stereotyping media as a form of control

I hope this does not come off as a rant, its just a social observation.

Whenever I go shopping with my Wife, we often have a mooch around the magazine sections and buy a few Magazines that are of interest to us. But I have to say that there seems to be a huge biase AGAINST women in the media.

What I mean by this is what type of magazine is promoted to a certain demographic. I have been shocked when I go to my local super markets and see the type of media promoted to women.

Also, I have a few customers who run certain UK magazines for the Photographic, Technology and Computing press and had some interesting conversations about demographical stats with them.

Have you noticed that you may get a few small shelves targeted at men. These tend to be topical, technologocal, informative, educational or hobbyist mags.

Then the female section, is about 40 foot long (No Joke, thats my local supermarket) which is full only of a trash mags for women. I call them that because their content is just mush.

Most if not all female targeted mags are based on Celebrity Gossip, Stars caught in the act, makup, tons and tons of beautifying product adverts, very very skinny woman, silly saudid stories. And there are hundreds of them. With very little content, mainly stroies about celebs shagging celebs, Diets, Fashion, celebs with a tiny skin blemish or wrinkle, celebs with the wrong clothes on .

Did Emily Pankhurst, fight for female liberation, to have the female race become a mushy, unintellectual, negative , sub-cultural fixated, body dismorphic load of loons?

If you go by the media targeted at women, NO WONDER MOST WOMEN I KNOW I HAVE LOW SELF ESTEEM!!

If we are to look at this from a purley sociological point, what does this tell us.
(BTW This is not my view, women are 100% equal in my book, although women have a few things that us men could learn a lot from)

1) Men are more proactive, inteligent, interesting, looking for personal growth.

2) Women are a mushy mess of celeb gossip, diets, trashy unintelligeable trot, obsessed with beautification.

And more to the point....women buy this sh1t. By the bucket load!!!

I often wonder, and would appreciate comments from female members on ATS, what this is all about. Its can't be that women only want to read that nonsense. I mean, several magazines in amongst it all, like men have FHM and things, but every magazine...litterally every single magazine is about the same thing. Brad and Angie...Who gives a ****! Jennifer Aniston still upset with Brad...Who gives a ££££!!!! One or two mags on the same thing....thats so so.....but not everyone.

Next time you go to a local shop just take a gander and see for yourselves.

My local has the following:

20ft x 6ft space dedicated to National Geo, History Mag, PC Pro, PC Format, Photography, Sailing, Travel Guides, FHM, Focus and so on.

Turn around and there is a double sided, 40ft by 6ft shelving system, lined both sides with Hello, Next, Take a Break, Cosmo, you name it.

I was watching a few documentry's about UK kids as young as 8, who feel they need to diet so they can be a size 0, or have breast implants, or have bucket loads of makeup to look older....They did not learn that from their parents. They learn this stuff from being obsessed with these magazines and celeb culture.

OK, everyine has the right to do what they want, read what they want and so on, but at what point should women think "OK enoughs enough now". I don't know who runs these magazines, and would not be shocked if they are run by men. But I have a funny feeling that most are run by women....which is even more worrying.

So, did Emily Pankhurst die , for female liberation, only for women to perpetuate the stereotype that they had anyway?For the record....My wife still loves buying them.....although she can't really answer me why she likes adding to her own body issues by reading that tripe.

...To add. I Know that were there is demand, someone has to build the product. So maybe the above is directed at the women on ATS. Im just seeking understanding on the subject myself.

Although I have never met anyone, who can tell me , how their life and world and understanding of the universe has changed from discovering how Brad and Angie have fallen out, or discovering a small wrinkle on Lady Ga Ga's hand. It certainly does not rock my world.....but maybe thats a male thing.

reply to post by Pax et Intellectus


Hi Pax et Intellectus.
In my local supermarket, there are no men sections for the magazine racks. There are hobby, computing, electronics, gardening, fishing, motoring etc. sections. Then, there are "women's magazines"... All the interesting stuff is assumed to be the "men section": on the top shelf above those, you have the "lads mags", presumably safely off the line of sight of young children. I don't know if this arrangement is particular to this specific supermarket or is a general tendency. It does fit with the point you are making.
Next time I'm in a place where they sell magazines, I'm going to pay close attention to the way they are displayed.
Thanks for an interesting post.

If you are in the supermarket, then the magazines at the end of the checkout are there to be bought on impulse, and to foster consumerism.
So that's what you get. If you are in a grocery store, you'll also see a lot of food magazines there.

I consider the 'celebrity' and 'beauty' type magazines more like the ones of hot rods with bikini babes are for men. Yeah, stereotypical, but the stereotype didn't come out of the great blue yonder.

As a woman, with 48 subscriptions, (I'm an info-junkie) ...the ones I like to read the most are US Weekly (I admit it, I gotta see what Angie and Brad are up to!), Spa, Saveur, Readymade, Taste of Home, Sunset, Wired and Southern Living.
Marie Claire is another favorite, and if you look at the cover, you might think it's another beauty mag, which it is, but it has some extremely intelligent news & social commentary content as well, IMO.

I think the magazines I read sorta supports what I need in life. I' a homemaker. I like to cook, clean, decorate, take care of my children. I like to try to be attractive for my husband, but sometimes I need a bit of escape through reading about the rich, beautiful and famous. The people that actually GO to other countries once a week, that sort of thing.