"Men's" Magazines v "Women's" Magazines

[tunaandcheesesandwich]

Some interesting tweets by Everyday Sexism on the placement of magazines in supermarkets. Eg. Computers, Sports etc in Men's Interest section, with the Women's Interest section just containing fashion and gossip magazines.

I just wondered how this affects women on a day to day basis. I do sometimes buy Heat, Gracia etc. But I also buy Private Eye Magazine, which is always in the Men's section, and also the National Geographic magazine. When I pick up the Private Eye it does make me feel like I must be unusual to be buying it, and not thought of as 'feminine'.

I've not really noticed this tbh. Perhaps not all shops have "men's interest" & "women's interest" sections. I look at running magazines and horse ones, both of which are usually in the sport section. I'll have a closer look next time I'm somewhere & check what section things like Gracia are in.

I buy New Scientist from time to time, and History Today, and Classic Rock and the odd knitting magazine, if it's got a nice pattern, except I'm trying to give that up, as I don't knit that quickly, on account of having to go to work snd do a million other things MN. Also, once every 5 years or so, Farmers Weekly for old times sake, to see how it's changed. Also Private Eye. And back when I frequently passed through Dortmund Airport, I used to buy women's magazines in German (an article is easier than a whole book; I'm far from fluent) - I found Bild der Frau easiest, as I rarely needed to check vocab. Bild is like the Sun, and Bild der Frau is like Women's Weekly or similar. I struggled with the glossier mags, as my language skills weren't up to it, which is fine if I want to stretch my brain a lot, but not to pass a flight.

Can't say I've particularly noticed which section they're under - I think of them as crafty or music or science sections, rather than men's sections, but I haven't really looked at the shelf-labelling.

I realise I have very eclectic magazine-buying habits. I can go for ages without buying any at all.

I don't think I've seen mens/womens interest sections for a few years - they're labelled by hobby around here.

I stopped buying magazines a while ago because they just didn't seem worth it, but in my time I've bought from cross stitch to electronics and everything in between, and the only issue I've had is that they put the less-bought ones up high where a shorty like me can't get at them.

Pretty much every supermarket here has women's interest and men's interest sections.

Bikes and caravans in the men's, crafts and those bloody awful 'my neighbours dog ran off with my aunt' type mags in the women's, New Scientist and Private Eye in general interest.

I don't care. It's just a guide to make things more organised, because more men tend to buy those magazines and more women tend to buy the others. It's not saying only men/women can buy those mags.

Why, though do so many 'women's' magazines have an 'ever growing sense of fear' articles dominating the covers. It would be better to categorise by 'specific interest', 'dependent on men for approval', 'dependent on career recognition for approval', and 'scared shitless, everythings a threat and you or your family will be murdered or raped pretty soon by a drunk uncle, schizophrenic teen or immigrant/sleb gossip'.

I do think it is a shame especially as men are so weird about buying 'women's' magazines' and so miss out on crafts, psychology, astrology and home improvement even though these are also specific interest. What is it about trains and 'buses though? That does seem to attract a male anorack browser. I wonder what would happen if there were a month where all those mags put a jolly craft typeface on.. would that put off the 'male' reader?
It does make me gently angry that new scientist and thr economy are out of the 'women's interest' section. I would much rather it be called 'gossip and sleb' with another section for 'women's lifestyle' for the adult cosmo/MC/Company etc and 'fashion' Its obvious anyway from the garishness perhaps colour blocking would just solve all of it?

I think it's more useful to consider what all the magazines designed for women are trying to feed you / similar those for men, than where in a shop they put the magazines.

I think it's useful to consider what the various magazines are trying to feed women you're fat, stupid, and need to marry a rich man fast as well as where they are placed in shops, if we want to look at the holistic effects. Each to their own though.

Sure it's not a big thing - but it's yet another drop in the bucket telling women and men what they should be interested in, and all the drip, drip, drip adds up.

If you buy deodorant from the foot care section in Boots, you assume it's for use on your feet. If you buy a magazine from the Men's section, you assume it's for men etc.

I never look at the shelf labelling, I tend to think there's womens (eg Prima etc), mens (eg FHM etc) and general interest which is hobbies, current affairs etc. and is the bulk of it. I don't feel I'm buying a man's mag if I buy Private Eye or a computer mag.

I remember when I was young, raiding (sic) my mother's Marie Claire pile gave me one hell of a bizarre perspective on female psychology and a truly warped sexual education. It's sad that rigid gender divisions in reading material prevent such enlightening social cross-pollination.

Agree Meph, some of the 'lad's mag' advice when looked at opposite the 'women's interest' advice must be bloody eye opening. Someone should do a paper on the mixed messages they both send out.

We get Private Eye.

I did used to buy the odd women's magazine when I was a lot younger but I got sick of them rehashing the same old crap.

The house magazines are as bad- all those "we cleaned for months" minimalist homes presented as unique.

I don't think the shops are social engineering, they are making it easier for the majority of their customers to find what they are after.
If you take ten minutes to stand and watch the mag racks at WHSmiths you will soon see 95% of people buying the "scared shitless, everythings a threat and you or your family will be murdered or raped pretty soon by a drunk uncle, schizophrenic teen or immigrant/sleb gossip'. " listed up thread are bought by women and 95% of Carp Fishing is bought by men.
Retailers are only interested in making money.

I had a look in Tesco yesterday. There's a Women & Style section & a Men & Style section. (Men's Health etc were in it.) No Men's/Women's interest. Gracia was in the Weeklies section. None of the other sections were gendered. (Although Weeklies was next to Women & Style whilst Men & Style was next to Sport and Hobbies.)

I lie - it wasn't Tesco, it was WH Smith.

They split magazines in the same way they split other things in order customers can find what their looking for in an easy manner, female toiletries/male toiletries, female clothes/male clothes etc. I find most places split mags by subject matter, all gossip mags are together, all train mags are together, all fitness mags are together etc. etc.

I think your looking for an issue where there isn't one.

I've noticed a change over time, in that some shops don't use the term 'men's interest' so widely. They might still use it for the likes of FHM but mags like History Today and Focus are in proper categories. But the same shops might still have a huge category of 'women's intetest' that includes the fashion mags, the weekly gossip rags and the 'my stepdad raped my hamster' mags. It's like they can't be bothered to think of ways of identifying these so just lump them together as women's magazines.

I was in a newsagent this morning - I didn't have a good look, as I was actually in the PO queue, and then had to come to work (terribly inconvenient, this work thing.)

Anyway, about a quarter of the magazine shelving was labelled women's lifestyle (pink), about a fifth was men's lifestyle (light blue), a small section was motoring (light blue), and everything else appeared to be Leisure (dark blue). Didn't look any further to see how it was divided among that, but there weren't any more sticky out labels from the shelves.

Using pink for women and light blue for men isn't just about categorizing it by subject.

" But the same shops might still have a huge category of 'women's intetest' that includes the fashion mags, the weekly gossip rags and the 'my stepdad raped my hamster' mags. It's like they can't be bothered to think of ways of identifying these so just lump them together as women's magazines."

Yes, that's because 95% or more of their customers buying them are women.

everydaysexism did a campaign on this a while back and got (afair) Sainsbury's, Tesco and WHSmith to stop using gender labels and label by interest instead.

Is taking the labels off the shelves, but still putting all the men's interests together(diy, trains, cars, fishing, etc 90% bought by men)all down one end and women's interests (fashion,celebs, cooking, take a break etc 90% bought by women) all towards the other end, is this enough or would you hold out for a scattergun approach.
Alphabetical maybe?

I was in Sainsbury earlier. They have:
Best sellers (dark blue) - this mostly appeared to be TV Listings overflow.
TV listings (dark blue)
Women's weeklies (pink)
Women's interest (pink) I wonder if they debated calling it women's monthlies.
Women's home interest (pink) - appears to be cooking and crafting stuff
Home & garden (green)
Travel (green)
Leisure (dark blue) - that included stuff like New Scientist and the Economist
Motoring (light blue)
Sport (light blue)
Computing (light blue)
Men's interest (light blue)
Things like History Today were in an unlabelled section, but were in the same row as all the light blue ones.

It does make sense to categorise things, but the colour coding some places round here use does seem to be gendering it more than necessary. Also, why is it labels like "women's home interest", rather than just "home interest" or "cooking & craft"? - i.e. saying what it is, rather than implying it's only for one gender.

I wouldn't have any issue with having general interest covering stuff like Cosmo and FHM under the same area. That's pretty much how it works in my corner shop, where they don't have enough space or enough range to separate everything too much. They've got one rack with daily newspapers on the bottom, then children's, then stuff like "women's interest" and "men's interest" and one or two "leisure" ones (it's a pretty reduced range), and then the top shelf.

One day when I'm feeling brave (and possibly when it's the adult daughter serving rather than her parents, as she's more approachable), I might ask them if they make any profit from the top shelf, now there's so much free porn on the internet. I assume there must be some market for it, as they still stock them. I've never seen anyone purchase one.

That's weird, I looked in our Sainsburys yesterday and there was no mention of Men's or Women's at all, it was just Lifestyle, Craft, Home, Garden, Sports, Technology, Hobbies etc. Didn't notice colour coding but there may have been.

I wonder if it depends on the size of the store? This was a big one. I'm not going to be popping into the town centre smaller one to see what they do, but they do have only about a third of the shelving space for magazines.