'Womens magazines'

manhavingbaby - welcolme to t'internet!!

Another ex-BSH reader here.

I don't think I've ever bought a 'female interest' magazine...I've subscribed to 2000AD, BSH, MCN, Melody Maker, NME, various tattoo mags and 'Canal Boat' but never 'Vajazzle my Cupcake' or whatever we are supposed to read.

Frizzbonce - one of the cover stories on ES magazine today was "Miranda Hart: Trimming the weight and looking for a husband"

WTAF?

In the actual article there were 2 sentences devoted to her being open to the possibility of a relationship, and another couple on how she got overweight filming Miranda so is trying to lose it now. Hardly the headline... I know all magazines/papers exaggerate, but FCS, it's just so diminishing

Frizz - supermarkets stock all of the Christmas cake/mince pies/cheeses to make lots of money..then..on 2ndJan stock rowing machines/ab rocking tables/skip ropes to undo the damage and make lots of money. Grrr a bit.
< am male with numerous back copies of Good Housekeeping>

I'm currently having one of my spells of ploughing through the mag crates and flogging them on Ebay (have hoarding issues which I am working on) and it's quite fascinating to observe the changes in some titles over the years. Nearly everything was quite fighty and feministy in the mid/late 80s and got sillier and sillier and more and more slebby towards the end of the 90s.

I was in Boots today at the counter, glanced down and saw one of their magazines. Front cover headline - all Christmassy and shiny:

BE YOURSELF! WHY WOMEN JUST LIKE YOU MAKE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

Underneath another headline:
TEN WAYS TO AVOID PILING ON THE CHRISTMAS POUNDS!

I was so irritated, I said: 'Oh fuck off' at the startled woman behind the counter.

dh's uncle makes patchwork quilts.
jus' sayin'.

Tendon damage in my right wrist means I can't hold a throttle open for any length of time. :( Tried converting one bike to a foot throttle but hadn't the co-ordination!

Huh? How on earth does a typing injury prevent you from riding a motorbike? Is it a grip thing?

I'm chuffed to bits to discovef you were an AWoLlie, SGB! I had to ride custom bikes because I'm too short for most standard bikes, can't ride at all any more after a typing injury. :(

Sorry for the hijack, OP.

RIDE a pushbike. Time to go and cook tea I think.

OLKN - I used to love BSH and AWOL as well, despite being barely able to read a pushbike, I was a right little rock chick who hung out with a lot of bikers.

And I agree that the gendering of magazines is a pisser and has got worse. I remember about 15 years ago feeling furious and betrayed at an ad campaign for 2000AD along the lines of 'It's not for girls' - when that was the comic that had produced Halo Jones.

I agree, 'discuss' sounds arrogant, and slightly amusing given the poorly written op

I used to read mixmag when I was younger. I now read Private Eye and Classic FM magazine. I don't buy any 'womens' magazines as such, but I always like a shufti at Take A Break or Good Housekeeping when I'm in a waiting room somewhere.

15 years ago there men's magazines were just the hobbies one. As I remember it, it wasn't until the 90s that 'lads mags' as they are really took off.

The premise for both is the same: "How do I get a man / girl" just the men's have added tits.

Ill tell you what i have always thought.
The glossy mags which do have more intelligent articles imo have fahion ages full of expensive designer clothes,whereas the more down market ones have all the high street fashion in. Are they suggesting that if you are intelligent and dont want to read about 22 year old grandmas or people with 27 children and would rather read about current affairs or issues affecting womens lives,that you are automatically rich and able to afford designer clothes?

Is this a mock exam question? It's not very well written.

Obviously traditional "female" crafts such as embroidery, knitting are hobbies.

"General interest" does not mean "General interest except females".

Generally "women's magazines" are celebrity gossip and "men's magazines" are things like Nuts and Zoo. Both equally appalling. Sports tend to appear in either "Sports" or "Lifestyle" sections. Haven't seen a New Scientist under "men's magazines" in about 20 years.

Discuss. Do you realise how bossy that sounds? My gut reaction to anyone saying that is fuck the fuck off, matey. Just thought I'd mention it...

But anyway...

Equestrian magazines aren't particularly gendered, neither are camping ones.

I agree that the positioning and demarcation of magazines in chain newsagents/supermarkets is downright silly, and it raises my hackles when I see (like in Sainsbos) that they are categorised as 'men's interest' and 'women's interest' and then split along the lines the OP mentions. However, there's no siren that goes off if a woman picks up What Motorcycle nor indeed if a man picks up Quilting Weekly.

And I'm finding my own reactions interesting that the thought of a woman reading a motorbike mag is (in my mind) a Good Thing, while the idea of a man reading a quilting magazine is mildly comical. I fear that the idea that traditionally female pastimes are somehow less worthy than male ones is more deeply ingrained than I thought. Eep.

I can see the OPs point - the magazines are often (in my local WHS anyway) put under 'men's interests' and 'women's interests' in the way he has said.

I knit, I sew I would like to learn to quilt. I have zero interest in 'good housekeeping' type things or the how to keep your man magazines.
I used to read the New Scientist and read rugby magazines because I played it. It'sjust another way of telling us what we should be reading, thinking and doing.

Gardening magazines aren't gendered at all.

Unless the shelves were actually labelled "for men" and "for women", I'm not particularly fussed by this. But perhaps that's because I don't assume that general interest = male.

I don't however like the tide of pink in girl's magazines, and do think this there is a dearth of unisex children's comics on the shelves (possible exception, the Doctor Who mag and a few other tie-ins). I get/got (through the post) Aquila, Puffin Post and National Geographic Kids.

What is with all these OPs demanding that we "discuss" recently?

Anyway, yeah, it's shit. It's silly too. But then I bought a mens lifestyle magazine recently (Esquire? Or is that tits?) and it was just as vapid as any womans magazine. It barely lasted me two craps.

The Week is the only magazine worth reading. And Quilters' Monthly.

I've been known to peek at the Economist. And Private Eye.

Arf at Custy!

Another New Sci subscriber here, and I'm not a scientist by trade. I also read New Statesman and, occasionally, Easy Living. Well it's like food, innit - you have your Cordon Bleu, and every now and then there's Ginster's.