Women are stupid
At least, that's what the editorial staff of First, Emap's new magazine, seem to believe.
Emap, who publish Q, FHM and 400 other products, as well as the ubiquitous Heat magazine, the half a million-selling sign that the end is nigh, are launching a new weekly woman's magazine which aims to present the week's news in bite-size pieces for 30-something women who, for whatever reason, can't read a newspaper. "We felt that news in terms of newspaper coverage wasn't very feminine in its approach," says Louise Matthews, Emap Entertainment's managing director.
She adds: "The broadsheets were a bit too arch and assumed too much full knowledge of the subject for some women, and the tabloids were too trashy, too sport-dominated and too male-dominated." Let's see that again: the broadsheets assume too much knowledge for some women. The broadsheets are too hard for women to read, is what Emap seem to be saying. (I'm spelling it out just in case Emap are right and I'm wrong.)
Instead, First intends to deliver picture-led news stories of interest to women. The dummy issue shows, amongst other things, double-spread pictures of George Clooney to illustrate a story about an anti-war march, and a pink flamingo to illustrate a story about bird flu. While it promises to dispense with the 'Britney eats a burger' palaver of other slag mags, First's cover features include 'Stars' fertility crisis', explaining how Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Aniston are desperate to conceive, and a piece on women who stand by their cheating men, featuring Charlotte Church's mother. There will be a 'nostalgia page' and a column written by children.
So, is this what a publishing giant has learned from women's news stand habits over the last 10 years? That they consider charming movie stars, pink wildlife and opinions from kids to be news? Emap is a smart business with a great record - five successful launches in five years - so they're not going to launch a magazine they think nobody will buy. I never thought my opinion of women would fall any further than it did when the Special One made me go and see Bridget Jones - I came out muttering that women deserved to be discriminated against - but this is a new low, and I'm beginning to think that there's a grain of truth in the old wife-beater's adage - they really are bringing it on themselves.
I got into a row last weekend with two of the Special One's friends about plastic surgery. One wanted a boob job, the other wanted cosmetic surgery to make her calves more shapely; meanwhile, I was peddling the old line that as long as women are obsessed with their bodies, they won't be taken seriously as minds. I was getting bored - one of them had just told me, complete with sassy mmm-hmm hand gestures, that it was her body and that's what feminism was about - so I told them that women are still second-class citizens. Ooh, the fireworks. The sistahs don't like it when you tell them there's still struggle ahead. They'd much rather read Heat magazine and have their boob jobs, safe in the knowledge that they're not obliged to make sacrifices. But when women are still paid 80% of what men are paid, for doing the same job, then that means, over a five-day working week, they're working one day for no pay. And what do we call someone who works for no pay?
No, not a volunteer.
Emap, who publish Q, FHM and 400 other products, as well as the ubiquitous Heat magazine, the half a million-selling sign that the end is nigh, are launching a new weekly woman's magazine which aims to present the week's news in bite-size pieces for 30-something women who, for whatever reason, can't read a newspaper. "We felt that news in terms of newspaper coverage wasn't very feminine in its approach," says Louise Matthews, Emap Entertainment's managing director.
She adds: "The broadsheets were a bit too arch and assumed too much full knowledge of the subject for some women, and the tabloids were too trashy, too sport-dominated and too male-dominated." Let's see that again: the broadsheets assume too much knowledge for some women. The broadsheets are too hard for women to read, is what Emap seem to be saying. (I'm spelling it out just in case Emap are right and I'm wrong.)
Instead, First intends to deliver picture-led news stories of interest to women. The dummy issue shows, amongst other things, double-spread pictures of George Clooney to illustrate a story about an anti-war march, and a pink flamingo to illustrate a story about bird flu. While it promises to dispense with the 'Britney eats a burger' palaver of other slag mags, First's cover features include 'Stars' fertility crisis', explaining how Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Aniston are desperate to conceive, and a piece on women who stand by their cheating men, featuring Charlotte Church's mother. There will be a 'nostalgia page' and a column written by children.
So, is this what a publishing giant has learned from women's news stand habits over the last 10 years? That they consider charming movie stars, pink wildlife and opinions from kids to be news? Emap is a smart business with a great record - five successful launches in five years - so they're not going to launch a magazine they think nobody will buy. I never thought my opinion of women would fall any further than it did when the Special One made me go and see Bridget Jones - I came out muttering that women deserved to be discriminated against - but this is a new low, and I'm beginning to think that there's a grain of truth in the old wife-beater's adage - they really are bringing it on themselves.
I got into a row last weekend with two of the Special One's friends about plastic surgery. One wanted a boob job, the other wanted cosmetic surgery to make her calves more shapely; meanwhile, I was peddling the old line that as long as women are obsessed with their bodies, they won't be taken seriously as minds. I was getting bored - one of them had just told me, complete with sassy mmm-hmm hand gestures, that it was her body and that's what feminism was about - so I told them that women are still second-class citizens. Ooh, the fireworks. The sistahs don't like it when you tell them there's still struggle ahead. They'd much rather read Heat magazine and have their boob jobs, safe in the knowledge that they're not obliged to make sacrifices. But when women are still paid 80% of what men are paid, for doing the same job, then that means, over a five-day working week, they're working one day for no pay. And what do we call someone who works for no pay?
No, not a volunteer.
posted by exileonpatrickstreet at 10:13 pm
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