Fash Pack do Feminism, in an Ann Summers way that is...

Feminism is a dirty word. That’s what Stylist was telling us this week.

Oh whatever, women care about their rights. Whether we pack it up in a pink box and wrap a ribbon around it, or tell women it’s about ‘burning bras’ and ‘hairy legs.’ Most of us will have an opinion on it.

I know that you want to be ‘controversial,’ but this topic has been everywhere – from the page 3 ‘beauties’ in the Sun, to the most hoighty-toighty of broadsheet columnists. It’s been covered enough times to make you think watching Countryfile is fun. Genuinely it’s not. It’s about as fun as Scrapheap challenge. But that’s another blog in itself...

I’m a liberal feminist. Am I defined by this? No - it’s gives my opinions a name. I’ve read my Marxist Feminists, Radical Feminists, Black Feminists... If you want to find out about it, you probably will. But this read more like Usborne’s first book of Feminism.

The patronising level this magazine slowly tiptoed into was truly painful http://issue.stylist.co.uk/Stylist-style-fashion-beauty-news/1A4c0d0aa146bfd012.cde Now speaking really slowly, I ammmm goinggg to expllllainnn what the firrrrst waaave is ...

I agree that rape conviction rates are atrocious, that the pay gap is far too wide – but this title is aimed at professional career-minded commuter ladies, non?

I was so excited about Stylist’s launch http://willoughbypr.blogspot.com/2009/07/have-you-been-shortlisted-for-your-own.html that it felt such a missed opportunity. What was interesting is the fact they put 3 ad agencies on the case – most of which wanting to ‘reclaim feminsm’ and bring back its shine.

The most radical of which (not) came up with an idea to produce special t-shirts – because if Lilly Allen and Alexa Chung wear something we’ll immediately copy it. Just give them slogans such as ‘Hello boys. I’m a feminist’ and ‘Feminists get laid more’ (I’m struggling to type these...) and then we’ll love the word again. Plus (I’m presuming) men will love it too. Ha.

It’s less Katherine Hamnett, more Ann-Summers do intelligent - isn’t it?

Stylist I like you. We do need to talk about women’s issues, but I don’t think you gave the ‘normal’ woman enough credit.

Right, that over with, I’m off to buy some dungarees ;)

Have you been Shortlisted for your own personal Stylist this autumn?

Breaking news in the world of magazines...

For every woman who’s ever been handed a free copy of Shortlist on a rainy day, only to sit down and trudge through a wealth of sport and gangster film reviews, for every one of us who is forced to splash her cash at the tills for a magazine that thinks Madonna’s latest adoption is the most newsworthy story of the week, or forced to watch Natalie Cassidy’s weight rise and fall...apparently our prayers have been answered.

Project Y has been under operation for nearly 8 months now but with the big reveal today: Shortlist, the free male weekly title, is to distribute a new women’s magazine on Wednesday from late September/October.

Titled Stylist, 400,000 copies will be dispersed over 6 cities, giving you content such as the high-end fashion you may expect right through to travel, people and careers.

We’ve seen this before you might say – revolutionary topics such as “I earned more than my husband so he left me” or “I’m the breadwinner in our house” featuring the obligatory stiletto heels and red lipped smirk. But Chief Exec Mike Soutar of FHM fame seems to be taking this seriously:

“...There are some important things it will never do: it will never publish unflattering paparazzi shots of celebrities looking their worst, never invent spurious stories about stars’ relationships and never cynically exploit women’s body anxieties.”

Sounds like a publicist’s dream – polished images and positive content. But even the likes of Grazia can’t resist a comment or two on the fashion fails and tangoed terrors.

We all get frustrated with the lengths some titles go to chart weight loss – stopping just short of calling them in for a weekly weigh-in. But everyone likes a little comment here and there, something that makes these glamorous celebrities seem human. Kate Winslet has built her career on interviews talking about how much she has struggled with, and learnt to love, her “real body.” Surely a sweat patch here or there or a mascara-teared picture looking worse for wear only helps this?

Targeting “affluent professional women” or as one reporter hilariously put it “20-40 year old women who enjoy 11 years of freedom and career building before starting a family”, Stylist is looking to challenge the Grazias and Marie Claires of this world.

Bypassing the comment that women only have 11 years of freedom (?!), it’s going to be a tough market to crack and I certainly wish editor Lisa Smorsaski (formerly of More) the best of luck.
It’s a step in a different direction – one that men’s magazines such as GQ and Esquire seem to have succeeded in achieving where most women’s magazines have failed.

But from one 20-40 year old woman in the “career-building” time of life who will be handed the title one Wednesday in Birmingham, could we please have just a little bit of celebrity smirking? In the nicest possible way of course...