The other day, waiting for a train, I was browsing in WHSmiths for a magazine. I'm not a big fan of women's glossies as I take little or no interest in skincare, make-up, how to improve my sex life, fashions I can't afford, celebrities I've either never heard of or wish I'd never heard of, or real life stories about women whose lives are nothing like my real life, so I was looking around to see if there were any other titles that light take my fancy; but it turns out that I'm not interested in cars, golf, mortgages, HiFis, breasts, computers, pregnancy, gadgets, weddings, heavy metal or cats either, or at least not enough to buy an entire magazine devoted to any one of them. There's no such thing as an intelligent general arts magazine, which is what I'd really like to read (Time Out comes close, but I already subscribe), so as usual I found myself looking at the current affairs mags.
Trying to get over the fact that Prince Charles was the cover star of The Economist's Intelligent Life quarterly, and David Milliband was on the front of Prospect, I did delve inside and scan the contents page of several of them, only to make the somewhat unsettling discovery that each of these magazines could essentially have been subtitled "what men think about the world". They have almost no female contributors at all. A review here and there, the odd piece, an admittedly stronger showing in short stories, but that's it. Otherwise it's male editors and male writers all the way.
I am loathe to cry sexism here, because I can't believe that intelligent male editors don't want women writing for their publications, and it's miserable to contemplate that they might be offering articles to their mates or thinking male writers bring more gravitas and ending up with a token female or two. I'm more inclined to wonder whether we women writers are sidelining ourselves. I can think of many female journalists who I admire, but when I take away the ones who are writing about lifestyle, or humourous columns about their own lives, or serious articles but that are largely about women's / gender / family issues (important as these issues are), I'm left with hardly anyone. Are women pitching stories outside these parameters and getting turned down, or are we staying within our comfort zones and leaving the "hard stuff" to the men? Or perhaps are editors of current affairs magazines comissioning articles that ony really appeal to men so they aren't getting female writers or readers? I draw your attention to the aforementioned Milliband / Prince Charles covers (though hard to believe those appeal to anybody.)
I'm guilty of this self-sidelining myself, in large part because I prefer to write humourously whether fiction or non-fiction - it's not that I can't write seriously, but when I do, I feel like I'm pretending to be someone I'm not. So I don't anticipate being given 5,000 words on the economy for Prospect any time soon. And I'm not going to stop writing about Strictly Come Dancing - quite aside from anything, that would be letting the New York Times win. And somebody needs to chronicle David Tennant's every move. But I do feel uncomfortably like I have been coccooning myself in my little world and thinking my frivolous thoughts, leaving the business of commenting on the real world to the men.
And I didn't buy any of those current affairs magazines. They just seemed like chat overheard in a gentlemen's club. So the self-sidelining continues. (I didn't buy anything and read Riddley Walker on the train instead.) I feel like I could and should do better, though whether on this blog, or by pitching my serious thoughts elsewhere, remains to be seen. (I'm sure that I have serious thoughts sometimes.)
PS can't help but notice on that IL cover the only piece by a woman is AS Byatt on... fashion.
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19 comments:
Interesting...I do wonder if there's more to it than writing (like many others) being a male dominated profession.
It's funny / depressing that women's and men's magazines have stereotypical views on what men and women are into, but they sell, so there must be plenty of people conforming to those stereotypes. But how else can you do it - people's magazines, covering every subject people are into?
Anyway, the ideal is that everyone writes what they know and like, and good writing wins. Naive perhaps, but I for one rarely look at the name of who wrote what I read to check gender.
With all of the recent talk about markets, this is one of them in action. Men like to read about cars and breasts, women like to read about shoes and ballroom-dancing programmes, the writers naturally gravitate towards the publications that enable them to use their skillset (gender oriented) to make 'the most of themselves' (i.e. the most money). Somebody needs to find the big reset switch and stop people being idiots.
I wish there were more women writing in Private Eye, my conculsion from this is that women don't really care about politics and stuff... simple but probably generally true... unless they're saying how 'dishy' David Ca-moron is....
PS Finally managed to read 'Gods' (all of it, on a flight to Chicago). Graham's review is... "I enjoyed it" :-)
Ick, who would buy a magazine entitled "Intelligent Life". With Prince Charles on the cover showing no sign of either intelligence or life. Only mad people surely, of either gender?
I hate this kind of portentous 'look at my beard-strokingly thought provoking perspective on the universe' journalism, and if I have to read another article by Alain de Botton I will rip both my arms out. I would much rather read about lipstick or wallpaper, frankly, since at least it's less pretentious. And I do theoretically have some kind of a brain, what with a first class degree from Oxford and paid employment work in one of those serious type professions (ha, sniggering into my sleeve here).
Admittedly my perspective may be skewed by having been forced to have weekly scheduled calls with my father on the contents of the week's Economist.
It's an interesting one though. Where is 'our' magazine. Shall we start one?
Jaywalker - yes, let's!
G_12 - you're just trying to wind me up, aren't you? Quite aside from anything, David Cameron looks like a fat seal.
That intelligent life picture is making me giggle.
And I agree with you about Cameron.
Have you tried "Aesthetica" for a general arts mag? Film, music, fiction, art etc. It's available in Borders monthly, not sure about anywhere else.
g-12 Light blue touch paper and retire...
I read Private Eye all the time. I write romantic fiction. I have spent a lot of the last week writing features on Strictly Come Dancing (and what's wrong with that pray?) but while alot of my blog is about important things like Dr Who I do occasionally stray into the political and this year have blogged about China and the Olympics/age banding on children's books/various issues in the news that have got my goat.
I think the thing about women/men and what they read and discuss is probably a basic difference sometimes in lifestyle. Women are so often busy being Marthas they don't get to be Mary and sit at the feet of the prophet listen to him pontificating. Being a Martha makes you a bit knackered I find so you don't necessarily always want to read heavyweight stuff.
(OK most dads get to do the Martha thing too, but I do think they have a bit more time for pontification).
I don't quite know what the answer is, Marie, but I find I don't have time to read papers and magazines as much as I'd like, so that's why I like blogging and there are a couple of political blogs I dip into from time to time which feed that need without taking up too much of my time.
The rest of the time I am putting my lipstick on. Natch.
PS I have also had more worthwhile indepth meaningful conversations on the various Dr Who blogs I've visited this year then I've ever had sitting round a dinner table discussing politics...
Depends which magazine. Intelligent Life is from The Economist stable, which is a bit of a boy's club, but The New Statesman usually has a reasonable number of women contributors (and a female editor at the moment). Actually, the last issue of Intelligent Life had an article on "Why Women Think Men Are Boring" (which dragged out Simon Baron-Cohen to trot out his theory of the 'extreme male brain' being allied to autism).
As for women's mags, depends which ones again. Eve (which is folding soon but doesn't count) was usually reliable - as was Red - for mixing it up a bit, with articles on starting your own businesses, political articles, etc, mixed with fashion, etc. I know Katie Lee does rather a good gadget column for Grazia (I think).
Generally, though, there is an issue, both with sexist commissioning, self-sidelining and just general interests. I won't say who but a journalism trainer I know despairs because almost every female journalism student who attends his courses does so because she wants to be a 3am girl.
Plus, and here's a more interesting point, any good female writer who can discuss politics almost invariably gets their own column in one of the broadsheets, usually The Guardian, but horrifyingly enough, also the Daily Mail, which likes to pretend to be the friend of women (cf Femail).
But I obviously can't speak for female journalists, and I know dozens of extraordinarily good, but not especially well known female journalists (eg Sally Whittle, Jessica Twentyman, Jo Best, Jo Robertson) who write about very abstruse subjects for all kinds of mags, both trade and consumer.
Entertainment Weekly does it for me with general telly, arts and music. Yes it's American, but I like getting heads up on what might be "big" a few weeks ahead of the UK magazines. Trouble is, it's about four quid in Borders. Subscribing is significantly cheaper and delivery is reliable - if extremely erratic.
celebrities dancing... um... I must be missing something important... must be... Dennis Taylor maybe... Robinson College pool team answer ;-)
I want women to be feminists... real ones... we were better when that was the way... t'was certainly more fun... t'current way is crap... s'all Coleens and the like.
(i may have been in the pub)
Calistro - thanks, I have just ordered myself a copy online.
MediumRob - I am encouraged by your words but wish I had heard of those excellent woman journalists too. Also, I don't think men are boring.
Graham - we aren't all Coleens! I have never met a single one. Have you?
g-12, I can see your point. When I was 20 all my group of friends were feminist, and so was I. But then I went into the real world and discovered that actually it's nearly as much bull as what preceded it. Women can progress far faster and further in the workplace then they used to and that is thanks to the groundbreaking work of the 70s feminists, but really, what happens is that at some point most woman end up making a choice between their career and their family. Some of the worst offenders of anti family feeling I came across in the workplace were female, but on the whole once I'd had a kid I felt rather depressingly that I was counted as an also ran. And the trouble is to a degree it's true. You can still do a good job and be a mother, but your domestic life will tend to intrude on your work life in a way that it never did before you had kids. It just doesn't in the main work like that for men, STILL. I don't think we'll get true equality till men stay at home and have babies.
Having said all that I think the feminist revolution has also created a huge swathe of difficulties for men, who often don't know where they stand and get torn with the conflicts of being the provider at a time of great financial upheaval, and the conflicts of their home life. I know many many men who are trapped in offices till very late, so they never see their children, leaving very dissatisfied disgruntled women at home. Something is wrong with the way we do things.
I take your point utterly that if you read all the celebrity mags you'll get the feeling that any female under the age of 30 is a complete airhead, but I think that is totally dismissive and untrue. I know plenty of twenty somethings who wouldn't aspire to be Colleen, but otoh, the ones that do, are able to make the choices they make with impunity BECAUSE of feminism. We might not LIKE the choices they make, but the fact they can make them is because they feel empowered in a way that I certainly didn't at their age.
Great discussion btw, and Rob, you've cheered me up vis a vis the female journos...
Intelligent Life is positively awful. I can't believe anyone actually buys it (it costs almost as much as book, for crying out loud). It is glossy, shiny, pretentious claptrap and ought to be ashamed of itself.
Coming soon to a shelf near you, Marie and Emma's intelligent but entertaining arts publication, "Beard". With free, cover mounted miniature David Tennant.
Also, what MediumRob said (both about New Statesman and female broadsheet journos).
Marie - "I am encouraged by your words but wish I had heard of those excellent woman journalists too"
Thing is, the journalist isn't the story. Outside of those who've written books, have a column or have appeared on TV, journalists are usually pretty anonymous, which is probably the way it should be (cf season five of The Wire and the Pulitzer syndrome). Indeed, the Economist famously doesn't give bylines on anything except its specials.
The other thing is, why work like a bastard/bitch on a consumer mag, usually having to intern these days for six months on no pay in London when you're starting out, getting treated like dirt, dealing with ridiculous amounts of competition that keeps salary down to a bare minimum, when you can build up a good rep, get paid better, get more autonomy, etc, working for the trades. If you're a smart female journalist, who wants to be treated with respect, that's surely the way to go. And even if you don't stick with the trades, you can still end up with a better job on the nationals after a stint on a trade (I'm thinking, for example, of Janine Gibson, say, who started off on one of my alma maters, Televisual, and is currently editor of the Media Guardian).
I don't think it's a surprise that Boyd Hilton, who is very talented, admittedly, is TV editor of the female-loved Heat, for example, yet trade mag Broadcast has a female editor, female deputy editor, and female special projects editor, as well as plenty of other female journos on staff; when I was on Televisual, Mundy Ellis had been editor for 15 years and the likes of Keeley Winstone, Belinda Hanks, Sam Espensen and Poz Wilson all excelled there during my time. In fact, with a couple of exceptions, on all the trade mags I've worked for, at least 50% of the writing staff have been women; on the consumer mags, it's been a different story.
I'd also add a little shout-out for Carolyn Fry who was one of my mentors before heading off to edit Geographical, globe trot, write books, etc. Am I still bitter that I was runner-up to her as the AGI Journalist of the Year back in 98 – after I nominated her? Not a bit of it... Grr. ;-)
So that's where all the good female writers are then. On trade publications I'll never read because they're not my trade. Ah well, good for them, less good for me. Maybe I'll have a nosey around the New Statesman (and give Intelligent Life a wide berth...)
Also I agree that in journalism it's not about the journalist but the story, on the whole; but when I am reading a comments mag rather than a straight newspaper, I'd like those comments to come from a wider range of people than white Oxbridge men.
And I haven't seen Season Five of The Wire yet! Shhhhhhhhhhh!
Sort of the same problem I have with travel literature. Most of the stuff written by women is about 'finding themselves' or buying shoes in Paris or getting a divorce or traveling with children and none of this I can relate to. What I want to find is a book, that is yes something like travel literature that is being written by men, but from from the female perspective. As in, do the same journey for the journeys sake but add in the parts about what the hell is a woman supposed to do when she is in the middle of the Amazon and her period comes but not, 'oh my god I am in the amazon and I broke a nail'
My girlfriend works on the Economist as an editorial researcher, but she doesn't have anything to do with IF (although I quite like it, but then I don't have to buy it). However, on my magazine (The Engineer), three out of the five staff writers are women, and there are a good few women on New Scientist as well.
...and just to add that apparently there are a lot of female journalists on The Economist, including section editors, finance, science and security/defence specialists. But as it has a policy of editorial anonymity, they don't shout about it; and if you can't tell the gender of the writer from their writing, it means they're doing their job.
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