Respect

I have many female friends, in fact more of my friends are women than men. I'm not sure why that is, perhaps it's the working with the kids, but nevertheless it is a fact. And, with the exception of one none of them are Daily Mail readers.

And yet the Daily Mail is, apparently, the most widely read paper amongst women.

So why don't I know any of these women?

The women that are my friends are, as a general rule, intelligent, thoughtful, compassionate, funny with plenty of drive and get up and go. And that doesn't necessarily mean career women, although some are. One of my closest friends is a full time Mum and very happy to be so. Another commits much of her time to doing aid work in war zones when she could be earning money at medical research, and is very happy to do so. So they are a varied bunch but all united in that they have a brain, and they use it.

So maybe that gives us a clue as to why only one of this varied bunch buys the Mail (and even she doesn't take it seriously) because I think we need to take a look at the "Femail" (d'ya see what they did there) section of the Mail website and take a look at those stories that they have particularly picked out for women. Those flashign pieces of journalistic brilliance that may appeal particularly to the fairer sex. One warning though, do try not to let your brain crawl out your ear as we go through them.

"Why i hate being photographed in my bikini by Leona Lewis"

"Policeman Paddick takes on I'm a celebrity bikini babes"

"WAG Nicola wolfs down eyeballs and silk worms to win trial"

"RIP VPL, the curse of women throughout the ages"

"Riddle of the missing belly button for Victoria's secret model"

"Exhausted Angelina Jole breaksdown as she pays tribute to her late mother"

"More embarassment for Jonathan Ross as he gets looked out in his pyjamas"

"Terrie dumped me by text says Simon Cowell"

I could go on and on and on but you get the picture. Yes, that is the reading matter that the Mail sees fit to serve to the women of Britain. Not for them is the crisis in the Congo, or what went wrong in the baby P case, or the threat of deflation, or anything else that might remotely require the use of a brain.

No, the women of Britain are there to be patronised and force fed brain numbing rubbish. And it leaves me confused because women are buying this brain numbing rubbish as well. Why? Maybe it's the obverse of why an astonishing number of men by Nuts and Zoo, magazines aimed at men but so lacking in anything that may require a thought process that I do wonder if their titles are a reference to whatever creature actually wrote them.

Crap like the Mail or Heat for women, crap like Nuts and Zoo for men.

Stuff like this, in my opinion, shows a total lack of respect.