The Gracious Art
Woman's Weekly / 30th April 1965
What woman can resist the quiet pleasure of flower arranging? I don’t have any trouble doing so.
Tags: blatant sexism, household
Soviet Miss World
Weekend / 30th January 1974
There’s plenty to enjoy here, of course, but I like the implication that Soviet men are suffering due to the lack of totty to wank over, and am curious as to whether the competitions to see which wives carried out their ‘duties’ were a regular thing in the USSR. There was a practical point being made by Soviet Sport, however, in that a competition based on looks WAS a political problem in the enormous and ethnically diverse USSR. Don’t worry, though, the treatment of women as accessories of men (albeit through their domestic work) still meant that it wasn’t all that different to the decadent West.
Tags: blatant sexism, social history
Keeping It In The Family
Woman's Weekly / 30th April 1965
Ah, the past. Young heterosexual relationships are rarely policed in this fashion nowadays, of course, but we can’t make the same assumptions for everyone. It’s also worth noticing that there’s no mention of whether race is playing a part in the father’s reaction, but, to be fair, interracial relationships were very rare in 1965. Mary actually gives some good advice here, which makes a nice change. Her advice to the young woman being sexually bullied by her boyfriend’s father, although, is quite typical of the time. A quick web search does suggest that this problem still exists nowadays, but it is a good sign that the advice given is more empowering than Mary’s, and I do get the impression that it’s a bit rarer.
Tags: blatant sexism, dodgy advice, emotional blackmail, Mary Marryat, misplaced morality, problem page
The Sound and the Fury
Weekend / 30th January 1974
Proof, if any were needed, that certain columns in newspapers seem to have always existed simply to fill space. This chap has filled a good third of a page saying absolutely nothing. The real interest for me lies in the garish ‘coming up next week’ promotion, which is very characteristic of modern womans’ magazines. I’ve actually read Charlie Williams’ autobiography “‘Ee, I’ve Had Some Laughs”, which Weekend was running extracts from at that point. It’s fascinating as a memoir of someone overcoming open, unrepentant racism, but also reflects the racism Charlie had absorbed as a way of coping; playing things the racists’ way. Alternative comedy helped question a lot of bigotry, and although we’ve still got some way to go, we can at least identify and talk about that nowadays.
Tags: blatant racism, blatant sexism
Select Seven Girls From Paisley
Weekend / 30th January 1974
Yes, you read that correctly. They want you to rank seven ‘girls’ (they look like women to me) from the list, and then rank them in order of ‘merit’. Even considering the popularity of Miss World at this time, which is the ultimate symbol of ranking women against each other simply based on their sex, this is still a ludicrous way of winning a car. To be fair, I published a similar competition which featured in Women’s Own, but at least they had the good grace to stick with various photos of a named, well known man, rather than comparing random men against each other.
Regular readers may have noticed that this comes from a different source than the rest of my posts. This is an issue of Weekend magazine, from the week beginning 30 January 1974. It took me a little time to try and figure out exactly what demographic this magazine was aimed at, but then I saw where it was based: Northcliffe House, home of the Mail. This was a weekly version of the Mail, in essence. You’ll see the similarities in future posts…
Tags: blatant sexism, competition
The Secret Painkiller
Woman's Weekly / 14th May 1965
I’ve written about Phensic before, but I find their code for period pain quite fascinating. No wonder so many people were confused about sex and periods, if the only references made were as heavily veiled as this.
Tags: blatant sexism, health, periods
Concertina Syndrome
Woman's Weekly / 14th May 1965
She ought to get that seen to. Seriously, though, and I know I’ve gone on about this before, but aren’t Trimmetts basically advocating that you eat their biscuits for the rest of your life? I reckon you’d have far more fun as a ‘fat maiden’.
Tags: blatant sexism, diets, dodgy advice
Something Inscrutable In His Eyes
Woman's Weekly / 7th May 1965
I’m sure a good rinse with Optrex will sort Bern out. (From ‘The Ranger In The Hills’)
Tags: blatant sexism, romance
Tralala!
Woman's Weekly / 23rd April 1965
It’s just as well that I love my job, as being stuck indoors during the sunniest weekend of the year so far was a little dispiriting. I cheered myself up by standing by the door occasionally, sniffing the spring air. And so to this article, which gives advice on how to live up to beauty standards which appear to require you to CHANGE HANDBAGS to match an outfit. To be fair, mixed in with the patriarchal stuff are a few handy practical hints, especially if you’re on your feet all day, which would have been the case for many women, given the lack of choice in career at that time. But do remember to refresh your make-up, otherwise your boss will think you’re a rough old slag, and there won’t be any flowers for you!
Tags: beauty, blatant sexism
Drama Queen
Woman's Weekly / 27th June 1969
“Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman…”. All of these letters are significant in their own way, as none of these problems are issues for men. The 16 year old girl is probably being a bit overwrought, but I stayed the night with my best friend more than once as a teen without being accused of meeting a boy by my parents! Both Mrs. C and Working Wife are suffering from higher expectations being applied to them than to their husbands, and naturally, poor Worried won’t see the father of her child for dust. In some respects, things haven’t changed all that much, but at least women have more options nowadays to either get themselves out of trouble, or to avoid landing themselves in it.
Tags: blatant sexism, Mary Marryat, pregnancy, problem page, teenagers