Good News...

So, there's been some good news of late - I got accepted to do an MA in Women's Studies at York Uni, so I'll hopefully be off to study in October, funding permitting (MA funding is a really awkward issue, as there's lots of competition). So I'm really happy about that!

And also, I was reading the F-Word blog on Monday (link on the feminist links) - and this is what's happened to the sales figures of lad's mags:

"Sales of lads’ mags fell a whopping 14.4% in 2006, according to reports in the Media Guardian (registration required).

FHM’s circulation fell nearly 26%, and Arena 30%, but I take most pleasure from the falling sales of the vile Zoo magazine, down 21.5% to just over 200,000 copies. The equally unpleasant Nuts magazine also saw its circulation decline 3.8%.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that the magazine buying public have been put off by the actual contents of the magazine. Instead, the business has been going online:

"A clue to the reason for the collapse in the market could be the rise in digital publishing. In the ABC Electronic figures, the digital men’s magazine Monkey, the first of its kind, recorded a debut audit of 209,612 for January. The results for Monkey, launched in November by Dennis, are not directly comparable to the measurement for print editions, but Dennis said the ABC result was twice its original target of 100,000 and meant the magazine had a rapidly growing audience of 18- to 30-year-old males. " "

*From The F-Word Blog 19th February by Jess McCabe*

So, although it looks like good news from the outset (yay hopefully the evil mags will be phased out over time?) - we will be still have men reading them online, yuk. Incidentally, I was in Edinburgh this weekend and checked out WHSmith at the station - the Lad's Mags shelves are in full view of anyone who happens to glance their way, and are definitely not 1.2 metres above the ground. I think it's just lip-service to 'appease' the scary feminists ;-)

Had a great weekend with my partner - went to see Happy Feet with subtitles and had a chinese meal to celeb Chinese New Year (cliched I know). Also bought Volver, Little Miss Sunshine and Blade Runner. Volver was fantastic, definitely deals with some feminist issues (abuse and women's relationships with each other) and so did Little Miss Sunshine with a highly dysfunctional family on a road trip to the Little Miss Sunshine contest that the daughter wants to take part in. Thought the grandfather was rather a dirty old man though.

I'm a bit annoyed at this film I've been wanting to see for ages - Brick - but it hasn't got subtitles. In fact, it's just been re-issued again without subtitles!! I had a similiar situation a few years ago when Donnie Darko came out on DVD without subtitles and has only recently come out with subtitles. I think it has to do with the companies that release films - and particularly this tends to happen with indie films or non-blockbuster films (which is the genre I find more interesting!).

One of the reasons I like non-english speaking films is that there are always english subtitles (but also World Cinema tends to be more refreshing and original!). So I'm frustrated because Brick got some great reviews, and I just want to see it as it looks interesting. Maybe someone can let me know that's its actually really bad and to not bother seeing it? :-D

My Complaint re. 'Lad's Mags' in WHSmiths

I complained the other day to WHSmith's about Lad's Mags because they refuse to acknowledge the motion Claire Curtis Thomas (MP) and Object put forward about the displaying of the magazine's on the top shelf, away from children and also with their fronts covered so as to just show the title.

They are the least responsible retailer ever when it comes to this issue - sometimes, pretty much most weeks, they have lads mags right at the front of the shop as they are 'magazine of the week' or some other such flimsy excuse for putting them right at the front of the shop. I find it demoralising to walk into any of their shops and be confronted with racks and racks of objectifying covers and degrading blurbs and captions. Charliegrrl has loads of information about contact details and her own activism (very inspiring stuff, puts fire in the belly!).

So I decided to complain to WHSmith's with this email:

To Whom it may concern,


I am concerned at WHSmiths inability to understand that ‘Lads Magazines’ and so called ‘men’s lifestyle’ magazines are degrading and objectifying to women. You refuse to implement the changes that explain (Object and Claire Curtis Thomas) that magazines with pornographic content should be, at the very least, on the top shelf. Magazines such as Zoo, Loaded, FHM and Nuts should be on the top shelf. Apart from being degrading and objectifying for women such as myself, my younger sister and my friends (which could be your sister, daughter, mother or female friends), young men and male children will believe that the view of women in these magazines is acceptable.

I have been in many of your shops around the country as I regularly travel through London and through to Edinburgh and York. All of your shops display these magazines within easy reach of young children, and within full view of any woman, young or old that happens to be passing your shops and shelves. I find it despicable that your shops do not listen to the complaints that I and many other women have been making over the past year or so. Women are half of the population – listen to them. It’s understandable that you don’t want to push down your sale figures but at the same time, its not likely to push down your sales figures by moving magazines to the top shelf – people can still access them. Be a responsible retailer for once.

Yours sincerely,

Elizabeth

And I got this reply:

Dear Elizabeth

Thank you for your email, sharing with us your concerns about the way in which we display certain magazines in our stores.

Whilst I appreciate your views, I can confirm that the particular magazines you refer to are part of our Men's Lifestyle range. We reviewed our policy of displaying this range last year, ensuring that all these titles are positioned above 1.2 metres and are not displayed near products aimed at children.

We do follow strict guidelines about the displaying of these titles and work closely with our publishers. As a retailer, we aim to strike the right balance in meeting the needs of all of our customers, which sometimes inevitably means a compromise.

I'm sorry for the continued frustration my response will undoubtedly cause you, however, we do not currently have any plans to change the way we display these titles. Please be assured that we will continue to monitor any similar feedback we receive about this particular matter and if I can help you further, please feel welcome to contact me.

Kind regards

Sam* last name concealed.

Customer Service Coordinator

I dunno...I'm definitely very frustrated. She didn't even acknowledge any of the comments I had made about objectification and degradation of women's bodies.

Okay, so yes, the children part of it is important, but it's also about women feeling respected and not feeling threatened by just walking into a shop. Every single WHSmith I've been to displays lad's mags in an irresponsible way. It's not the only company and newsagent's that displays lads mags like this though, but it's definitely one of the worst.

If you want to complain by email, here is the address (which I got from Charliegrrl's blog):

customer.relations@whsmith.co.uk

Let them know that this is not acceptable and makes women feel disempowered.

Put Your Records On

I have to say that the title is a shameless plug of Corinne Bailey Rae's fabby song - I ordered the album on HMV (with student discount!) as she sounds great - this fab summery rich sound like Billie Holiday. Definitely an artist to keep your ears tuned to!

My weekend has been boring to say the least, I've somehow got another cold which keeps making me sneeze every few minutes. I had a rash over the past couple of weeks and luckily that's gone...I seem to have numerous bodily complaints, especially during the winter! At least it's March and things might be getting better (unless you count hayfever, yuk). I've pretty much been studying for a procedural essay by reading stuff all weekend and tomorrow I am taking a trip to the library..fun.

I'm not entirely sure why I am blogging at this late hour, as I should be tucked up in bed trying to get rest to ward off the cold. It's just one of those times when there's too much going around in your head to feel like sleeping, although I think my body is exhausted! I had dinner really late though as I was doing some more work on the computer..a students life, eh? I like the late night thinking sessions though...most of the time. Since my last post (which wasn't very long ago!) I've been thinking more about the Feminist issue and I really urge you to look at www.thefword.org.uk because it covers a lot of issues that matter to Feminists and women from all walks of life. It's easy to read and you will find that a lot of it makes sense. I sometimes get the feeling that men feel defensive about some of the issues brought up by Feminism, mostly because men perhaps feel that feminists/women are criticising them. On the other hand, feminists are trying to make the world a better place for both men and women, free of the constraints and pressures that make them feel they have to fit certain ideals and roles within society.

I for one, contrary to belief (like most people think feminists think), think that being a mother and father is one of the most magical and responsible things anyone can do, but at the same time this doesn't mean, by biological default, that women are meant to stay at home, cook and do everything around the house - parenting and domestic stuff shouldn't be prescribed to just one person. It's about equality, not making a matriarchal society, but a fair society. Until the normalization of pornographic images stops and is put back where they belong (out of the public domain and into places where people go if they are looking for that kind of thing), we cannot have a truly equal and safer society. There have been studies that show that so called 'lads mags' often have hard core pornographic images and yet they are in public, next to teenager magazines and childrens comics etc. I find this horrifying because children and teenagers are subjected to these images at an even earlier age. Newsagents are reluctant to remove them in some cases because they generate so much profit. I found, as a young woman, that newspapers such as the Sun and earlier versions of 'lads mags' made me feel uncomfortable and violated especially when read by young men my own age.

Some people say that some images in pornography or in lads mags are 'empowering' to women. How are they empowering? They perpetuate the dominant image of women as submissive, constantly in submissive or provocative positions. Especially those considered 'dominating' because they wear leather or pvc and wield whips should not be seen as empowering because they are acting out particular male fantasies. I defy any woman to feel comfortable or empowered by wearing a leather catsuit or being subjected to pain by whipping or so on. Most women going in for S&M do so because their partner is interested in it (most fetishes are male perpetuated, such as feet fetishes which involves crippling women by the wearing of ever higher high heels). The best book that covers these things is by Sheila Jeffreys called 'Beauty and Misogyny' (2005).

She also points out that women shaving their pubic hair and undergoing vaginal and labia surgery often do so because they believe that their genitals should look like those of porn stars and they believe that, because their partners or husbands use pornography, they find this attractive. Most women have no idea what their genitals are meant to look like in reality and I find this sad because no part of a female body is safe anymore. I think men with fetishes of parts of a woman's body are not appreciating the person and body as a whole, as a person they should respect and care about.

I am not criticising individual women who undertake such practices but I believe that if there were no pressures like this then we would all appreciate our bodies and not subject them to awful torture under the name of 'surgery' or 'beauty practices'. We would feel that our bodies are precious - they are, after all, the only ones that we have. We should all be appreciated as individual, and love ourselves instead of inflicting such pain, cutting and moulding things to size through dieting, surgery, waxing and other painful procedures which serve to lower self esteem and make women feel as though they are 'worthless' as they are.

Well..I know I've done my fair share of ranting and stuff recently but it really is food for thought. I mean, nobody flinches anymore when they see surgery being filmed on TV, or when they see a woman on her hands and knees in a so called 'provocative' pose. Men would object if every woman's magazine was covered with naked men in submissive poses, pouting at the camera, objectified. Men would object if they were suddenly pressured to remove their body hair and cut up their genitals and chests. Why should women feel such pressure? We are not sex objects and should never have to be. Relationships should be based on mutual love and understanding and respect for each other's bodies.

Hmm..anyway! I promise my next blog post will be about something different (maybe!). Don't be alarmed if I don't post for a while as I'll be hard at work writing essays! :)