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Bindi Irwin is "honoured" to make the top 10 of Maxim's 'Hot 100' list.

 

Just three months after reaching the ripe old age of 18, Australia’s favourite tiny conservationist Bindi Irwin has landed in the top 10 of the men’s magazine Maxim‘s ‘Hot 100’.

The Dancing with the Stars winner placed eighth on the “annual, eclectic list of the most gifted and gorgeous Australian women who have impressed — and undressed — this year,” which also included Margot Robbie, Jessica Marais and Delta Goodrem.

More surprising perhaps than her inclusion on the list, which actually makes sense when you consider the teenager’s skyrocketing public profile and popularity, was her response to it.

“Words can’t describe how honoured I am to have been named in the top 10 with this issue of Maxim’s ‘Hot 100’. My goal in life is to empower each and every person around the world to embrace themselves inside and out,” she captioned the post.

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“Beauty is not just found on the outside, it’s the kindness you share with others and the positivity you embrace every day.

“If your core values revolve around love and light, you are a beautiful person.”

The sentiment behind her post is undeniably lovely, but it also, in my humble opinion, grossly overestimates Maxim‘s intention behind adding her to their list, which is… a little creepy?

Honestly, that’s definitely the first time Maxim‘s ‘Hot 100’ has been followed by a sentence with the word “empower” in it.

That said, Irwin is one of the three members of the top 10 who does not appear in either her undies of her bathing suit (actually, The Veronicas are just wearing body paint).

In fact, she wears her comparatively conservative DWTS costume and is accompanied by a bio that celebrates her achievements at the Australia Zoo and in landing a famous wakeboarder boyfriend.

By comparison, the magazine thanked Marais for “hotting up our small screens” and doing an ad campaign for Berlei underwear (“Now that’s multi-talented. And hot!”), called Jennifer Hawkins a “Donald Trump-approved supermodel”, and ended Robbie’s paragraph with the word “Enjoy”.

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*shudders*

Margot Robbie topped the list. Source: Facebook

"There’s an abundance of fine femmes who have wowed us with their aptitude, intellect, sexiness, humour, coolness, physical attributes, and overall mega-talents, for you to feast your eyes on," Maxim explain.

"Beautiful women, talented women, sports star women, newsworthy women, model women, reality TV women, impressive women, commercial women, movie women, amazing women, surfer women, funny women, exquisite women, pop star women, delicious women, artistic women, political women, rock star women, spicy women, great women, hypnotic women, incredible women, gutsy women, blogger women, wonderful women, soapie star women, brilliant women, extraordinary women, TV presenter women, magnificent women, sexy women, intelligent women, HOT women."

A recent snap of Irwin at Australia Zoo. Source: Instagram

Many of the above adjectives could be used to describe Irwin: she's talented, impressive, gutsy and kind of magnificent, sure, but the cynic in me says the editorial team wasn't thinking about them when they decided to include her on their stupid sexist list.

Rather — now, call me crazy — I feel as though those particular terms may have been added in there to try and legitimise the fact that in 2016, a men's magazine can still put out a special edition ranking powerful women, all of whom are outstanding in their fields, and reduce them to how "hot" they are.

Featured image: Instagram/Bindi Irwin

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