To feel like there is not one decent women's magazine on the market

[tinierclanger]

They all churn out the same tired old stuff slightly rehashed every now and again, there's no proper journalism, hardly any proper reviews, no insight into anything. They're all so boring!

You're absolutely right. There's only so many celebrity interviews, wierd diets, must-have handbags and problem pages you can stomach before losing the will to live. I prefer a good book to comics myself.... expand the mind!

YANBU. Journalism is dying.

Yanbu.

Try Vanity Fair.

Or no magazines at all!

This is so true!
I used to be a magazine whore.
Bought most of the glossies & sometimes the weekly TAB types
After a while I realised that I'd read the articles in one for or another before.
So now I've stopped buying & my subscriptions are slowly stopping.

oh yes, it's been a long time since there was anything I would consider buying.
anyway, they are full of adverts for cosmetics etc designed to make you feel shit so you will buy their products. I like not feeling shit, so I'm not going to buy them

true - I gave up buying them years ago as I found them so hateful & tedious. I will read Grazia/Heat etc in a waiting room or if a friend buys one, but that happens very rarely.

I do love the odd Vanity Fair mag - meaty articles, great photos, but I don't even buy that every month now.

Dead right, they are dreadful. Stories that you've seen in other magazines warmed over and served up as new, totally biased reviewing and shameless promotion of over-priced brands who just so happen to be the ones who regularly buy ads... and they're expensive too.

I now read blogs for fashion (free and I find them more relevant), news/science magazines if I want to read articles, and a library book if I want escapism. Women's magazines these days are tosh.

I seem to remember them being much better about 10/15 years ago - don't know if this is just misplaced nostalgia...

Try Filament. It's not just about sex; there are articles about all sorts of things such as atheist parenting, feminist history, drug prohibition etc.
And there is absolutely no sleb twaddle, diets, mainstream fashion crap etc.

It's the general 'wimmins'ones that are rubbish, special interest ones are better.

true.

I don't tend to read "women's" magazines any more.

I read books a lot and other info I get from here! (ir from watching the news)

I tend to seek out stuff I'm interested in, so...

I read Good Food and New Scientist.

YANBU

In case there is a publisher listening out there, I would like to see a magazine with:

• no bloody celebrities, unless they have achieved something really noteworthy

• lots of pictures of non-celebrity, non-model, non-actress women (and men). We have lost sight of what "normal" looks like

• lots of investigative journalism and opinion pieces

• no sexism - I am sick of these "Why women prefer chocolate and men prefer meat" type articles which are just sexism dressed up as discussion

• no fashion item costing above £300 (and lots below £75). Oh and relatively little fashion and makeup overall. It is BORING

Stylist (which they give out on the Tube) is not too bad, though still way too much celeb/makeup/fashion stuff.

I quite like Easy Living. Will be cancelling my Marie Claire subscription. Find it really boring these days. She is okay too, but you are right, they were better 15 or so years ago.
I miss EVE. Can't believe it went bust while tosh like Grazia survives

Yes I agree special interest ones tend to be better, i just don't always want to buy one just about food or films or whatever. I'm sure they used to be more interesting. Dh agrees journalism isn't what it used to be but he reckons I've been spoilt by the Internet. Are there any good general blogs?

it's worse than sexism dressed up as discussion, it's sexism dressed up as Science (to which we are all expected to bow down with our ickle bitty teeny tiny pink fluffy girl brains).

YANBU

Apart from Take A Break. Which is the best thing ever written.

Agree. It's either sleb crap, cookery and lifestyle for the over 55s with agas and too mcuh time on their hands, high fashion with price tags that I would never fork out for even if I had the cash, or cosmo types that want to tell me all about orgasms.

Maybe I've just reached a weird age, I don't know. Minipie's suggestions are fab. When are you publishing?

YADNBU, I am not interested in slebs at all, not interested enough in fashion to want to read about latest collections etc. (I like to dress nicely and I know what suits me so don't tend to 'follow' fashion as such), ditto cosmetics etc., not generally interested in readers stories about quirkiest one night stands etc.

It seems that there arr no magazines out there that cater for women who want to read about actual stuff, you know stuff of substance, ishoos, politics (with a small p) current affairs, etc. The best I have found so far is the Stella mag that comes in the Sunday Telegraph, but that's just a small thing and even so, half of that is still clothes and cosmetics.

Haven't heard of Filament, but off to have a look!

I actually took part in some research a couple of months ago (through a mn appeal actually) and it was about what women are looking for in magazines, and after the interview had finished the interviewer said she had agreed with me about a lot of womens magazines these days, and that she too had always been looking for a more 'serious' womens magazine (which doesn't have to mean dull obviously).

D

I don't even read them in waiting rooms any more, I read the crazy local ones with features called 'A focus on Little Piddling-On-The-Wold' and lots of advertorials on local restaurants.

Oh, and forgot - the print equivalent of Jeremy Kyle - Bella, Chat, the sort of thing

gosh I recall first encountering Marie Claire 20 years or so ago and thinking how fecking amazing is this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It can't just be me that's changed can it? Its as unreadable as as the other now.

Oh I agree with your agenda minipie! Yes elements of stylist can be ok.
Word used to be ok but is now rubbish and has always been very blokey.
I'm sure in the olden days Marie-Claire was quite interesting.

Another thing - they are getting really pricey. About £4 now

Will look at filament, have never heard of it so slightly perturbed by you saying it's not 'just' about sex...

cheers tinier - I thought I'd get "olden days" comments from DD soon enough but not here ..........

What has happened to Marie Claire?

PMSL Shirley at TAB being the best thing ever written!

There was a tips thread on MN somewhere from these type of TAB mags!