Are "chat mags" as offensive as the "lads mags"?
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"A LIFE OF TERROR - TORTURED TO DEATH" - Women's magazine "Chat".
Are these womens chat magazines as offensive as the "lad's mags"?
It's worth taking a moment to compare the way we treated "lad's mags" with how we treat women's "chat mags".
Women's chat mags publish weekly stories, selected to portray males as cruel, evil monsters and females and children as their helpless victims. They promote the use of horror stories of child abuse, rape, torture and murder as a legitimate form of women's casual entertainment and a means to make a profit. They do it from the bottom shelf of a magazine rack in the supermarket right next to the comics, or when somebody takes one home and leaves it lying around for the rest of the family to see.
They've been doing it for decades and will continue to do so until we do something about it.
If you were one of those thought that the "lad mags" were teaching children to sexually objectify females then you should also be concerned about how these women's chat magazines are teaching our children to distrust and fear men.
Lad Mags and Chat Mags are both casual-read, weekly magazines aimed at specific genders.
Lad Mags (aimed at males)
The lad mags are aimed at the male casual readers and are basically excuses to print photos of partially clothed or unclothed females. They have titles like "Zoo", "Nuts", "Loaded" and "Maxim". They also have articles on cars, jokes, football, sport and TV pages. But mostly they like to print images of scantily clad females. These images portray females simply as sexual objects, both desirable and accessible, although most of the female images are of celebrities or professional models who were well paid for the photo sessions.
Chat Mags (aimed at females)
These are aimed at female casual readers. They originally started as something to flick through during a coffee break. Indeed, some of their titles include "Chat" and "Take A Break". They included such things as photos of cute animals and kids, uplifting stories, recipes, advice columns, etc. But they soon developed a taste for salacious headlines. These articles became more and more about evil men who attack, abuse, rape and murder women, children and babies. If the victims were portrayed as a typical "girl next door' then so much the better. Most of the stories are written as though told first-hand but they are usually ghost-written by someone else. Some of the stories appear contemporary but have been dug out of the archives. The images are sometimes bland, but the lurid descriptive text they use has no boundaries. They all claim to contain "100% real stories".
And they're still the most popular woman's magazines in the country.
Code of Practice - National Federation of Retail Newsagents
The National Federation of Retail Newsagents' code of practice says that adult material should be on the top shelf. It also recommends that "men's lifestyle" magazines should not be displayed next to children's titles or at a level at which they can be seen by children.
There is no similar recommendation about women's chat magazines.
On July 2018, we wrote and asked them politely to explain the absence of a code of practice for displaying women's chat mags. They didn't reply. We tried again, several times. They never did reply.
The national campaign waged against lad mags
In 2013, a dedicated website LoseTheLadsMags.org.uk was created to create and support a nationwide campaign designed to involve as many people as possible to get lad mags removed from public view. lt was launched in May 2013 and supported by women's rights groups such as UK Feminista, Rape Crisis and Women's Aid. They used relentless social media assaults and recruited celebrities, feminist groups, press organisations and trade unions. They used TV, radio and other broadcast media, to rally support. They lobbied the politicians, the supermarkets and the supermarket owners. They picketed the stores and shops and newsagents that carried the magazines.
Online support groups for females such as MumsNet also backed the campaign.
Most of the arguments used by the campaign was based on the degrading way that the lads mags portrayed females and the effect it had on people who saw them.
The Co-Op retailers threatened to withdraw lads' mags from sale in its 4,000-plus stores unless publishers put them in sealed modesty bags.
Just over a year later, the campaign succeeded in their objective of getting them treated as pornography and hidden away in sealed bags on the top shelves.
This still didn't go far enough for some of the protestors. Sophie Bennet, spokeswoman for the Lose the Lad’s Mags campaign, called the sealed covers "Misogyny Bags". Others wanted a complete ban on all the lads mags.
The national campaign waged against women's chat mags
There isn't one.
The magazines remain unchallenged for decades and their popularity goes from strength to strength.
They have peddled misandry for 30 years and have turned child sexual abuse into a trivial entertainment.
However, some children's organisations have now started pointing out how these magazines are mental poison and detrimental to the way that children perceive the world around them.
Lose The Lads Mags ran a successful campaign and eventually succeeded. Only one of these institutions that supported this cause has ever spoken up against women's chat mags
The Similarities
The arguments used against having lad mags on display is also true of chat mags. Both magazines indoctrinate members of society - and especially, our children - to regard members of the opposite sex in extremely damaging and degrading ways and making it acceptable to disrespect and hate them.
Once the Campaign had achieved its goal of making sure that the lad's mags were either no longer sold or were hidden in sealed bags on top shelves, they lost interest in pursuing other similar agendas. Currently, there has been no interest from those who supported the "Lose the Lads Mags" campaign to the effect that women's chat mags may be having.
Nor has there been any equivalent of the MumsNet campaign against the lad's mags, who presumably think women's chat mags are OK, because they're for women.
Some examples of lad's mags covers from the past.
Zoo and Nuts are comparable to the womens chat magazines because they were weekly, casual entertainment publications
"Lads Mags" and "Chat Mags": A Direct Comparison.
Lad mags today:
Fewer than ever for sale, now.
Hidden or hard to find after the campaign against them.
Portrays females as sexually available objects.
Indoctrinates children to see females as sexual objects.
Many women's pressure groups lobbied to get them removed.
Campaigns finally got them removed and censored.
Must be in sealed bags and on top shelves.
Naked women displayed on front pages.
Stores persuaded to remove them from shelves
Still available but limited to top shelves in sealed bags.
Condemned for objectifying females.
Women's Chat mags today:
Millions sold every year.
Dozens of chat mags to choose from and the number is growing.
Portray men as evil rapists and women as helpless victims.
Indoctrinates children to see males as killers, predators and child molesters.
No objections raised from any women's pressure groups.
No control over their sale to adults or minors
Placed on shelves all the way down to child's eye-level.
Violent sexually-graphic headlines displayed on front pages.
On display and for sale in magazine rack, all over the country.
Magazines are more prolific than ever and in full view of minors
Not condemned for anything.
The Green Party helped with the petition to get Tesco's to "Lose The Lad's Mags", but have shown no interest over the misandry shown in women's chat mags.
Which of these types of magazine would you want your children exposed to?
Or are they as bad as each other in teaching children how to think about gender stereotypes?
Lads Mags: Some Examples
Here are some sample headlines from Lad Mags front covers. They are now only displayed on the top shelves in sealed bags that obscure their front page, apart from their title. Most lad's mags hire the same well-paid professional models and celebrities again and again to pose for the covers for most of their issues. Some of these magazines have since been discontinued because of the subsequent reduction of sales.
Nuts: 2014 - front page headlines
BILLIE FAIERS!
CELEB BB'S LACEY B
50 REALITY TV STARS TOPLESS!
HELEN FLANAGAN IN HER SEXIEST SHOOT YET
PLUS! TOWIE'S LUCY MECK
FMV: Oct 2015 - front page headlines
GEORGIE PORTER
RULE BREAKERS, RISK-TAKERS, REBELS, MISFITS
Zoo: April 2016 - front page headlines
THE ONE AND ONLY - LUISA ZISSMAN
THE PLANET'S SEXIEST WOMAN - KATE UPTON
LUISA ZISSMAN'S NAUGHTY HOLIDAY STRIP!
"Zoo and Nuts are not just pornographic magazines. They also have a culture that makes it permissible to hate women. They are sort of fanzines for misogyny."
Romola Garai, Actress
Source: The Guardian Oct 2013
"THIS MAGAZINE DE-HUMANISES WOMEN - DON'T BUY IT".
The students at the Oxford Student Union placed covers over the Lads Magazines. They left the Women's Chat magazines alone, presumably because they only de-humanise men.
(One of the covers ironically declares "CHILDREN ARE ALLOWED TO BUY THIS!".)
After the "Lose The Lads Mags" Campaign was over
The surviving lad's mags are now only displayed on top shelves (over 7 feet off the floor) and contained in sealed polythene bags that prevent customers from seeing the front covers or even opening the magazines.
(March 2017)
Women's chat mags, on the other hand, have their disturbing sex-and-horror headlines on full display right down to the floor and sold for casual entertainment to women (or to children, if they have the money)
(March 2017)
So, is it double standards?
When you compare our society's attitudes towards these two types of magazines, the message is clear - it's NOT acceptable to objectify women but it IS acceptable to preach hatred against men. And teach your children to hate and fear them.
If you believed that the lads mags were capable of changing the perceptions of how society views females, then you can see how these chat mags are doing the same thing against men by peddling their misandric stories of sexually violent rape, death and child abuse. These chat mags pose a threat to our society in the same way that the lads mags did.
They are both corrosive assaults how society views the opposite sex and how we are made to feel about ourselves and each other. We need to drop the double standards and treat both lad mags and chat mags the same way.
What Next?
Both the lad's mags and the chat mags conduct corrosive assaults how society views the opposite sex and how we are made to feel about ourselves and each other. Let's get these poisonous magazines out of the sight of children and onto the top shelf in bags.
If you were one of those who campaigned to get the lad mags removed for teaching children to sexually objectify females then you should also be concerned about how these women's chat magazines are teaching our children to fear and hate men. They do it from the bottom shelf of a magazine rack in the supermarket right next to the comics, or when their mum takes one home and leaves it lying around for the rest of the family to see. They use the sensational stories of child abuse, rapes and murders as a form of casual entertainment and a means to make a profit. for the magazine owners.
They've been doing it for decades and will continue to do so until we stop them.
Let's get these obnoxious, misandric, poisonous magazines out of the sight of children and onto the top shelf and hidden in sealed bags, where they belong.
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