Anyone else feel like The Times has become noticeably more antifeminist in the last year?

[sethstarofbethlehemsmum]

the Times and the Sunday Times.

I think it is very noticeable - I would say it is now strikingly worse than the Telegraph, which you might expect to be more antifeminist because it is more overtly right wing, and even than the Daily Mail (though that has always had a bizarre conflicted, obsessive relationship with Women's Issues).

in the last few days we've had the features on women's pay and A.A. Gill's bizarre misogynistic attack on Mary Beard.
earlier this year there was that extraordinary Trouble With Women column. A few months ago there was that bizarre feature by a MRA about the failure of feminism in which the best evidence he could come up with was some young person who said they hadn't read The Female Eunuch.
Can't think of any more offhand but I'm sure there are lots more examples.

Honestly, there is so much, and it is so explicit, it really feels like a policy decision, a deliberate agenda.

I wondered if there was a new editor and then I remembered the paywall; does that explain it? How?

anyone know anything?

(of course, they do still publish the excellent Janice Turner on Sat.)

I was supposed to be in it today following an interview with Rachel Bell on Feminist parenting, I think the 'snow' stories have taken all space though!!

I think the Times has something in it today about the Pay Gap being won by women.....didn't read it though as I was too busy looking for myself!!!

or could be this!!

I don't read Tory papers so I haven't seen it first hand, but I do find interesting the way that public discourse, such as papers, TV etc and what people generally say, seems to reflect the dominant politics of the time. It always seems to me like when there is a Tory government, people feel more at liberty to express Tory sentiments. I don't know whether it's a simple as Tory views being given more prominence as they are the government, or whether its that like to talk like the people with power, but I think it is more complex than that. I know that when there is a Tory government, I find I go more left-wing, so I can imagine it affects the right wing too.

A bit rambling I think, but it's something I sometimes mull over...

I think the Sunday Times is a bunch of sheer wank. i totally agree with you.

Am still addicted and still buy it though, despite at least one article a week pissing me off/

I used to buy The Times and The Sunday Times and then I started getting annoyed every week by the semi-naked, or even naked girl on the front page of the Sunday Times every week, as well as on the front page of the travel section (holidays in the Artic - perfect excuse to show a girl in a bikini!).

In fact, I did a presentation on it last year at the annual Bristol 'Representations of Women in the Media' event.

I wrote in to In Gear section when they had an article about tyres and illustrated it using a photo of a girl kneeling by a tyre who seemed to have forgotten to put her knickers on that day. My letter was published the following week.

I wrote again when they used a photo of a girl in a short skirt standing by a car (the skirt being tantalisingly blown up with a fan) to illustrate car boot sizes.

They have Jeremy Clarkson, AA Gill, Michael Winner, Rod Liddle and numerous other caricature columnists. I used to find them all quite amusing but now don't.

During the elections a few months ago, The Times had an article about female politicians' blouses on page 3.

My parents have a subscription so I do see it from time to time and I always end up feeling annoyed when I see it. There's always some fluff on the cover about style, makeup, shoes...you know, the stuff women are really interested in...on the front page.

It's like reading a trashy magazine but in a newspaper most of the time.

I think their portrayal of women is really poor and their choice of articles aimed at women is outdated and patronising.

I won't buy it again.

You can see my slides, along with the other presentations, here:

Reps of Women in the Media

Slide 18 onwards for my Sunday Times presentation. Check out the one with the naked girl on the front and the 'Toys' slide.

Jess are you part of the Bristol Feminist network?

Stupid question, should have clicked on the link!!

I agree that it has become more anti-woman. I too am still addicted to it though.

I feel compelled to say that I don't agree that being right wing is the same as being anti feminist. One can consider oneself right wing and feminist imvho.

one can also consider oneself pompous for using such an archaic construction

I think the whole right wing/feminist thing as an interesting one. I'm solidly left wing, but I don't see the right wing as necessarily anti feminist. I see lots of anti feminism in the right wing, but then also in the left wing (see liberal conspiracy!). Personally I struggle to see the compatibility between the right wing and feminism, but of course I'm looking through a left wing lens and so I'm starting from a position where I am unlikely to see it. I do find it interesting though.

I don't understand why anyone reads the Times when it runs such boaksome and crass articles as "How to spend it" otherwise know as "you earn more money than you know what to do with, here are some over-priced gee-gaws that are imperative for keeping up with The Jones".

"Personally I struggle to see the compatibility between the right wing and feminism"

Being a second wave feminist, I will of course quote the example of Thatcher. Would anyone like to name a female leader of the Labour Party (and I don't mean a temporary stand-in until the men resume their rightful place)

I think right wing is often conflated with many things it isn't.

fascism = right wing
authoritarian = right wing
racist = right wing

none of these are correct imo, but certainly contribute to the casual assumption amongst some people of the moral superiority of the left wing position. If people think I am a fascist, authoritarian racist just because I voted Tory in the last election no wonder they feel justified in calling me a C*&%

I have known some 'libertarian feminists', i.e. more than a little right-wing, who felt that capitalism was the best route to autonomy and power for women, via financial independence. It's not a view I share entirely, but I don't think it's completely contradictory either, and I can see their point to some extent.

I used to quite like the Times and found it quite sensible and balanced most of the time, though I agree there did seem to be an increase in the amount of silly/annoying/misogynistic stuff and once it went behind the paywall I didn't think it was worth the effort/cost of subscribing.

I still find the news and editorials in the Times quite balanced. And there's a good gender balance in their op-ed contributors. Rachel Sylvester gets the main page to discuss weighty political matters once a week and Alice Thomson and Camilla Cavendish are regulars as well. They have a female Foreign Editor and quite a few women in the sports section.

But I agree that the features are often pretty shocking - and that the Sunday Times is a lot worse in all areas.

I actually know one of the women quoted in the newspaper version of the article linked to by TheFeministParent slightly (her quotes are not in the online version for some reason). The article made it sound as if she gave up a high flying career to stay home with her children. The reality is that she had her first child shortly after leaving uni, and didn't start the job she's quoted as leaving until afterwards. I thought when I read it that the writer had an agenda and conveniently shaped my acquaintances experiences to fit.

Ah, no - it was this story from the Sunday Times (for those of you with a subscription). I now see that TheFeministParent linked to the equivalent story in the Daily Telegraph