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Offputting advice in magazine

  • 13-08-2012 11:36PM
    #1
    peanuthead
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,111 ✭✭✭


    Hi all

    Not sure if I can mention the magazine, but I bought one last night, it's a popular Irish ladies magazine, and I was flicking through it in bed.

    I normally never buy these mags so not familiar with them , but I was shocked to be reading one article, entitled "How to facebook-proof your relationship"

    One piece of advice was to swap passwords with your partner as it is "A great way to elimate any question marks"

    WTF, are they serious?? Does anyone else think it is ridiculous that a magazine, written and edited by women, which is meant to be all about empowering women etc and all the usual BS is actually doling out that kind of 'advice'?

    Pathetic. I'm actually going to write to them about it.


Comments

  • #2
    southsiderosie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,565 ✭✭✭southsiderosie


    peanuthead wrote: »
    I normally never buy these mags so not familiar with them , but I was shocked to be reading one article, entitled "How to facebook-proof your relationship"

    One piece of advice was to swap passwords with your partner as it is "A great way to elimate any question marks"

    See, I thought the rational response to "How to Facebook-proof your relationship" would be, "don't put all of your personal business on Facebook". But maybe that is just me.


  • #3
    peanuthead
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,111 ✭✭✭peanuthead


    Well yes, that is of course true, and I don't believe that anyone with half a brain needs to actually be counselled by a magazine on how not to let technology of any kind ruin their relationship. But I just thought that what the mag suggested was promoting submission and giving into control, for both sexes I mean - I'm not trying to make a feminist point here I think it's ridiculous advice for either man or woman.


  • #4
    Sarah**
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 531 ✭✭✭Sarah**


    I read the same article and thought how ridiculous it was!! Actually quite a number of articles in that mag this month were off the wall!!


  • #5
    Kooli
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭Kooli


    peanuthead wrote: »
    Does anyone else think it is ridiculous that a magazine, written and edited by women, which is meant to be all about empowering women etc and all the usual BS is actually doling out that kind of 'advice'?

    I don't know what magazine you're talking about, but I can't think of any women's magazine that is about 'empowering women'. Most of them are about increasing insecurities in women, while simultaneously selling back products to them to manage these insecurities.
    Most magazines I read are just pages and pages telling you what you're doing wrong in various different and creative ways.


  • #6
    um7y1h83ge06nx
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,029 ✭✭✭um7y1h83ge06nx


    Kooli wrote: »
    I don't know what magazine you're talking about, but I can't think of any women's magazine that is about 'empowering women'. Most of them are about increasing insecurities in women, while simultaneously selling back products to them to manage these insecurities.
    Most magazines I read are just pages and pages telling you what you're doing wrong in various different and creative ways.

    As a man I completely agree, most of those mags are full of bull.

    [sarcasm]
    "Your life will be complete if you buy this..."
    "If you want to stop getting old, ugly and wrinkly get this..."
    [/sarcasm]

    As a sidenote I always wondered why the characters in Sex and the City was supposedly empowered and a sort of flag bearer for real women, they seemed pretty insecure to me with the espisodes I have seen.

    Anyway, rant over.


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  • #7
    peanuthead
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,111 ✭✭✭peanuthead


    Kooli wrote: »
    I don't know what magazine you're talking about, but I can't think of any women's magazine that is about 'empowering women'. Most of them are about increasing insecurities in women, while simultaneously selling back products to them to manage these insecurities.
    Most magazines I read are just pages and pages telling you what you're doing wrong in various different and creative ways.

    Well, yes what you are saying is the REALITY of what appears in these magazines. But it is published under the guise of trying to empower women, that is what I meant.

    They do not actually empower us, they do not actually try, but they say that they do and that is their supposed M.O for writing what they write.

    Like Super_Sonic says, buy this and you will be better (or more empowered) but they obv have to make you feel insecure enough to feel you need it first.

    Case in point is, as SS also pointed out, the Sex and The City Girls.


  • #8
    scrumqueen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 277 ✭✭scrumqueen


    southsiderosie wrote: »
    See, I thought the rational response to "How to Facebook-proof your relationship" would be, "don't put all of your personal business on Facebook". But maybe that is just me.

    that and "don't spend your life with your head stuck in your smart phone at the expense of your relationship/friendships"
    Kooli wrote: »
    Most magazines I read are just pages and pages telling you what you're doing wrong in various different and creative ways.

    Or pages and pages of selling you products/crap you don't need in various different and creative ways!


  • #9
    Millicent
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,559 ✭✭✭Millicent


    Kooli wrote: »
    I don't know what magazine you're talking about, but I can't think of any women's magazine that is about 'empowering women'. Most of them are about increasing insecurities in women, while simultaneously selling back products to them to manage these insecurities.
    Most magazines I read are just pages and pages telling you what you're doing wrong in various different and creative ways.

    I think that's a bit harsh, to be honest with you. There are thousands of different women's magazines out there and at least hundreds between Ireland and the UK. I will wholeheartedly agree that some of them are damaging (Cosmo's seemingly monthly "How to please your man" articles, anyone? How about they fecking teach women how to please themselves for a change?!). I was reading one of my sister's celebrity magazines at the weekend and wanted to fuck it out the nearest window over a 4-page spread of celebrity women's changing faces and waistlines.

    That said, it's wrong to tar them all with the one brush. Marie Claire frequently covers a lot of serious issues -- I remember reading articles on cocaine production, eco-friendly clothing, rape, the burkha etc. etc. U magazine, an Irish magazine, has a stated "no-diet" policy. Image magazine last month did a whole issue on Ireland's female Olympic athletes.

    I read magazines widely, some for relaxation, some for entertainment, some for more serious subjects. The fact that a magazine is aimed at women does not necessarily mean that its focus is damaging.

    That said, the advice about the Facebook page is batshit. :pac:


  • #10
    Kooli
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭Kooli


    Maybe some of them aren't that bad, but none of the ones I've read.

    A serious article or two doesn't undo the pages and pages of fashion and beauty pages that regularly talk about the things you want to hide/cover-up/disguise (i.e your face/body), the things that aren't in fashion any more (can't believe you're still wearing that!), the billions of billions of products that will somehow transform you into someone acceptable, and even the well-meaning self-help advice that contains the undercurrent of 'you're doing it wrong'.


  • #11
    ashes79
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 63 ✭✭ashes79


    In relation to Marie Claire.... thats the magazine that allowed a story to be ran where the writer thought that Mike & Molly should be taken off the air because " who wants to see fat people kissing". I used to like that magazine but I was really disgusted with that article & the handling of the issue.
    http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/dating-blog/overweight-couples-on-television

    I realise the apology is also there but the couching of her description of obesity to be gross behind faux concern for the welfare of obese people just doesn't sit right with me.


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  • #12
    Millicent
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,559 ✭✭✭Millicent


    Kooli wrote: »
    Maybe some of them aren't that bad, but none of the ones I've read.

    A serious article or two doesn't undo the pages and pages of fashion and beauty pages that regularly talk about the things you want to hide/cover-up/disguise (i.e your face/body), the things that aren't in fashion any more (can't believe you're still wearing that!), the billions of billions of products that will somehow transform you into someone acceptable, and even the well-meaning self-help advice that contains the undercurrent of 'you're doing it wrong'.

    Again though, depends on the magazine. I flick past all the fashion pages -- I am not their target audience anyway. :D But it's some of them that undermine women's self esteem worse than others. The ones who trace circles around celebrity's bad spots are awful as are some of the advice columns. Give a few more a read though. Some of them may surprise you.

    Marie Claire is my favourite. They have beauty pages and fashion but they have a lot more substance than a lot of others. Here are a few articles from the past two months the same type as I would read in the magazine:

    WHY A PREGNANT CEO IS GREAT NEWS FOR WOMEN

    BRITAIN PROMISES TO PROVIDE CONTRACEPTION FOR 24 MILLION EXTRA WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD

    JOELY RICHARDSON SUPPORTS SAVE THE CHILDREN

    They're just online ones. Haven't got the magazine this month.

    I was introduced to Muslim women when I was about 8/9 due to an American Marie Claire magazine in a doctor's surgery. In it were pictures of women, who would usually be required by law to wear burkhas, at a private, unnamed beach splashing around in swimsuits (the photos were taken with their consent). That still has an impact on me 20 years later even though I was too young to understand it fully then.


  • #13
    Augmerson
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 6,162 ✭✭✭Augmerson


    The Horoscopes never come true either, bloody rip off.


  • #14
    Millicent
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,559 ✭✭✭Millicent


    ashes79 wrote: »
    In relation to Marie Claire.... thats the magazine that allowed a story to be ran where the writer thought that Mike & Molly should be taken off the air because " who wants to see fat people kissing". I used to like that magazine but I was really disgusted with that article & the handling of the issue.
    http://www.marieclaire.com/sex-love/dating-blog/overweight-couples-on-television

    I realise the apology is also there but the couching of her description of obesity to be gross behind faux concern for the welfare of obese people just doesn't sit right with me.

    I haven't read Marie Claire US in years but I do remember that article and it was disgraceful. I'm not exonerating them from anything -- just trying to point out that all women's magazines are not inherently bad. I grew up reading them (some of the better ones and some of the dodgy ones) and I'm a feminist.

    That doesn't excuse their faults but maybe it's because women are so under-represented as writers across the media that I quite enjoy reading their voices wherever they are.


  • #15
    southsiderosie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,565 ✭✭✭southsiderosie


    Kooli wrote: »
    I don't know what magazine you're talking about, but I can't think of any women's magazine that is about 'empowering women'. Most of them are about increasing insecurities in women, while simultaneously selling back products to them to manage these insecurities.
    Most magazines I read are just pages and pages telling you what you're doing wrong in various different and creative ways.

    I miss Sassy. :(


  • #16
    Kooli
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,312 ✭✭✭Kooli


    Millicent wrote: »

    That doesn't excuse their faults but maybe it's because women are so under-represented as writers across the media that I quite enjoy reading their voices wherever they are.

    Fair point actually. I'm finding online magazines much better these days, because they don't have to rely so heavily on selling you things, and they seem quicker to move with the times, think outside the box...


  • #17
    Millicent
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,559 ✭✭✭Millicent


    Kooli wrote: »
    Fair point actually. I'm finding online magazines much better these days, because they don't have to rely so heavily on selling you things, and they seem quicker to move with the times, think outside the box...

    You have massively hit the nail on the head here. Many magazines that are advertising rich do so because they have to survive -- a lot of magazines earn most of their revenue from advertising these days, not from readership. It's also a problem with non-women's magazines and newspapers.

    What it means is that magazines now have an uncomfortably symbiotic relationship with advertisers that means that, even if some of them wanted to, they couldn't afford not to move away from beauty/fashion etc.

    I do like a lot of online magazines too. The only issue is they're harder to read in the bath with a cup of tea. :pac:


  • #18
    mood
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,264 ✭✭✭mood


    Magazines are for light entertainment not life advise IMO.


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