September 29th, 2007
“Observer Woman Makes Me Spit”
Like lot of women I know, when I first heard that The Observer would be launching a monthly Woman magazine, I couldn’t wait. It’ll be different, I thought. Smart, funny, stylish, I decided. It’ll be The Guardian meets Jane or Bust or Sassy. Instead it’s slowly become a risible rag, as condescending and as exclusive as most commercial women’s magazines. It has been snobby and classist (that Colleen McLoughlin issue), sneering (most issues), ridiculous (the bulk of the fashion features are laughable) and generally a publication that superficially purports to be aimed at confident, intelligent, empowered woman. Instead it manages to rebuke women in the way most women’s magazines do: ie for the way they dress or don’t dress, the men they take up with or aren’t good enough to bag, the accessories and products they don’t own or can’t afford, the sex they are or aren’t having. It champions itself as an alternative, as something positive and inclusive. Instead it exudes a whining, insecure, materialistic air, one that revels in elitism, where owning an expensive handbag can make you a better person. Even a recent article on the new, young feminists asked questions like “Are men necessary?”. Come on!
What’s an even bigger shame is that the wealth of decent content available on the excellent Women’s pages (in Tuesday and Friday’s Guardian). Week in, week out, the section tackles relevant issues with humour and integrity, but still a whole magazine is devoted to patronising fluff.
So I was delighted to stumble upon Observer Woman Makes Me Spit, a blog that amasses all the evidence, and offers its own sharp rebuttal.
Here’s the blog’s ‘about’ blurb:
“It arrives once a month. It’s often painful, always annoying. Liable to invoke irrational mood swings and violent bursts of temper. It’s messy, embarrassing and is often known as ‘the curse.’ Yes. It’s the Observer Woman Magazine. Could it be less relevant? Could it be more offensive? 51% of humanity reduced to simpering, bitchy whores of the fashion industry. Nothing to trouble our little minds but hunky men, flashy lip gloss and Gucci gussets. We hate it. We hate it so much we went to all this trouble to set up this blog. And we have real jobs. It took a good 30 minutes out of our drinking time. Spill your bile here. We will.”
OWMMS delivers an antidotal ass-kicking that the magazine deserves. Above, is one of the blog’s t-shirts, which you can buy here.
September 29th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Well I don’t read the woman’s mag, but the Observer Music Monthly used to be great and that’s a pile of shite now too…
September 29th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
The music mag is indeed also shite. I had only subconsciously noticed that, i.e. I haven’t read anything in it for months.
I think the woman’s mag is insane and just all over the place. And the issue that interviewed five men who were cheating on their wives and suggested with no subtlety at all that ALL men were cheaters sent me into a funk of depression for days before I realised it was just another sensationalist piece. I wonder what their mail-bag looks like each month.
September 29th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
The Observer has really dumbed down over the last couple of years. It’s probably no surprise that the Woman magazine has gone the same way.
September 30th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Martin, Edel, the music mag is a HUGE disappointment these days. It was so great, but I can’t take it seriously anymore after five star reviews for Hard Fi and KT Tunstall, with full page ads for both in the same issue.
Edel, had forgotten that one, it was a very stereotypical view of men alright. I bet a lot of people write in to complain.
Dealga, agreed. Can’t put my finger on it but it’s not the same paper I’ve been buying for over a decade.
September 30th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
I think all newspaper supplements these days are merely excuses for more advertising. I don’t take supplements and so-called magazines seriously. You are better off reading books on the topics. Newspapers are part of the intellectual dumbing down in western society since the 1960s.
October 1st, 2007 at 1:18 am
I have never read this magazine. I must admit that I am also pretty ignorant of the supposed decline in the Observer Music Monthly… Was never an avid reader of said supplement/magazine/advertising ploy.
However, I simply must applaud the above blurb. Absolutely hilarious stuff. I tip my hat to those responsible.
October 1st, 2007 at 5:27 am
Polly Vernon is one of the editors of OM - the woman who’s better known for writing a column in the Observer’s Food mag about how she lost loads of weight through stress a few years ago and loved being dangerously skinny so much that she’s purposefully kept it off. Enough said.
October 1st, 2007 at 6:34 am
The pertinent question is: who owns the damn rag???
October 1st, 2007 at 10:36 am
Gareth, a fair point, but there’s something about the ol’ Sunday papers… It’s a habit I’ll never get out of.
John, as blurbs go, it’s pretty damn good.
Claire, agreed. That column by Vernon by nauseating. Having an obvious problem with being underweight, is not cool or sexy. Isn’t it interesting that Barbara Ellen (who lots of men I know HATE - wonder why?) rarely surfaces on the pages of OW? Maybe she hates it too. She had a great column yesterday about women who act deliberately stupid to ensnare men, and how men don’t like clever women.
DC, have no idea, but it’s had the same Ed for a decade.
October 1st, 2007 at 11:02 am
God yes it’s awful.
The worst column I read in it recently was Kathryn Flett writing luridly about some sex toy. She revealed in the last paragraph that the entire column was basically a plug for one of her mates, who’s written a novel about vibrators or something. truly grim, low-grade tat. such a pity, because they have some amazing journalists writing great stuff in other parts of the paper…
October 1st, 2007 at 11:15 am
I like Barbara Ellen too; and you do get the impression that she is a little side-lined in there.
October 1st, 2007 at 12:12 pm
The Music Mag used to be excellent, but has been going south for a while.
The WM is the greatest pile of poo ever.
Still: Kitty Empire + Barbara Ellen are brilliant.
October 1st, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Boo, something seems to have eaten my comment! Suffice to say, that site rocks.
October 1st, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Hi Sinead
Many thanks for your kind comments and link. We’ve been writing the blog for about six months now (we were originally driven to it by the pile of poo that was ‘The Hundred Men Who Really Understand Women’) and still we keep discovering more and more like-minded souls.
As we like to say, don’t get mad, get mocking
Love from all at OWMMS
xx
October 1st, 2007 at 10:41 pm
It was always just an advertising mag, much like the music mag too….
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:21 am
…and here’s the anti-Observer Woman: she probably doesn’t know what’s fashionable if she fell over it; she’s candid about having bipolar disorder; she regularly spits at the media’s hostility against her and other outspoken women; she doesn’t believe in brutal weight loss in the first 5 minutes after giving birth (like the Hollywood clones). In fact she has just about resisted all the modern misogynistic pressures put on women that seem to have escalated in the last 20 years(see OWMMS). She doesn’t even suffer high heels!
She was largely boycotted in the US after a series of defiant acts back in the 1990’s.
BUT SHE’S BACK!
Sinead O’Connor will be on Primetime TV - worldwide - soon. She’s appearing on the Oprah Show (syndicated in 30 countries globally)on Thursday Oct. 4. Ostensibly the program is dealing with her experience with bipolar disorder, but also covering her current US tour and her personal life.
Should be compelling TV: to watch her being taken seriously for a change. Can’t wait!