to wonder why newspapers always put the

[2shoes]

age of the person even if it is not relevant to the story

cos I am a nosy parker and like to know these things

I know, it's weird, isn't it?

And the hair colour if it's a woman (sexist reasons)

And if she is a single parent if it's the Daily Mail.

And "curvy" if it's The Sun...

I've no idea.

What's even worse is when the tabloids add information such as this as 'Blonde mother of three Lisa who lives in a £500,000 home...'.

Tehy do if it's a woman.

Sharon, 37, lives in Bristol with her partner ANdy, a mechanic, and they have 3 children.

Along those lines. ALL the time. I don't mind if they at least mention the man's age too.

TeamEdward! that's it isn't it?!

But they could stretch the laughs further by giving us the men's ages too.

They don't say 'Ian who is balding and who has a tiny cock...'

Why do they feel the need to do it with women?

They would if he was 21, Maggie

It is all an Invitation To Judge, imo.

true!

It's to avoid defamation claims from someone of the same name. If they say who, what age, where they live, then the story is less likely to be mistaken as being about someone else of same name. They do mention men's age too.

My Dad featured in an article in the Daily Mail back in the 1990s, after an armed robber held up the bank he worked in. They rang him for an interview, which he was happy to give. They asked him his age though, and he refused to give it, saying he didn't really feel that was relevant. They printed the story with a completely made up age for him... he was fuming.

I was wondering that, if they would make it up, if you refused to give it

Almost causes you to wonder whether the papers might make up all kinds of things, doesn't it 2shoes...!
[innocent]

YANBU. And they are not content to call a woman a woman, if they can say that "a grandmother" or "a mother" has won a prize/been arrested/had cornflakes for breakfast.

DP was in a paper before I met him, and it claimed he was a father of two. He had no kids. That must have been an awkward conversation with his wife at the time! Also, it was in the Daily Record, and he's not Scottish and the story was about his appearance on Mastermind, so really not relevant to Scotland in any way, at least not enough to warrant an article!

DB was involved in a serious accident when he was 27 - the paper reported that he was 7!!

I always have a chuckle at this. Some go so far as to write a woman's age, hair colour, proffesion and phisique.
eg "Blonde hairdresser Michelle, 34".
or "Busty lawer Sophie, 28"
says confused brunette roly-poly mum, Cranky, 29.

Yes a woman is always defined by her age and how many children she has.

and anyone over 50 is "elderly" and quite possibly only to be defined as a "pensioner".

Oh, Wombat, yes! I so object to the house value + description so beloved of the DM, eg

"their £120,000 terraced former council house"

or "their £600,000 spacious detached home in Guildford"