"Men's" Magazines v "Women's" Magazines

I was just about to say "there was a thread about this a few months ago" when I realised it's the same one.

I haven't noticed labels, but will check when I'm next in.

I do know though that my Tescos have three aisles, one with weeklies, knitting, crochet, style, home making, bridal etc, then the middle aisle full of children's and young teen mags, one side has power rangers, dr who with the other ends animals and you, Dora etc. TV mags in the middle of that aisle, then the third aisle has men's fitness, camping, car, computing, photography, science, shooting, fishing etc.

The small local newsagents here all have the soft porn on the tops shelves, I'm just wondering if there is actually less or if it seems there is less because more people now magazines in supermarkets?

Let's be honest. In many households it's women who do the shopping, categorising magazines helps wifey grab something that will keep hubby happy. 'They didn't have Napoleons Russian Campaigns, but they did have Pennine Steam Train Monthly'.

My supermarket reorganised recently and the men's fitness and computer stuff ended up near the toilet entrance. Hilarious watching shy geeks trying to pluck up enough courage to browse.

As for topself porn, there does seem to be less.

WH Smiths at Waterloo has travel, lifestyle and women's lifestyle. Actually, I didn't look too closely, on account of half of my head was shouting, "You're getting obsessive about this!" at me.

I can't say I've noticed there is any distinction in men's interests and women's interests. Usually buy magazines in Waterstones or Waitrose

I haven't bought a "women's magazine " in decades as they were largely so silly.

Cats, music, and arts mags are neutral.

Ours is a big one too, I've just been again now. There is colour coding, the Lifestyle, Cooking, Craft were pink, the Hobbies, Sports were split between green and blue.

They have two sides of an island - women/children/craft/cooking types on ones side and men/hobbies/trainspotting etc on the other. Definitely no mention of men or women. Maybe some of them have updated their labels and others not got round to it yet.

slightly off topic but quite a few years ago (er...20+) our corner shop started to sell newspapers and mags. I was quite pleased about this until I realised they were also stocking soft porn (Playboy etc- this was before the lads mags thing had really got going). I complained to the owner- I was a very regular customer and she told me they didn't have any choice- it was like they had a contract with the whole saler who had an 'all or nothing' rule about what they stocked.

To make it worse, none of my friends seemed to think it was a problem.

Film magazines are inexplicably aimed at men, like women never watch films. I used to read Total Film before it folded, and the ads at the back were always full of half-naked women and sex lines, like you'd expect from Loaded. Can't remember if Empire is as bad.

I wonder if it depends on the size of the store? This was a big one. I'm not going to be popping into the town centre smaller one to see what they do, but they do have only about a third of the shelving space for magazines.

That's weird, I looked in our Sainsburys yesterday and there was no mention of Men's or Women's at all, it was just Lifestyle, Craft, Home, Garden, Sports, Technology, Hobbies etc. Didn't notice colour coding but there may have been.

I was in Sainsbury earlier. They have:
Best sellers (dark blue) - this mostly appeared to be TV Listings overflow.
TV listings (dark blue)
Women's weeklies (pink)
Women's interest (pink) I wonder if they debated calling it women's monthlies.
Women's home interest (pink) - appears to be cooking and crafting stuff
Home & garden (green)
Travel (green)
Leisure (dark blue) - that included stuff like New Scientist and the Economist
Motoring (light blue)
Sport (light blue)
Computing (light blue)
Men's interest (light blue)
Things like History Today were in an unlabelled section, but were in the same row as all the light blue ones.

It does make sense to categorise things, but the colour coding some places round here use does seem to be gendering it more than necessary. Also, why is it labels like "women's home interest", rather than just "home interest" or "cooking & craft"? - i.e. saying what it is, rather than implying it's only for one gender.

I wouldn't have any issue with having general interest covering stuff like Cosmo and FHM under the same area. That's pretty much how it works in my corner shop, where they don't have enough space or enough range to separate everything too much. They've got one rack with daily newspapers on the bottom, then children's, then stuff like "women's interest" and "men's interest" and one or two "leisure" ones (it's a pretty reduced range), and then the top shelf.

One day when I'm feeling brave (and possibly when it's the adult daughter serving rather than her parents, as she's more approachable), I might ask them if they make any profit from the top shelf, now there's so much free porn on the internet. I assume there must be some market for it, as they still stock them. I've never seen anyone purchase one.

Is taking the labels off the shelves, but still putting all the men's interests together(diy, trains, cars, fishing, etc 90% bought by men)all down one end and women's interests (fashion,celebs, cooking, take a break etc 90% bought by women) all towards the other end, is this enough or would you hold out for a scattergun approach.
Alphabetical maybe?

everydaysexism did a campaign on this a while back and got (afair) Sainsbury's, Tesco and WHSmith to stop using gender labels and label by interest instead.

" But the same shops might still have a huge category of 'women's intetest' that includes the fashion mags, the weekly gossip rags and the 'my stepdad raped my hamster' mags. It's like they can't be bothered to think of ways of identifying these so just lump them together as women's magazines."

Yes, that's because 95% or more of their customers buying them are women.

I was in a newsagent this morning - I didn't have a good look, as I was actually in the PO queue, and then had to come to work (terribly inconvenient, this work thing.)

Anyway, about a quarter of the magazine shelving was labelled women's lifestyle (pink), about a fifth was men's lifestyle (light blue), a small section was motoring (light blue), and everything else appeared to be Leisure (dark blue). Didn't look any further to see how it was divided among that, but there weren't any more sticky out labels from the shelves.

Using pink for women and light blue for men isn't just about categorizing it by subject.

I've noticed a change over time, in that some shops don't use the term 'men's interest' so widely. They might still use it for the likes of FHM but mags like History Today and Focus are in proper categories. But the same shops might still have a huge category of 'women's intetest' that includes the fashion mags, the weekly gossip rags and the 'my stepdad raped my hamster' mags. It's like they can't be bothered to think of ways of identifying these so just lump them together as women's magazines.

They split magazines in the same way they split other things in order customers can find what their looking for in an easy manner, female toiletries/male toiletries, female clothes/male clothes etc. I find most places split mags by subject matter, all gossip mags are together, all train mags are together, all fitness mags are together etc. etc.

I think your looking for an issue where there isn't one.

I lie - it wasn't Tesco, it was WH Smith.

I had a look in Tesco yesterday. There's a Women & Style section & a Men & Style section. (Men's Health etc were in it.) No Men's/Women's interest. Gracia was in the Weeklies section. None of the other sections were gendered. (Although Weeklies was next to Women & Style whilst Men & Style was next to Sport and Hobbies.)

I don't think the shops are social engineering, they are making it easier for the majority of their customers to find what they are after.
If you take ten minutes to stand and watch the mag racks at WHSmiths you will soon see 95% of people buying the "scared shitless, everythings a threat and you or your family will be murdered or raped pretty soon by a drunk uncle, schizophrenic teen or immigrant/sleb gossip'. " listed up thread are bought by women and 95% of Carp Fishing is bought by men.
Retailers are only interested in making money.

We get Private Eye.

I did used to buy the odd women's magazine when I was a lot younger but I got sick of them rehashing the same old crap.

The house magazines are as bad- all those "we cleaned for months" minimalist homes presented as unique.

Agree Meph, some of the 'lad's mag' advice when looked at opposite the 'women's interest' advice must be bloody eye opening. Someone should do a paper on the mixed messages they both send out.

I remember when I was young, raiding (sic) my mother's Marie Claire pile gave me one hell of a bizarre perspective on female psychology and a truly warped sexual education. It's sad that rigid gender divisions in reading material prevent such enlightening social cross-pollination.

I never look at the shelf labelling, I tend to think there's womens (eg Prima etc), mens (eg FHM etc) and general interest which is hobbies, current affairs etc. and is the bulk of it. I don't feel I'm buying a man's mag if I buy Private Eye or a computer mag.

Sure it's not a big thing - but it's yet another drop in the bucket telling women and men what they should be interested in, and all the drip, drip, drip adds up.

If you buy deodorant from the foot care section in Boots, you assume it's for use on your feet. If you buy a magazine from the Men's section, you assume it's for men etc.