Author Topic: "Token Attractive Woman"  (Read 7834 times)

Karla

  • car(e) free
    • Lost Byway - around the world by bike
Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #25 on: 04 September, 2017, 01:45:16 pm »
I'm guessing like most forms of printed media the number of editors have been cut drastically which leads to things like this.

None the less, it remains the editor's responsibility to read every page before it goes to print. Whether he actually does read the pages or not, being signed off for publication implies tacit approval by the editor.

Simon throwing the sub under the bus shows pretty poor judgment on his own part.

I must admit this sort of bad management perturbs me more than the original caption, which, like Matt said, is basically naming the sort of targeted image strategy that lots of people use anyway.  Then again, that probably shows my biases!

Nick H.

Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #26 on: 04 September, 2017, 03:09:00 pm »
Some people here are under the impression that magazines can still afford an adequately staffed sub's desk.  Have you not heard of 'the internet'? Several years ago it compelled everyone in publishing to take a pay cut and do three jobs.

Nick H.

Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #27 on: 04 September, 2017, 03:18:12 pm »
Mrs Cudzo says "She's not even that attractive, just average"!

You can't blame her, she's only emulating our Dear Leader.  He told the New York Times that Heidi Klum is "no longer a 10", then he won the election. QED.  https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/opinion/sunday/introducing-donald-trump-diplomat.html

Nick H.

Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #28 on: 04 September, 2017, 03:19:56 pm »
does no one proof read anything anymore?

*proofread

ian

Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #29 on: 05 September, 2017, 08:09:19 am »
Actually, the subed is to be lauded for his ironic attack on the expectations of his mag's predominantly male readership, and the manner in which the magazine's policy dictates that it should be pandered to.

Of course, irony didn't work on the Red Guard either.

I think you nailed it, from a brief glance at their online available stuff it's a world of mostly men on shiny bikes and well, women do seem a bit token. You could lick the page to get a testosterone boost but that would be (a) odd behaviour even for the bedroom and (b) probably banned under current competitive cycling rules (but what an excuse for failing a doping test).

Admittedly though, I learned everything I needed to know about women from the lingerie pages of late 1980s clothing catalogues. I'm not sure cycling magazines would be nearly so educational.

LEE

  • "Shut Up Jens" - Legs.
Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #30 on: 05 September, 2017, 09:07:06 am »
I see it as an insight into the banter at the Magazine's publishing office.

Some people say I'm self-obsessed but that's enough about them.

Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #31 on: 05 September, 2017, 07:49:11 pm »
I'm not assuming that the sub-editor is a man. Attractive women get grief from many quarters.
Very very true. I know at least one attractive woman who was bullied in their teens by a woman. Took them years to figure out what was really going on. Also know someone  who was fat shamed by other women but not by her male contemporaries. Even more spectacularly knew an ex somewhat weight challenged woman who invited me to take the p out of her supposedly overweight flatmate. Have by coincidence been advised today by a female friend to look at other women as they see another woman get on a train. Particularly if that train entrant is attractive.

ian

Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #32 on: 06 September, 2017, 09:48:35 pm »
I see it as an insight into the banter at the Magazine's publishing office.

Possibly cycling magazines are especially manly environments, but in my umpteen years of publishing experience, editorial roles are more likely to filled by women and their banter probably best described as unsuitable for children under the age of 31.

Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #33 on: 06 September, 2017, 10:14:29 pm »
You probably all know that I'm the extremely rich web entrepreneur behind ethnicfriends.com (Add a Little Color to Your Annual Report™), the world's leading diversity management service for busy companies that simply don't have the time to deal with promoting ethnic minorities and women.

Anyway, we recently debuted a plugin for InDesign that automatically populates images from our royalty-free diversity bank. Unfortunately, it's still in beta. We'll be working with Cycling Weekly to address the problem of lingering comment fields before we launch the full service.

Thanks for your patience.
I've visited too many places on this webby thing with upvote buttons. My finger twitched for one.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #34 on: 06 September, 2017, 10:22:59 pm »
Cycling mags are regarded by publishers as men's mags, in the same way that food mags are regarded as women's mags. Some cycling mags have women on the staff, but that won't necessarily be reflected in the content of the mag. That's a commercial policy, not an editorial one. I know of a male editor of a cycling mag who was prevented by the female publisher (herself a cyclist) from putting a woman on the cover.

Tbh, I doubt the banter in any magazine office (and I've worked in a few) is worse than any other working environment. The problem is the danger of it occasionally spilling out of the office and onto the page. But that's why you need people to actually read the fucking pages before sending them to the printer.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

ian

Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #35 on: 09 September, 2017, 12:00:44 pm »
In the realm of speculation, but I do wonder if it was a female sub taking a sarcastic pop, I had a flip through a few glossies (I can't reach the top shelf*, I'm a shortarse, so had to settle for the cycling magazines). I will say coverage of the ladies was most aptly described as token. I expect more women appear in Hipster Beard Monthly. But yeah, a sporty magazine filled with expensive shiny bits, you don't have to work hard to figure out the target audience doesn't double up on its X chromosomes.

I've only worked on the academic end of the publishing industry (well, mostly) and editorial roles are predominantly female. All my team back in the day were women, so much so they used to complain about my failure to hire a suitably handsome male (ugh, not you, you're our boss). I tried. They must have all been working on cycling and computer mags. Actually I did briefly work for a computer mag back in the day (one of my first jobs in London, discovered it did pay nearly enough for both rent and food, so that didn't last), and that was as male and nerdy as expected. No one would have used the word handsome to describe that bunch. Clean would have been a stretch. Believe me, on that salary, it was soap or food.

*I couldn't help but notice there still was a top shelf, so to speak. I obviously don't look up very often but I'd assume the internet had killed that market. it didn't look very enticing but buxom ladies with vertiginous cleavages aren't really my cup of tea – I expect they'll survive their heartbreak at this news – I'm more a neck person, seriously that's you best region of feminine geography (the back thereof, under the hair, not the front). Now I written that it's going to make me seem weird, but there you go, and if it's thing on the internet I've yet to find suitably pictorial resources.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #36 on: 09 September, 2017, 04:10:11 pm »
I couldn't help but notice there still was a top shelf, so to speak. I obviously don't look up very often but I'd assume the internet had killed that market.

I assume it's the same people who still buy computer magazines.

ian

Re: "Token Attractive Woman"
« Reply #37 on: 10 September, 2017, 12:11:21 pm »
I get my kicks with a print copy of New Scientist. My visits to the loo are always educational. I like print, of course, because I'm old, and it's what I used to do (sadly another job I never got paid much for, hence my ending up doing something else, which I do somewhat regret, even if my bank account doesn't). I still do appreciate a nice looking page, token female or not. Web design is just boring, and often astoundingly poor, to be honest. The internet makes me scowl.