Magazines - entertaining or demoralising?

lovebeigecardigans1955 Surely everyone knows that everything is dressed in their best for the photographs and doesn't actually believe anyone lives like that? At least I have never met anyone who thought they werereal, but the basics of the home are there and I am interested in the blend of colours in a room, how they displayed ornaments or use pictures to enhance a room. the fact that there is normally a tv, a half drunk cup of coffee rugs, on the settees for the dogs doesn't bother me, they are just clutter that obscure the view,

They also only show photographs of a couple of rooms, but as someone who is currently living through a major building project and a lot of moving furniture, painting walls and even fitting out a kitchen breakfast room and utility room, I am busy looking at housing magazines of all kinds for ideas about how to decorate and fit these rooms out

I used to buy Australian Women's Weekly for years - it was more down to earth than british women's magazines.
Now most weeks I buy an american family magazine which has a women's section and a section mostly on american politics. Fascinating to see the cultural differences (compared with us. )
And I got the Tesco food magazine - free- the other day which is good.

A lot of magazines seem to bang on about middle aged women’s issues with confidence, while using size 10 models in their 20’s for fashion features and even “anti-ageing product” advertisements

(Mr R gets really cross when they advertise stair lifts by having someone using it who can clearly manage the stairs )

I don't have that problem. I don't buy magazines for women of any age. I find what I want to know about on websearch or the like.

Magazines are generally full of true stories which is like watching soap operas which I don't watch either.

Problem solved

I've been reading Good Housekeeping for years but it's been stuck in a rut for a while now. They really need to drop those features about women who have overcome adversity and now run their own businesses or used some difficulty in their lives to 'take stock', give up their successful career in the city and retrain as a herbalist/lifecoach/cake decorator.
They were interesting for a while but they've just become eye glazing now, and seem to take up half the magazine.

Thats the very reason i don`t buy them Hamster58.

Beswitched

I've been reading Good Housekeeping for years but it's been stuck in a rut for a while now. They really need to drop those features about women who have overcome adversity and now run their own businesses or used some difficulty in their lives to 'take stock', give up their successful career in the city and retrain as a herbalist/lifecoach/cake decorator.
They were interesting for a while but they've just become eye glazing now, and seem to take up half the magazine.

They also seem to have shed husbands along the way

I generally read magazines in my tea break at work. The one's people bring in that are a month out of date.
I enjoy reading them, and dont take them too seriously.

Yes I think not taking them too seriously is key. They're sort of Enid Blyton for adults. I knew I was never going to be sent to a posh boarding school or own a pony or run around with a torch catching smugglers and thieves. But I enjoyed thinking there was an alternative universe where I might.

Likewise I'm never going to give up my humdrum life and job to move to Dorset and turn my hobby into my career. Or spend my Christmas frolicking with tartan clad kids in front of a roaring log fire, or my Summers in skimpy white shorts serving deliciously barbecued food to my photogenic neighbours.
But in an alternative universe.....