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Are women interested in current affairs? (And why I hate Woman's Hour)

426 replies

BrummieOnTheRun · 02/12/2006 12:51

I spent the last few days ranting to DH about the fact that certain stories that primarily affect women don't appear in the media.
Like the nationwide policy of downgrading local maternity services (only reported locally, ignored by national media) putting 1,000s of women and babies' lives at risk each year. Or is that each month?
Like loans to women entrepreneurs being at higher interest rates than those to men as we are perceived to be higher risk.
Like the cost of childcare and impact on (primarily women's) employment being treated as a minority issue. We're 50% of the population and most of us have/will have children.
Blah, blah, blah.
Have always been pissed off that Woman's Hour, instead of having the political and intellectual clout of the Today programme, has spent approx 6 minutes superficially covering important issues to cut them off to discuss bloody borsch recipes. Or drama 'that women might enjoy'.
Then a depressing thought occurred to me...maybe it isn't that most 'current affairs' isn't interested in women, maybe most women just AREN'T INTERESTED in current affairs and that's why women-centric issues aren't widely covered?

OP posts:
Judy1234 · 03/12/2006 09:50

FF, it's your choice. We can go to the places and meet the people we're interested in. It's not hard. High heels help of course.. I can't take my self seriously today, sorry and I don't even have the alcoholic effects monkeyt had last night to excuse me.

We've never done inanities in our family. Of couse I can sit there talking to just about anyone about anything, even the weather but I won't do it out of choice. It may be being brought up in the home of a psychiatrist I suppose. It doesn't make me better or worse than anyone else. I'm the one who's single and you're mostly all married. I'm certainly no better than anyone else but I don't like dull subjects. If it's the weathter then it needs to about teh effects of global warming or why we've the warmest winter since 1733 or whatever.

More interesting is why men may be interested in the wider world and women the home. Do you think that's natural? Or do you think it's untrue? (Some men only can hardly talk and others only talk about football etc) Or do you think it's how we bring up girls?

zippitippitoes · 03/12/2006 10:17

Xenia

It is possible you spend a lot of time with politicians because you employ the most awesome gneralisations and fallacies in everything you say.

You have a cartoon view of people.

And consequently a very narrow view of the world.

moondog · 03/12/2006 10:31
zippitippitoes · 03/12/2006 10:39

I thought that last one was one of Xenia's funniest posts ever too

Judy1234 · 03/12/2006 10:49

A lot of SAHMs have traditionally (because it is only that kind who were ever able to stay at home) been very involved in local politics. Have they become depoliticised in this decade? You'll all be too old to have gone to Greenham Common etc but anyone been on the anti vivisection demonstrations or target Huntindon Life Sciences or on pro hunting marches?

I wrote to the pensions minister yesterday because I had a point I wanted to make (which was - if we are saying no state pension until 68 but allowing employers to sack you at 65 what are people supposed to do in those 3 years?)

aliceband · 03/12/2006 11:28

i like current affairs, i listen to jeremy vine, when i am not working, i used to watch question time, but it is on too late, like news (nearly said round) night., but again, too late and i hate take a break and stuff,

but my dh gets home from work and sticks his nose in the paper and watches news but i am too busy, i have stacks of newspapers to read, but hardly ever get round to them

Monkeytrousers · 03/12/2006 12:21

Don't take this personally Alice, but if there's anyone I dislike more than John Hump it's Jeremy Vine.

Xenia - "More interesting is why men may be interested in the wider world and women the home. Do you think that's natural?"

Well to some degree it is 'natural' as women spend a disporopotionate amount of time bringing up children in the home. It is only very recenlty that women have had a real opportunity to do otherwise, and even that is problematic as the workplace is shaped around the needs of men. Women without children can perform just as well as men in this system, but as soon as they have children they are at a disadvantage in it and begin to fail to progress - that is where the real discrimination is, not in any innate biological difference.

"Or do you think it's untrue? (Some men only can hardly talk and others only talk about football etc) Or do you think it's how we bring up girls?"

I think there's a huge excluded middle in this. Yes, women when they have children, on average will take up more of the domestic responsibilites, but they don't need to feel or betold that that is the role they will be limited to for the rest of their lives.

In the year I took off studying after DS was born I didn't pick up a book other than baby ones - but when I began to study again after that year I realised that it had been an incredibly intelectually creative time. I think of it as a fallow year, as in when farmers leave a field fallow to replenish itself and it becomes more enriched because of it.

piglit · 03/12/2006 12:27

Jeremy Vine. Hmmm, if ever there was an example of dumbing down, it's him. He makes me .

aliceband · 03/12/2006 12:38

yes i did have second thoughts posting that,,, but did it anyway!

zippitippitoes · 03/12/2006 12:43

the problem if you don't read a wide variety of publications and listen to a mix of broadcast and other media is that you do have a limited view.

I often read news online and compare stories from different sources..that is one way to educate yourself on how other people are thinking and feeling.

Continually avoiding certain people and places because they are beneath your consideration is rather reactionary.

drosophila · 03/12/2006 12:50

I think it is about balance. Current affairs can be about small issues you deal with every day in your life. Xenia the issue of suncream is an interesting one. You could have a conversation about it and link it to government policy e.g Is there VAT on sun cream?

I have spent many a boring evening in the company of Men and many a boring time in company of women. My DP can be very short sighted regarding current affairs. To him it is a much more noble pursuit to educate yourself about the goings on around the world than to be involved in local politics for example.

In a nutshell Men can be boring as can Women. There are thread here that go on for ever about correct spelling and grammar now that can be boring. Would Men talk about that? I think they have.
I have soent time in the company of women that I feel I have very little in common with but we have one huge thing in common - parenthood.

Judy1234 · 03/12/2006 12:56

MT women are only at a disadvantage at work if they have a sexist household at home though. So they only have themselves to blame because they choose to see mother as primary childcarer which not all women do but some do and some haven't the ability or force to ensure they have an equality at home they might prefer.

zt< i agree. One reason mumsnet is fun for me. I feel like - are there really these people in existence who stay at home and hoover and mind children and love it? Like I'm in a zoo looking in at a world I never see or experience and it does me good just as sometimes I scrub a toilet or take a bus to remember what those things are like. I like discussions with fundamentalist Muslims and born again Christians and very left wing people too because only with contact and seeing other views can you appreciate someone else's standpoint. I love my teenage sons' current affairs internet researches too - there are whole alternative theories to all kinds of things out there. Mothers at home with computers are hugely lucky to have time and space without an employer breathing down their back to look into almost any topic in the world. I hope they're making the most of it and not just looking up 1000 web sites on how to cook the turkey.

FestiveFrex · 03/12/2006 12:56

Yes, Xenia, it is my choice. I go to the places I want (well, not all of them because that is beyond my budget!) and meet the people who interest me. Does that make me less worthy, because I can be interested in people for qualities other than their intellectual debating skills?

I can find interest and pleasure in a wide range of issues and people. I don't limit myself because I consider it beneath me to converse with someone who isn't necessarily on the same intellectual plane as I. They may have other qualities which interest and attract me. Perhaps some people avoid me because I'm not on their intellectual level - but I wouldn't necessarily know that, would I? And it's their loss because I have lots of other qualities .

zippitippitoes · 03/12/2006 13:00

so what proportion of mumsnetters would you guess are in the zoo cages?

Judy1234 · 03/12/2006 17:56

Hard to know. A lot of people on line never post actually statistically, read but lurk. Also I'm the animal in the zoo for some too. Who knows which of us are in cages being observed and which of us are looking on in amusement.

zippitippitoes · 03/12/2006 17:57

which animal are you?

texasrose · 03/12/2006 18:00

JUst had a thought - are women interested in current affairs?

Click on active convos a number of times and have a look at what topics are being discussed. I'm always impressed by the sheer breadth of interest, and the answer (based on MN alone; not very representative I know) is yes, of course they are. They are also interested in clothes and children and moral issues and complicated relationships.

That's just one way of answering the OP but it's not a bad one.

texasrose · 03/12/2006 18:02

I'm a giraffe.

Judy1234 · 03/12/2006 18:37

I'm very keen on sheep. I'd like some sheep so I'll be one of those. Preferably a rare breed.

zippitippitoes · 03/12/2006 18:39

I thought it was a zoo?

if i had enough room to run about i'd be a cheetah..so maybe a game reserve

morningpaper · 03/12/2006 19:01

Xenia I think that de-politicisation starts early and is due to the pressures of money

Actually there are an AWFUL lot of young MEN who are also totally ignorant of politics

At university my DH had a nice grant and spent his time learning about politics and protesting and getting arrested. I studied hard in the library and worked in between. There wasn't the free time to get involved in political activities because of the time taken to earn money.

Also Greenham common etc. - I often wonder who WERE all those women? How come they could AFFORD to spend all that time there? Where were all the children?

Can I have a dinner party with Xenia?

morningpaper · 03/12/2006 19:02

(Oh my point about university timesachanging - DH is about 100 years older than me.)

SnafuOutOfHiding · 03/12/2006 19:02

A sheep, Xenia? Surely not?

SnafuOutOfHiding · 03/12/2006 19:05

(And all the ex-Greenham women I know never had kids, mp. Then again, I only know about 3, so perhaps not terribly representative...)

Monkeytrousers · 03/12/2006 19:07

"MT women are only at a disadvantage at work if they have a sexist household at home though." Sorry, I'm not sure I know what you mean here. What do you mean by sexist household? I know there is a lot of talk about trying to get employers to give men paid paternity leave, but thats all it adds up to for the majority of couples at the mo - talk.

"So they only have themselves to blame because they choose to see mother as primary childcarer which not all women do but some do and some haven't the ability or force to ensure they have an equality at home they might prefer."

Well by far the majority of women are primary childcarer - by choice. The problem is taking that time out to be primary carer puts their careers at risk. If men did the same, their careers would be at risk in the same way. It shouldn't be a zero sum game with men and women fighting between them over who gets the shitty end of teh stick. The system should not place primary carers (mums or dads - but it is a fact that women will always outnumber the boys on this one because they want to care for their children. Some women don't and won't - that's fine. If all thing were equal - it wouldn't matter - but as we know, they're not.