07/the-woman-warrior-ann-simonton-fights-for-feminist-issues-and-against-the-si-swimsuit-issue}}

{{external media|width=200px

| align = |

image1=[http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/si_online/covers/images/1974/0128_large.jpg Simonton's Sports Illustrated] Swimsuit Issue cover from January 28, 1974}}

Simonton became a radical feminist activist, and has been arrested and jailed 11 times for committing acts of non-violent civil disobedience.There is no source on Simonton's police record. This information has been touted by Simonton herself in a number of interviews and podcasts but at this time cannot be confirmed. In the 1980s, she and Nikki Craft led the "Myth California" protests, a series of counter-pageants which accused the Miss California pageant of contributing to "the objectification of women and the glorification of the beauty myth."{{cite news

| last =Lieber

| first =Jill

| title =The Woman Warrior: Ann Simonton fights for feminist issues--and against the SI swimsuit issue

| publisher =Sports Illustrated

| date =1989-02-07

| url =http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068186/1/index.htm| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20121104042736/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068186/1/index.htm| url-status =dead| archive-date =November 4, 2012}} Simonton wore various meat outfits in these protests: one of baloney in 1982, skirt steak in 1985, and turkey slices in 1987. In 1987 she shaved off all her bleached blond hair in front of the pageant venue in San Diego to protest "racist attitudes" in the pageants.{{cite news

| title =A Beauty Bristles

| publisher =Life Magazine

| date =September 1987

| url =http://www.mediawatch.com/Simonton/LIFE_Sept.1987.pdf}} The protests garnered international attention, and were partially responsible for the Miss California pageant relocating from Santa Cruz to San Diego, California.{{cite news

| last =Spearnak

| first =Catherine M.

| title =Here She Comes: Pageant Still the Object of Protest

| work =Los Angeles Times

| date =1989-06-10

| url =https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-06-10-vw-1131-story.html }}

Simonton contributes to local political and cultural discussions in Santa Cruz, California. She served on the Commission for the Prevention of Violence Against Women in the City Manager's Office of the City of Santa Cruz from 2018-2024. In 2022, she was the Vice Chair of the Commission.[https://www.cityofsantacruz.com/home/showpublisheddocument/99110/638466876461030000]

In a 2023 community voice [https://lookout.co/sexual-violence-commission-prevention-violence-against-women-male-leaders-we-need-you-to-help-us/story contribution] in the digital newspaper Lookout Santa Cruz, Simonton falsely claimed that rape and sexual assault was drastically increasing across California. She cites a 2021 Department of Justice report on California crime data,[https://data-openjustice.doj.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2022-08/Crime%20In%20CA%202021_0.pdf] where rape and sexual assault figures are reported as incidents per 100,000 people. She fails to cite the base year to current year she uses for this figure and uses a falsely claimed increase in these crimes to raise awareness to the issue. It is widely accepted in the United States broadly, and in California, that rates of violent crime and property theft are below historical peaks, with a steep decline occurring in the early to mid 2010s.{{Cite web |title=Crime in California Remains Well Below Historical Peaks |url=https://calbudgetcenter.org/resources/crime-in-california-remains-well-below-historical-peaks/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=California Budget & Policy Center |language=en-US}}

As of 2025, Simonton is currently a landlord in the city of Santa Cruz.Evidence is available via multiple posts on Facebook.com, Roomie.com, and Craigslist.com advertising both rooms and unattached housing attributable to Ann Simonton.

• {{Citation|ref=none | last1 = Simonton | first1 = Ann | last2 = Smith | first2 = Carol | contribution = Who are women in pornography?: a conversation | editor1-last = Whisnant | editor1-first = Rebecca | editor2-last = Stark | editor2-first = Christine | editor-link1 = Rebecca Whisnant | title = Not for sale: feminists resisting prostitution and pornography | pages = 352–361 | publisher = Spinifex Press | location = North Melbourne, Victoria | year = 2004 | isbn = 9781876756499 }}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.mediawatch.com Media Watch]
• [https://www.youtube.com/user/oceanbreath Media Watch] channel at YouTube
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060425084423/http://www.mediawatch.com/multimedia.html Radio Interviews by Ann Simonton]
• [http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/09/6943 Slow Sex: Moving Toward Informed Pleasure] by Ann Simonton, CommonDreams.org, February 9, 2008.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20121025073648/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/8367/index.htm1970-1979SISwimsuit Sports Illustrated cover], January 28, 1974.
• [https://archive.today/20121203045728/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068186/index.htm "The Woman Warrior"] by Jill Lieber, Sports Illustrated, February 7, 1989.
• [http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/pageradicalbodypolitics.html "Radical Body Politics for Women"] by Kirsten Anderberg, 2003.
• [http://gradethenews.org/pages2/simonton.htm "Getting results with low-budget media activism"] by Michael Stoll, Grade the News, January 21, 2004.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simonton, Ann}}

Category:Living people

Category:American feminist writers

Category:American women's rights activists

Category:Anti-pornography feminists

Category:Radical feminists

Category:1952 births

Category:Female models from Los Angeles

Category:Activists from California

Category:21st-century American women