"Women unhappier than ever " according to the Guardian

[KingRolo]

Interesting article here

So women's lives have got better in many ways but we're not happy. The article says women's happiness relative to men's has declined in the last 25 years.

Why might this be?

It's still men who are to blame though.

Not our partners and husbands, but the rich and powerful owners of the media conglomerates and business empires who make a vast wad of cash out of playing on women's insecurities.

LOL at this thread turning into yet another housework debate! Not that it isn't an important issue, I for one battle it out with dh over the most trivial of tasks, I know it can be a cause of major discord within relationships.

But what this article (quite rightly IMO) points out is that there has never been a time in which so much pressure has been put upon woman... from the way we dress to the way we cook, from the way in which we parent and the way in which we have sex. Substantiated by the constant backdrop of glossy magazines, glamorous marketing, celebrity culture, home improvement programmes, designer labels... the list goes on. And all the time us normal folk are getting the message that we don't have enough and we're not good enough.

It's easy for some to sit back and say 'don't get sucked into it' and that's great if you can honestly say that you don't get affected by it, good for you. You're clearly either very lucky or very self-assured. But the majority of us aren't, and for the sake of our children and our children's children, this is actually a very big deal and a concern that we should all share, and try as parents to fight - whatever the gender of our children.

Hmmm I'm not sure King Rolo... the editors of most women's magazines are women, in fact stick insect Anna Wintour is (allegedly) known for telling her cover girls to lose more weight before the shoot.

I think the route to true happiness (within the West) is to avoid pretty much all media. I don't buy magazines, newspapers (one to many articles slating WOHM/SAHM) or watch much TV. It really is like a weight being lifted.

The media plays on our insecurity. Magazines, especially, can not survive financially with out adverts or product placements. These products only sell by playing on our insecurities. It is a vicious circle which will only stop when we stop buying them and do not allow them in your house.

Big business needs us to feel crap so we buy stuff to cheer ourselves up.

However, I am not sure how much teenage girls can resist all the guff.

CrackFox, agree that today's media, and women's and parenting magazines in particular, are toxic. I cannot read the drivel without feeling like flinging it across the room.

Dd is only 5, and she will have to find things out for herself. But it won't stop me, when she is older and the situation presents itself, for me to explain how advertising/media/popular culture work in ways which are subtle but absolutely aimed at making people buy things they do not need.

And they do by making people feel like they are missing out if they don't aspire to the same vacuous things.

Don't blame men, however. The marketing function has been hugely feminised, across industries. The people peddling all the crap without a care in the world for women's well-being are women (and generally self-important ones at that).

It's true.Women working in 'fashion' journalism [for want of a better word seem truly truly awful].

Crack, I also gave up women's magazines and tv a few years ago and feel my life is infinitely better for it. I like a pretty frock as much as the next woman but I find I can get the info I need on that stuff via newspapers and occasional online stuff.

Yes, women write for magazines and edit them but most media companies are owned by men and that's where the power lies.

Most female journalists in this sector know which side their bread is buttered and are hardly likely to challenge the status quo are they? Can you imagine a writer saying, Ok, we'll ditch the feature about Jordan and do one on Shami Chakrabarti instead? She'd be sacked.

KingRolo - come come, the women who work in the media are not slaves or prisoners of their shareholders! They can leave whenever they like if they don't like their jobs.

The thing that really bothers me about that type of marketing/media career woman is that they are often very sneery indeed about the SAHM role.