Sometimes the best way to make a point about sexism is also the simplest. Australian comedians the Bondi Hipsters parodied this month's British GQ by showing heavily bearded Dom Nader mimicking the naked poses struck by model Miranda Kerr. Their shoot went viral. Christiaan Van Vuuren, Nader's real-life alter ego, told the Huffington Post that the idea was a response to "the over-sexualisation of the female body in the high-fashion world. For some reason, as soon as you put a man in there … it's an entirely different thing that we aren't used to seeing."

Gender-flips used to challenge sexist stereotypes are having a moment. Last week, in a Guardian video, Leah Green went undercover, acting out scenarios reported by women to the Everyday Sexism website. She asked a barman if he'd give her a lapdance, for example, prompting obvious bemusement.

Miranda Kerr on cover of British GQ.

Last month, Jennifer Lopez's video for the single I Luh Ya Papi, began with one of her female dancers asking: "Why do men always objectify the women in every single video?" and proceeded to show Lopez, fully dressed, surrounded by half-naked men in a bed, a pool and sponging down a car. This followed the viral hit , Oppressed Majority, released by French filmmaker Eléonore Pourriat in 2010, which depicts a man struggling with routine chores and childcare, before being attacked by a group of women in the street and poorly treated at a female-dominated police station. The video became a sensation when Pourriat added English subtitles in February this year, and has now been viewed almost 9m times.

But the gender-flip certainly isn't a new way to make a political point. In early 1908, illustrator Harry Grant Dart used it to show the fearful possibilities if the campaign for women's suffrage proved successful. His image of "Mrs PJ Gilligan's saloon", a shocking dystopia where women smoked, drank and partook of free fudge, now just looks like an excellent night out. In 1978, Gloria Steinem turned the technique to feminist advantage, with her famous essay, If Men Could Menstruate, in which she wrote that periods would, in this case, "become an enviable, worthy, masculine event: men would brag about how long and how much."

Bondi Hipsters who have recreated Miranda Kerr's photo shoot for GQ magazine taken from facebook

But it's with the recent rise of feminist campaigning and online debate that this approach has gone mainstream. Last year's controversial video for Blurred Lines, with its topless models, prompted a clutch of pointed, hilarious send-ups, and in the superhero realm, there have been some excellent examples, including Kevin Bolk's Avengers Assemble poster, in which all the male characters are posed like Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow. (In short, buttocks everywhere.)

In 2012, author Jim C Hines tried to pose like the women shown on the covers of urban fantasy novels, and concluded that while these characters were presumably supposed to be strong and sexy: "These are not poses that suggest strength. You can't fight from these stances. I could barely even walk."These images are often comic, but they're powerful too. Last year, Petter Lindqvist, co-owner of a Swedish clothing company, recreated one of American Apparel's notoriously sexist adverts, with startling results. On all fours, naked from the waist down, head turned away from the camera, the photo suddenly looked less like an ad for a denim shirt – more like a person posed as prey.