Sunday Times 'The Trouble With Woman' column

[sethstarkaddersmum]

example here. (There are a few more you can get at from before the pay wall went up.)

here

I am so fed up with this bloody column. The other week there was one about why women are crap drivers. Then there was one which I fortunately missed which resulted in lots of letters to the editor which I guess must have been even more offensive.

They seem to have done a 'trouble with men' (here) once which of course was equally sexist and dim, but basically the column is low-level misogyny.

anyone else getting hugely annoyed by this, or just me?

I LOVE Sainsburys foodie magazine! We're cool kids GOML. Fo shiz.

I do get excited (yes, really) when I am in Sainsbos and realise the new issue has come out, I think I may actually go 'ooh' out loud when I see it.

I then turn to see what Nigel Slater is cooking this month.

I subscribe to Prima magazine. It's terrific! That's about it.

I haven't bought a mag off a newstand in about a year.

Don't forget the Clare Balding furore when we're talking about the general crapness of the ST WRT women: hard to say which is more offensive, Gill's comment or Witherow's response to Clare's complaint...

'Jeremy Clarkson, perhaps the epitome of the heterosexual male, is constantly jeered at for his dress sense (lack of), adolescent mindset and hairstyle.'

No, he's criticised for being a complete and utter dicksmack.

Epitome of the heterosexual male? Epitome of an overblown, old-boys-network, male, middle-age, white, misogynistic, dinosaur-era fuckwit more like.

Not so keen on Jeremy are you expat?

lmao @ Clarkson being the epitome of the heterosexual male. Explains a lot about the ST if that is who the editor has in mind as a typical reader. I wonder who he thinks of as the epitome of the heterosexual female.

I shall use dicksmack in my vocabulary today, thanks for that one

GetOrfMoiLand, that contraceptive pill article had me raging too! No mention of the fact that a hell of a lot, if not most underage teenage girls are on the pill for health reasons. Oh no, lets write it as though they are all on it because they are all at it like rabbits. Grr. I must. not. succumb. this. weekend.

And whom are all these underage girls shagging then? Let's see, they need a contraceptive, so that means they are having sex with . . . males.

I think they should get a torrent of post from white middle-aged males who are considering exsanguinating themselves at the thought of J Clarkson being their example.

I can also see some other problems with that comparison. You can change your clothes and haircut, you can't actually alter your predilection for the ladies.

Patsy - that was my feeling EXACTLY.

I read the article in rage thinking this cannot be the Sunday Time,s this article is like some shit columnist spouting off in Daily Mail.

NO breakdown of the figures - out of the 50000 teenage girls on the pill, NO breakdown into how many of them are on it because of acne, or because of crippling periods. My dd is 14, she is on the pillm so are loads of her mates, and it is NOT because she out with the lads.

Hideous article.

I had forgotten that column.
The last straw was that article on 'how women age badly past 30' and what should he do?
Made me fume
Yes, India Knight is great
Yes Caitlin Moran as well
But not good enough to balance this crap
Time for a change of sunday paper i think

God I was on the pill at 14, so were lots of my friends. We all had godawful period pains, and we were often put on it to stop us having to take days off every month, and so we could run it together over exams etc if need be. They were making out it's because teenage girls are all so slutty?

Mind you, the ST headline on teenagers being given the pill because of period pains would be something godaqwful and scaremongering like 'Teenage Girls In Danger of Hormonal Problems for Life due to extended Pill Use'

Caitlin and India should be Mumsnet writers in residence. MNHQ - pay them both to come on here and start 10 threads a week.

I went on the pill at 15 to target acne. ElephantAndMiasmas - the implication for thinking about why they're making under age girls out to be slutty is a scary thought.

Anybody remember the 'Sunday Format'? It was billed as something like radio's first quality weekend broadsheet. Wonderful stuff and so true. And all delivered in portentous, self-satisfied RP voices

I was a newspaper fiend when younger but I can't bear them these days. I do buy the occasional paper but only after checking that there's nothing in there that is so obviously going to piss me off that I will feel compelled to read it in some sort of masochistic funk and then fulminate for days.

I advise skim reading the online versions - at least while they're still free. And don't read the comments. Only nutters post comments online....

And they ended the Ecosse supplement for the Scottish audience. No surprise there, though.

Blimey if Jeremy Clarkson is the epitome of the heterosexual male, I'm doomed to be celibate for the rest of my life.

Agh the old Pill ishoo ! men don't like girls on the pill as it means there is little external evidence as to whether or not they are/are not sexually active. You have to take their word for it. Much like... mmm, let me see... boys!!!

Makes me mad. Does it even really matter why the girl is on the Pill? If she is sexually active, it must be with someone, surely?

Don't read the ST having a reg column called "why women are shit" or whatever it is, is just pathetic really.

mummyberry interested in what external evidence there is for sexual activity if girls aren't on the pill? Think I'm missing something!

How nice to find a group of fellow Times-haters! I have given up on that newspaper a long time ago. I admit I used to regularly scan their website, out of some kind of sick voyeurism, but since they started charging for it, I don't bother now. There are cheaper thrills, after all.

They do have some good columnists (e.g. Sathnam Sanghera's columns which are always entertaining and well-written with a fresh perspective e.g. www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/sathnam_sanghera/article6984087.ece) but most of their columnists are wealthy Londoners with a very limited perspective on anything that happens outside of Knightsbridge or even the UK. Most of their women columnists (Caitlin Moran being an exception) come across as shills who've been co-opted into the Rupert Murdoch patriarchy. Antonia Senior's columns were always a low-point for me. I can't remember which article really wound me up but they were always along the lines of 'why most women really want to stay home with their kids' and 'why sexual harrassment in the workplace is overplayed by nutter feminists' www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article7130096.ece etc etc.

I struggle with finding a good broadsheet newspaper too, I have to say. The Guardian is always a bit too bleeding-heart liberal, the Independent is bland, the Telegraph is just a wad of pro-military, anti-Europe, narrow-minded junk. These days I read the New York Times mostly - a mix of great blogs and well-researched articles and opinion pieces - and sometimes check local papers for day-to-day news.

I found Clare Balding's response so eloquent. Made them all look like the right bastards they are.

DH used to like it for the InGear supplement, but that kept getting smaller and smaller and now he just watches The Gadget Show.