Ticked off

[destinie21]

I'm pissed off for so I thought I'd rant a bit so hold on to your hats ladies and gents cuz here goes.


Women's Magazines


Every so often, the television adverts will plug a new women's magazine. "For women like you! For real women! What women really want to know!" usually accompanied by an impossibly clean woman raving at how "like her" this magazine is; she feels as though she's just made a new friend.

Great, another fucking women's magazine, full as ever of dumbed-down worthless crap about who's sleeping with whom, the new Gucci shoes that every girl must have, and of course, everything about MEN. Sure enough, I look at the cover and it's all the same. Star realationships : the Truth! How I got this Amazing Body! Diary of a Divorce! Lose 10lbs in a Week! How to Meet the Man You Never Knew You Wanted!

Don't tell me all women really want to read this soft-soap shit. Who gives a fuck about any of it ? I think the people who make these magazines secretly despise women. Or they're schizophrenic. Love your body - but diet diet diet. Be happy single - but look for a man. Sort out your finances - but blow $700 on a pair of fucking shoes. Geri Halliwell starves herself & now smokes to look thin - here's a copy of her plan for YOU to follow! We're all independent chicks with brains - now here's an issue full of sex and how to be a total fucking doormat to a man who MUST be a shit, because after all, he's a man isn't he? You still have to please him though. Otherwise, although you're an individual with a life, you'll be a complete loser with no life because you're single. Lesbians? What are those? They're in the gay section, thanks very much. All our women are STRAIGHT and NICE.

I don't swoon over George Clooney. I don't want to look like Kate Moss. I don't identify with Bridget Jones and I think that I want to lose weight I'll do something about it, and no I don't shriek in horror at a hint of cellulite or stretch marks. I'll love my body because it's healthy, not because it's thin.

I couldn't give a flying fuck what's going on in soaps this week, what heel I should wear, what new hideous hairstyle I should adopt or what music I should buy. I'll make up my own mind, thanks.

If women's magazines really gave a toss about women, they might actually be interesting to read. Heaven forbid! They're there to keep us in our moronic little Stepford places. Read about Hollywood instead of history. Find out diet tips instead of health statistics. Please your man instead of actually making your own way through life and finding out who you are. Magazines want us all to sit swooning over Brad Pitt & thus be safely out of the world's way. After all, if we actually started thinking, we might realize that Cosmopolitan is as interesting as toilet roll and far less useful. Although, given the amount of shit in both of them, it might be put to some useful task...

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

D Darlin',

What can I tell you? The profit driven, free market system can be rough. Maybe you should get together with Whispering Surrender (she's pissed at car salesMEN) for an old fashioned bitch session.

Sympathetically,

Rumple

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The purpose of these magazines--like the purpose of television--is to sow discontent and desire and envy, and thus drive the consumer culture. And the entire message of consumer culture is that you're just not fucking good enough: you'e not wearing the right stuff, you're not drinking the right stuff, you're just not buying the right stuff, you loser you. Men's magazines give the same message, but in a different form.

But I have to say that I love those women's mags that have big splash covers touting lose-weight-fast diets next to pictures of the twenty most scrumptious desserts ever. They're just priceless.

---dr.M.

 

[Xelebes]

You see why I live on thr internet and in these specific corners?

 

[Wicked-N-Erotic]

In my humble opinion "real women like me" don't look like barbie and could care less about a diet, they are happy with who they are.
They can't afford gucci and are comfotable the way they dress now.
And lastly, they already know how to please their men, who do you think is telling them these tips anyway.
These magazines are a load of crap designed for insecure-neurotic-boobs!



Wicked

 

[Icingsugar]

Here is the cynical truth about most media in general and magazines in particular. I work with them, so I know: Not many a magazine is there for the good of it's readers.

A magazine has two jobs. One is to contain something that makes many people buy it. The other job is top please advertisers. This is done by fulfilling task 1 and then fill the magazine with content that is entertaining enough for people to buy and open up, but not controversial or basically intelligent enough for people to actually read anything. The point is that articles should be uninterresting, but semi-entertaining, so that the reader looks at the ads instead.

Statistics shows two things about those "womens" magaines. First of all that many women read them. Second of all that those women gladly buys two or more just like eachother.

There was a survey made about gossip mags here in Sweden this summer. The results claimed that less than half of the readers were interrested in the wereabouts of the celebrities in question. The others read them because it was fun to read sucky magazines.

 

[Guest]

insecure-neurotic-boobs!

 

[Icingsugar]

After all, if we actually started thinking, we might realize that Cosmopolitan is as interesting as toilet roll and far less useful.

Actually, Cosmo is perfectly balanced to swat mosquitos with.

 

[wornoutkeyboard]

I have the same rant about parenting magazines. All of them are the same, they regurgitate the same crap every issue and they are meant entirely for the well to do, soccer mom set who have a nanny so they can spend ump-teen hours making crafts and deal with all the guilt they will get from reading magazines where you are satan incarnate if you don't breastfeed in public for an eon and you let your kid cry it out occasionally so that the little twig in your brain, ever bending and cracking does not snap in half causing you to go completely insane.

So...in defense, a friend of mine and I have tossed up the idea of writing our own book on parenting and childbirth...the book for the rest of us.

~WOK

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I've read that the people who make these magazines are being more or less blackmailed into writing soppy articles, because if they write about something interesting and clever and important, like gender mutilation in Africa, bride-burning in India, or the side effects of liposuction, then the companies won't place ads in their magazies, and without ads, the magazines will die an economical death.

Companies are afraid that independent, happy women will not buy their products. They prefer women to be neurotic housewives who strive to look perfect and have a perfect home and shop, shop, shop in order to achieve this.

If we want to change this we can start by boycotting companies that endorse this view of women, and writing letters to them explaining why we boycott them.
Companies are gready. They don't care about their consumers. But they DO care if the consumers refuse to buy any of their stuff unless they change their attitude.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I've read that the people who make these magazines are being more or less blackmailed into writing soppy articles, because if they write about something interesting and clever and important, like gender mutilation in Africa, bride-burning in India, or the side effects of liposuction, then the companies won't place ads in their magazies, and without ads, the magazines will die an economical death.

"Ladies' Home Gender Mutilation in Africa Journal"?

Nah. I don't think so. And the writers aren't being blackmailed; it's just market forces at work. They write what the magazines will pay for, and the magazines will pay for what sells.

It's interesting to look at things like Martha Stewart's Living as lifestyle pornography though. Just like sexual porn, the articles depict a perfect world beyond the normal person's reach. They titillate and incite lust and desire. In this case though it's for wall stencilling and perfect desserts rather than for simultaneous orgasms and transcendent sex. But it's still porn.

What's really discouraging is to see how these kinds of subjects have seeped into mainstream news coverage. Celebrity gossip and lifestyle features are now a regular part of broadcast news over here.

They say that Americans are obsessed with celebrities because we don't have royalty, but judging from what's going on with the Windsors it looks like royalty's last justification is their celebrity status.

Now, just what is it that Charles didn't do this time?

---dr.M.

 

[Guest]

Brilliant: Martha Stewart's World as porn. I'd point to that type of display as an example of obscenity.

Pedita

 

[destinie21]

I've read that the people who make these magazines are being more or less blackmailed into writing soppy articles, because if they write about something interesting and clever and important, like gender mutilation in Africa, bride-burning in India, or the side effects of liposuction, then the companies won't place ads in their magazies, and without ads, the magazines will die an economical death.

Companies are afraid that independent, happy women will not buy their products. They prefer women to be neurotic housewives who strive to look perfect and have a perfect home and shop, shop, shop in order to achieve this.

If we want to change this we can start by boycotting companies that endorse this view of women, and writing letters to them explaining why we boycott them.
Companies are gready. They don't care about their consumers. But they DO care if the consumers refuse to buy any of their stuff unless they change their attitude.

My veiw on this is if the main or top selling magazines published their magazines with interesting articles despite endorsment more woman (at least those of us with brains) would buy them. The companies in turn would still continue to endorse the magazine because as you said they don't care about the consumer just that there is a consumer. As recently as five years ago some fashion designers and such companies refused to advertise in magazines geared toward the gay population although the same aforementioned companies had no problem with running ads that had strong homoerotic undertones or if you're Gucci (or alternatly Todd Oldman the mainstay of gucci designs from years ago, and advertising in vouge) You'd go for the blatanly taboo but intruiging concept of veiled lesbian intent. By that I mean models a breath away from kissing or two woman dressed in outfits that cost more than most peoples mortgage with their hands in each others pants and faces misted and fixed in feigned sexual bliss Anyway once the companies realized that statistacally the gay and lesbian population has more money to blow on "frivolity"(because speaking generally many couples don't have multiple children to support ect..) they were gladly putting advertisments on damn near every page og gay magazines. See my piss-offs aren't originating from the advertisments any way (I am a designer after all it's how I put food on the table) The conundrum of it all is the way woman are targeted when it comes to marketing tactics.

feeding that kind prince charming will save you, skinny is beautiful diet, diet, diet crap sets women up with false expectations, places undue pressure on men, and invariably leads to serious unhappiness. I ha[[en to realize the intent of the magazine, our economy is dependent on it. An unhappy woman is a consuming woman, right? Think about it, Many women do when unhappy? -- they Go Shopping or Eat. (and forgive me for my gross generalization on that)

Still I would gladly pay for a magazine or any such thing that offered real life issues and maybe a little advertising too (I am interested in the types of things high end designers put out but I also have an IQ that extends my intrest beyond a size four dress and a killer pair of heels.

Also while I do look over some of the lesbian rags out there they still fail to satisfy me. Even the ones w/o blatant role discriptions (and therefore discrimination) are horribly political and filled with feminist propaganda. I am a lesbian but I do not live in a world where I have only lesbian concerns and only lesbian things happen to me, I don't want to be force fed my sexualiy every single time I flip through a magazine
As you can tellI'm still agitated about this issue.

 

[Jenny _S]

Des,
Why don't we start our own women's magazine for ugly, middle aged, fat, wealfare mom's who only shop at Goodwill and K-Mart.

 

[destinie21]

Des,
Why don't we start our own women's magazine for ugly, middle aged, fat, wealfare mom's who only shop at Goodwill and K-Mart.

LOL hey beautiful,

Um didn't Rosie already have a rag mag and isn't there some sort of legal backlash from it

 

[Jenny _S]

Hahahahaha

LOL hey beautiful,

Um didn't Rosie already have a rag mag and isn't there some sort of legal backlash from it

Yes... but the legal bash came about because the editors wanted to post a "real" pic of Rosie on the cover and she thought she it made he look fat. Thought? Duhhhhhhhh!!!

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Still I would gladly pay for a magazine or any such thing that offered real life issues and maybe a little advertising too (I am interested in the types of things high end designers put out but I also have an IQ that extends my intrest beyond a size four dress and a killer pair of heels.

Here's a few possible alternatives, although I've seldom found them on the check-out lines at supermarkets.

Atlantic Monthly
Harper's
The New Yorker
The Oxford American
Architectural Digest
Mother Jones Magazine
Smithsonian
and of course:
Mad Magazine

Rumple

 

[Jenny _S]

Damn... thinking about this idea

Think about the possibilities. Price comparisons between Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Dollar Tree, etc for the lowest prices on Kotex.

The cheapest places to find soy meal hamberger stretchers.

Back to School Fashion hints for shopping at Goodwill.

Wow... The possibilities are endless

 

[destinie21]

LOl Jen,

actually the manhatten goodwill is like a frashion mecca because the Park Avenue Mrs. Always donate to show there charitble side but I ask you what is a down and out person going to do with last years full length mink coat? It's as bad as the food drives that end up with stuff like cans of caviar and salmon or french jams

 

[wornoutkeyboard]

Thank god I only write for tade/hobbiest/enthusiast magazines...they have high subscription prices so they can afford to offer better articles because they are not trying to pander to their advertisers.

I'd like to add to the list that rumple put up:

Maxim (if you like satire)
Maximum PC
Military History Quarterly
National Geographic
Popular Science
America's Civil War
Discover
Archaeology Magazine
Astronomy Magazine

And of course... writer's digest.

Of course...not that I have written for any of these magazines...er..yeah...that's right.

~WOK

 

[Jenny _S]

LOl Jen,

actually the manhatten goodwill is like a frashion mecca because the Park Avenue Mrs. Always donate to show there charitble side but I ask you what is a down and out person going to do with last years full length mink coat? It's as bad as the food drives that end up with stuff like cans of caviar and salmon or french jams

We need to pander to "middle america" Goodwills, Des. You know, preowned underware and that kind of thing

 

[destinie21]

ewwwww O'd go comando before wearing some strangers underwear.

The Mrs who might be a rich socialite (gag vomit gag)

 

[Svenskaflicka]

My veiw on this is if the main or top selling magazines published their magazines with interesting articles despite endorsment more woman (at least those of us with brains) would buy them. The companies in turn would still continue to endorse the magazine because as you said they don't care about the consumer just that there is a consumer.

*SNIP*

An unhappy woman is a consuming woman, right? Think about it, Many women do when unhappy? -- they Go Shopping or Eat. (and forgive me for my gross generalization on that)

More women would be interested in buying the magazines, yes, but without articles like "what you need to buy in order to become rich, famous, sexy, and get lots of friends and lovers", the companies wouldn't get to sell their products, and then there would be no point in advertising.

Happy women don't waste their time buying stuff, they are too busy being out experiencing life and exploring the world.

In order to make money, it's much more logic to keep women under the foot. Feel sad about that? Then allow me to recommend our latest product, guaranteed to make you feel energized and happy, 100% newly discovered natural ingredients from the rainforests...

 

[Icingsugar]

More women would be interested in buying the magazines, yes, but without articles like "what you need to buy in order to become rich, famous, sexy, and get lots of friends and lovers", the companies wouldn't get to sell their products, and then there would be no point in advertising.

...and that is the sad but oh so true focal point. Selling issues and subscriptions is not what any magazine rely on for financing. It's ads. Period. The advertizers set the rules, the readers (we) don't mean shit.

Sometimes I really hate this world.

/Ice
ps. Yes, Im biting the hand that feeds me. I don't give a toss. I'm sick of it.

 

[whispering_surrender]

D Darlin',

What can I tell you? The profit driven, free market system can be rough. Maybe you should get together with Whispering Surrender (she's pissed at car salesMEN) for an old fashioned bitch session.

Sympathetically,

Rumple

*picks her head up out of Sport's Illustrated and decides to stay out of this one*

*well, one sympathetic hug....*

Whisper