In the world of women’s magazines, a hell of a lot of the readers are presumed to be straight women. Straight women who want to dribble and stare at the likes of Harry Styles (Eurgh), some goon from TOWIE (Pass me a bucket) or even James Arthur (Don’t even get me started). But what I want to know is, where are all the women at?
Nuts magazine, although not my usual ‘read’ has a section called ‘Advice from a fit lesbian’ – Which is always an interesting one. It’s also a very true statement, she is a bit on the tasty side. Men (apparently) love a lesbian. They are seen as a conquest, out-of-bounds sex on legs maybe. But whilst More! has ‘position of the week’ and Heat has ‘Torso of the week’ I am most unimpressed that they ignore gay women.
I won’t be burning my bra anytime soon (I just got a very pretty one from La Senza)
I’m no feminist though, I don’t rant about women being sexualised, nor argue that page 3 is wrong. So don’t expect me to be burning my bra any time soon. But I’d just like to see a touch more equality, without picking up Nuts instead.
This also relates to online quizzes. Magazines that have transferred their publication onto the Internet also interact with their readers through the use of quizzes, as another tool of marketing research really. Whilst they also want to know if you take it up the tail pipe or have turned your man into Christian Grey, mainly, they want to know who’s reading. But yet again, it’s all about pleasing ‘your man’ and most recently on Cosmopolitan, ‘Blow job tips’.
Specialised is the only way?
Of course there are specialised magazines out there, supporting LGBT etc etc, but why not bring that audience into the mainstream? I like to laugh at celebrities too, and if there’s a quiz that relates to gay women as well then it’s a massive bonus.
It was interesting to see a new gay columnist in More! actually, not long out of University, she now has her own section from a gay woman’s point of view. So brownie points for you guys.
Oh so gay.
It’s great to read something about gay role models, whether about adopting, baking a cake or playing a trombone, it’s just nice to have some equality. They all say they support every sexuality under the sun, so why not show it?
