To be surprised that the Daily Mail has a majority female readership?

[netsybetsy]

My husband and I were discussing newspapers yesterday and I have been reading a bit about the demographic of different newspapers.

I was surprised to read that the Daily Mail is unusual in that the majority of its readers are women!

The reason I am surprised is that they really are quite insulting towards women with many of the articles.

I assumed everyone knew this.

The side bar of semi-naked women is designed to elicit derogatory and judgemental comments from its mainly female readership.

It’s a news-lite scandal rag but powerful nonetheless.

Women's magazines are full of candid shots of celebrities looking like shit when caught off guard.

It seems to me that the women who read these magazines are of a similar mind to the women that read the Daily Mail.

These are the women you are best to avoid through your life.

Always have had a female dominated readership. In print form, the sniping was less pronounced (sidebar of shame condenses it) and they always catered for traditional female interests in style/ lifestyle pages. Traditionally, women were also more right wing but this is changing as younger women became much more left wing in the 1990s and these women have aged and moved through in the demographic.

There’s lots of internalised misogyny about - Dworkin wrote about it in US context.

Though they’ve probably written with a more critical eye about the more radical/extreme trans agenda than the Guardian have.

I cannot believe I only discovered this today I was wondering what the Daily Mail were giving women that was attracting them. It seems that they are very misogynistic to me.

I have no interest in celebrities or most TV so I suppose that explains why I could not see the attraction at first!

I didn't know this but I'm not surprised.

Don't they have a specific sub site dedicated purely to women readers?

I was looking at a page in the Guardian online that described the demographic of all the newspapers and I did not seem to fit into any one of them. I tend to read around online a lot - a bit here and a bit there with no real loyalty to any newspaper.

I wanted to post the page I was looking at but cannot find it - I will do so if I do find it!

Traditionally, women were also more right wing

See..this also surprises me! I think this is an area I need to study a bit more as I clearly have a lot of learning to do.

Internalised misogyny and divide and conquer. The more time women spend tearing each other apart over their cellulite and “burgeoning bumps”, daring to eat in road side cafes and the men they’re shagging, the less time they have to contemplate the shit the patriarchy is doing to them.

Everyone in
not being like
you shocker

There are female misogynists, I've come across quite a few in my time. I suspect (hope) they are a dying breed.

If you read the daily mail it’s obvious it’s fairly female targeted. There’s a section called femail and the wording of lots of articles implies it to e.g gifts for your partner article will often be referring to male partners only, sexual advice is female targeted and any male related stuff will always be worded as ‘for him’ rather than for you.

There's lots of celeb gossip in the sidebar...I'm not surprised.

I read the daily mail online mainly because it's well set out and one of the most user friendly online newspapers there is.

I like the femail section and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

Many women have internalised misogyny and delight in dragging other women down. Many women are also racist and spiteful in general.

I didn't know this, but Femail is actually ok. Does anyone read the rest of it?

I've always associated it with old ladies

@manicinsomniac

I didn't know this but I'm not surprised.

Don't they have a specific sub site dedicated purely to women readers?

Yep, The "Femail"

If you look at the comments, most of them are men. So I too am surprised by your post.

Well men always feel more entitled to express their opinion publically

I read it mostly for the celeb gossip.
But it also has easy to read headlines to garner the main news for the day. Obviously you have to take it with a pinch of salt.

I read femail every day as do a lot of women I know.

Femail is not remotely OK.

It pretends to like women but actually hates them.

Some articles will be OK, but all the pics will be of women in Mail approved clothing - all those weird dresses, lots of focus on weight, you can still look good over 50 - sounds empowering but also implies you were hideous and dropping off a cliff.

Once you've seen it the tone of 'this is empowering because actually you are crap without it' the whole thing is unbearable.

This has always been the case. From Yes Minister in the 1970s :

Hacker: “I know exactly who reads the papers. The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country; The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country; the Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; the Financial Times is read by people who own the country; the Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country, and the Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.“

Sir Humphrey: ‘Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?“

Bernard: “Sun readers don't care who runs the country, as long as she's got big tits.“

I get that we all like different things. It's just that the DM are very hard on women daring to age - all women will be in that boat one day. I'm already well on the way...

@AgeLikeWine love it!