Why do Heat/Closer type magazines make me feel uncomfortable?

[theodorakis]

I am ill today, settled down on the sofa with a pile of magazines. I can't put my finger on why, but the Heat type magazines disturb me, it's a combination I think of the gleeful intrusion into celebrity women's lives and horrible judgemental headlines. Similarly, all of the male interviews and gossip seem to big up their sleeping around and "I lost my virginity at 12 to a 17 year old girl". I do appreciate that people like Katie Price need this publicity as well but the way she is talked about, as a human being is just vile. Is it just me who feels like this? I suppose I am a bit sheltered now, they don't really sell celeb magazines where I live so I don't really bother unless I am in an airport stopover on my way home. If I am right, how the hell did I miss this not so subtle whatever it is (misogyny? Sexism? Ignorant crap?) not sure what it is but I don't like it.

Just to add, in case this is one of those done to death subjects, I apologise, I am quite new to this and keep noticing things from a totally different perspective so they are all brand new revelations to me. It's MN's fault!

I find them pretty boring tbh.
and also feel uncomfortable reading them, so full of stereotypes.

Put them down and read Psychologies instead.

1. They are drivel.
2. They alternately bully then praise the 'celebrities' they are concerned with. It's like some horrible abusive relationship. Sadly a lot of what passes for entertainment these days is just dressed-up bullying (see that jungle programme, Big Brother, any talent show where everyone enjoys Simon Cowell ripping people to shreds, etc).
3. They are drivel.

IMHO.

i'm surprised you even have to ask why they make you feel uncomfortable! - they're bitchy and gossipy and all about others misfortune and judgemental and just plain nasty.

can you tell this is one of my biggest bugbears in modern uk life????

Because they reduce women to a collection of body parts.

buy New Scientist, Viz and Fortean Times instead; you'll feel much better :)

I hate the proliferation of celebrity magazines as well - I don't read them. Nasty, pernicious nonsense.

They're horrible.

To me they're part of the same genre as Take a Break, and by extension, those god-awful misery porn abuse survivor stories. Awful. Awful.

They're much worse than Take a Break (which is quite good-natured, actually, despite the plethora of My Granny Stole My Boyfriend type stories), because they feed on women's insecurities, and encourage women to judge other women for too much cellulite/wearing a dress they once wore before, etc. There is a tone of savage gleeful nastiness that I find utterly repugnant.

What shocked me was in the New Year issue of Heat a few years ago, they actually printed the Xmas cards they had recived from slebs. And the symbiotic relationship between Heat and thw slebs was revealed in all its slimey, sycophantic, gut-wrenching glory.

Slebs who had been pilloried for gaining a few pounds writing: "Thanks, guys, for all your support!!! Xoxo"

Slebs who had been the object of ridicule for leaving a gym with a sweat mark on their sweat pants: "Merry Xmas to all the Heat gang! Love ya all!"

Slebs who had been the victim of domestic violence and told thwir story to Heat: "All the best to my best team EVAH! have a good one!"

Because they are designed to make you hate yourself, OP. Gleeful nastiness is right. They make their readers insecure by portraying impossible beauty standards then make them feel better by tearing down some celeb for failing to meet them. Grim. I havent read one in ten years and I've never missed them!

i always buy New Scientist at the airport for my holidays!

i struggle to understand the whole gossip magazine, tabloid drivel page thing. it seems to be such a massive industry.

I detest them. Utterly utterly detest them. I think they are responsible for so much insecurity, body dysmorphia and angst among girls and young women these days than just about any other single factor.

One day they show an intrusive close up of some sleb's cellulite or tiny 'pot belly' and start making passive aggressive comments about the fact that she is putting on weight, when in reality she's a perfectly normal, healthy and desirable size, and the next day they'll zone in on some painfully thin girl who is held up as a role model for her thinness and ask in a faux concerned way 'is she anorexic?'

I wouldn't wipe my arse on the bloody things.

I get gardening magazines.

They rarely raise the blood pressure too much

Just don't but them. Read a book. Read a paper (the Independent is my choice). Read a magazine about gardening or furnishings or horses or badminton or whatever takes your fancy.

Just don't buy a "women's" magazine - even the "better" ones are shit these days. I have stopped bothering entirely.

I like Stylist - it may be capitalist consumer porn full of insanely expensive shmutter, and cosmetic surgery but it never slags off other women. And it's free (thus saving you a quid or two which you can save up for the Louboutins it will brainwash you into).

I think you put your finger on it perfectly, TBH! What makes it (initially) difficult is that magazines are sold as a kind of 'guilty pleasure' so you're being invited to associate the uncomfortable feelings with that, not with the content, which if it were in a different context, would be much more obviously shocking. I find Grazia even more dodgy, the way it juxtaposes genuine issues, some of the feminist, with utter woman-hating tripe ('Kate Moss looks haggard/gorgeous/tarty/sad/excited, we think her marriage is perfect/on the rocks/a scam to sell babies to Martians').

There was a thread a while back about magazines and stopping reading them, it was quite good. I used to buy Vogue every month and Grazia probably every week, and I saved myself a lot of money off that thread!

They are designed to make you feel bad about yourself. They point and sneer at slobs on one page then have an ad for maybelline or some such on the next. It's just to get you to spend spend spend. Look at the staff lists- more work in sales than features.

I find it really insulting being told what to buy, and the glossies are even worse for this.

OP, I am with you but the sleb mags are a fraction better than the 'wimmins mags' - the dreadful Marie Claire / Grazia / Cosmo, that assume we all obsess about fashion and relationships.

Frankly, I would rather read about Peter Andre's Love For His Kids than look at pictures of £500 shoes and do quizzes on 'What type of Lover are you?'. Insulting tosh.

Because they're crap and assume you are mentally retarded?

I cant stand those magazines. The other week I was in the supermarket and the woman in front of me was buying a handful of that crap. I so wanted to say to her 'I wondered what kind of idiots buy that crap' but I didnt but I sure though it.

I was in the hairdressers not long ago and was handed the usual bunch of rubbish magazines. One of them though was Woman and Home. I was so surprised, what a refreshing change. It had a great interview with Annie Lennox and had interviews with other empowered women from the world of business etc. It was really good, I was really surprised.

OP get someone to get you a copy!

They are awful, I stopped reading them ages ago. I have to say that I like Jezebel which is an online magazine. It's not perfect and is based in America but I like it so have a look if you want a non awful magazine.

also The Hairpin is a non-vom-inducing online mag. Most of the time. Some of the advice stuff can be vom-inducing in style, but it's a non-woman-hating magazine.
How tragic that 'non-woman-hating!' should be an exciting recommendation!