Women's Section

What a strange programme Woman's Hour is. It's sometimes on in the background when I'm writing this blog, until it gets too distressingly gynaecological. It often has excellent items of general interest but there are also some ludicrously trivial pieces that are considered to make compelling listening for women. Two of my favourites are last week's History of the Hostess Trolley and a long discussion on whether you should 'cull' your collection of cookery books and how to do it.

I once ventured on to the Woman's Hour message board after the actress Sue Pollard had made the ridiculous statement on the programme that all gay men secretly want to be women. A very nice lady who shared my outrage promised to buy me a drink - an easy promise to make on an anonymous message board, but it's the thought that counts.

As a child who would read anything, I often read the women's magazines that the women in our family left lying around. That was in the days when Woman's Own and Woman's Realm seldom mentioned sex, even in the agony columns. But I could never understand why intelligent women read such drivel.
In recent years the market has been flooded with men's magazines and the new breed of 'Lads' Mags' like Nuts and Zoo churning out similar stereotypical pap to their feminine counterparts. Some might think this progress towards sexual equality but I think both sexes are demeaned by this kind of drivel. I also think publications based on sexuality are equally absurd although at least gay magazines have the excuse that they're catering for a minority who are sidelined by the mainstram media.
The sad thing is that millions of lads and ladettes are happy to be patronised by corporations making huge profits by selling advertising on the back of an infantile, gender-based template.

**********

CLARIFICATION
(Skip this if you have a life)

In case anyone thinks I was unnecessarily rude to a commenter, I do reserve the right not to be bored to death in my own blog. If I wanted that, I would offer myself up to one of the local pub bores or take out a subscription to Stamp Collectors' Monthly.
A comment box is not a chat room or message board. Excessive commenting from one individual becomes like spam. I may not always succeed but I try to limit the number of comments I place on people's blogs and keep them short and to the point. Most of the people who comment on my blog do the same. That's why I suggested that it might be better for this person to go away and write their own blog rather than infesting other people's with long and sometimes tedious comments.

In a comment he has since removed this person said that most bloggers get few comments and this might be because they don't like comments that aren't complimentary. He also said "I did think you had more intelligence.....all the hits must be going to your head."
Mmm.....hits to the head.....don't tempt me into a bad pun.
I don't know how he has gained access to my logfiles. As it happens I don't get a huge number of hits, although somewhat above the average. But I write this for my own pleasure and to exercise my ageing brain. If just one person reads and enjoys it then that's a bonus. Intelligent and relevant comments are also welcome and I've had plenty of those since I started.

But a blog should not be judged by the number of comments it gets. There are many brilliant blogs that I visit which get hardly any comments, possibly because few people have discovered them. This might be because they haven't put themselves into directories or built up a network of links or don't ping feed services. Or they may not have had the luck of a popular blogger promoting them.

Although blogging is a public activity, the blog itself remains your own personal space and who you share it with is a matter for you. To tell someone they are unwelcome is unpleasant and potentially hurtful and not something I would often do. If someone ever does that to me I hope I could take it on the chin and not go round bad-mouthing them in other people's comment boxes.
You may not agree with me but those are my views and I hope the matter is now closed.