Magazine Morons

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AIBU to ask who these covers actually appeal to? I'm talking about the likes of Chat Magazine where there is always some inane looking woman with her mouth gaping open in the most alarming and unnatural fashion. Usually the photograph is accompanied by some horrific headline.

In terms of marketing they must work because these toilet paper alternatives are still selling but what is the thinking behind these photographs?

I'm trying to imagine the directions from the photographer..."Face forward. That's great now smile. No that doesn't work. I know, try smiling like there are fishhooks in both cheeks then open your mouth as wide as the Joker following a full lobotomy".

I used to buy Take a Break as an insomnia aid. The puzzles were so easy that doing them before bed helped calm my mind and get me to drop off!

To be honest, reading all those horrible stories can help put your life in perspective too. Some of the people in them make some very questionable choices. "We'd only been together 3 months but I was so excited when I found out I was pregnant.", seems to be a common line in a lot of the tales.

Thanks so much for alerting me to this Classics thread. It's wonderful! Viz do some cracking send ups of Take a Break type stories, one of my favourites was "The Pound Shop Santa". Then there's the legendary Viz Top Tips

Not everyone finds it offensive. I work with teens with learning disabilities and many of them use the word. 🤷‍♀️

I understand where you’re coming from but the word “moron” has not been used to describe people with learning difficulties for generations, and hasn’t in my lifetime (I’m nearly 50). It’s just a word for a stupid person. I’ve never, ever heard it used in the context of belittling or mocking someone with learning difficulties.

I appreciate its transition into that meaning was a result of ableism, but ableism in the early part of last century - literally about 100 years ago - when it was last used medically to describe people with learning difficulties.

So, yes, this word has its roots in ableism in a period that predates even our parents and possibly even our grandparents, so I can see why people are uncomfortable with it being used, but words change their meaning over time and it’s hardly the same as using the N-word, which is still used actively used as a racial slur, when moron is never used as an ableist slur today, and hasn’t been in living memory.

I don’t think trying to police words like this does anyone any favours.

I get given these in the hairdressers and flick through out of boredom.
I can hazard a guess at the type of person who buys and reads this rubbish and I don’t think they’ll be performing brain surgeries any time soon, to put it kindly.

I carried my mug of steaming fresh coffee upstairs after letting my faithful dog out into the garden then feeding him his usual healthy breakfast before opening my phone for my usual early browse of one of my favourite websites, ‘Mumsnet’. I stretched out my shapely legs under the Egyptian cotton bedsheets and wiggled my toes happily at the luxury I had to carry out this delightful morning routine since hubby and I had retired.

Bit then, opening a very amusing thread about those dire magazines which were all we had to read before the Internet and ‘Mumsnet’ gave us the gossipy, informative, human-led content we love, I sighed inwardly at the now-daily pulling apart of what promised to be an interesting thread by the interrogators - the usual suspects.

There’s a Facebook group called “Take a Shite” that shares all the ‘tips’ people send into these magazines, they’re hilarious.

If they're mainly purchased by an older demographic, they'd have been used to Izal. Similar absorbancy

I had uni housemates that would use the free student newspaper when they ran out of economy bogrolls.

I used to buy mid-range bogrolls in "bulk" and keep stashed in my room because if one was ever left in the toilet, it would very rapidly disappear so I needed loads of spares.

And maybe slow readers who need to follow the print with their finger while mouthing the words?

(Sorry - that was mean, but I have seen it in action!)

Maybe you should read in paper form, then? Maybe what its readership likes is the lack of intervention.

Fabulous! 😂 Thanks for posting, Cecilia. How did we cope before we found out we could freeze a tube of minty toothpaste and slice it if we ran out of after-dinner mints?

And My favourite ever headline in one of those magazines was "I went to bingo and woke up dead".

It's interesting reading the 2018 Classics thread and comparing it with this one. The 2018 thread is fun and hilarious and this one is quite serious in parts with a number of posters unhappy about the topic being discussed. There's also a bit of unpleasantness, disagreement and negativity. Its like a metaphor for how the world has changed in the last seven or eight years.
Anyone remember the 1978 song "Jilted John" with the chorus "Gordon is a moron".

I liked "Killed by my own cardigan" and "My toilet had eyes and teeth". Genius.

I only but always buy one at the airport!
Reading about other people's horrors takes my mind off plunging to my death at 38000 feet

I saw one ,I sewed buttons on the collar of my denim jacket for a retro look...hate to break it to you that was never a look.
Cue photo of jacket with multi coloured buttons on the collar.🤣🤣

Taking the piss out of people with literacy issues nice one.

Lol. My mum got £25 for a tip about 25 years ago! Was something to do with removing sausage skin 🤣

Remember people making masks during COVID out of sanitary towels? I tried it with tampons but it just didn't work.

Hello, @ThePieceHall - we replied to your initial report on Saturday, you may not have seen our email. Just to reiterate, we generally allow words where the common, contemporary usage has shifted away from their original meaning, provided they’re not being used with the intention to target or demean someone.

We recognise that language can be subjective and impact people differently. To be clear, we would step in and remove any post where the term was used as a personal attack, or to describe a disabled person.