Are cooking magazines sexist?

[PotatoHouse]

My wife gave me a subscription to Bon Appetit magazine two years ago (I just renewed it) and I buy Food Network magazine more often than not and I have noticed in both that ALL advertising is aimed toward women despite the large number of male cooks and professional chefs. It really iritates me in Food Network magazine considering they have as many male chefs on their network as they do female (if not more).
Do any of you guys feel "ignored" when it comes to the cooking magazines you buy, or am I alone in this?

[FattyDumplin]

What may be an interesting question is who is actually reading magazines... My wife subscribes to Parent Magazine, but I actually read it as well. I'm assuming in the database, the readership shows up as 1 female, as opposed to 1 male / 1 female. But my guess is that even with the "shadow" male readers, the female population far outweighs the male popultion.

[John Francis]

I understand that magazines, at least the ones with a large circulation, take secondary readers into account in their statistics. How they do this, I don't know.

[FattyDumplin]

"large number" doesn't really mean anything from a statistical standpoint. my guess is that they analyze their client base and their readership is overwhelmingly female. so yes, while the absolutel number of male cooks has skyrocketed, that was off of a low base and the percentages are still skewed heavily female. all this is my speculation, but i would imagine one then has to calculate the value of running all "female" ads and potentially alienating the male clientele, or running more "male" ads, which potentially annoys the even larger population female clientele.

i think the perfect parallel is the NFL, where female viewership has skyrocketed, but is still dwarfed by the male population. And there is a paucity of "female" targeted ads. Nor do I want to see them when I am watching football.

[John Francis]

These magazines know who their readers are. So do their advertisers. It's not a social or political issue.

[Veggo]

Sexist is not a PC word, but cooking magazines are not surprisingly oriented to a female viewership. I have one guest bathroom outfitted with cooking magazines, dried smell-good stuff, candles, and the seat is always down. I have another bathroom with recent issues of Guns & Ammo, an ashtray for cigars, and the seat is always up.

[GH1618]

Now that's sexist, assuming that men want the seat left up.

[ipsedixit]

I thought that one was for the women? No? Don't women all read Guns & Ammo?

[Bacardi1]

No, silly - they read "Garden & Gun".

http://gardenandgun.com/

[paulj]

http://gardenandgun.com/article/krisp...
Krispy Krème Brûlée

[Veggo]

I prefer that men who do functions that require the seat to be down, do so before they arrive, or after they depart from my home. Men are nasty, noisy, smelly critters. It's enough that I have to tolerate myself.

[GH1618]

You are missing the point. Putting the seat and the lid down is a matter of tidyness, not function.

[Veggo]

But lifting the seat requires TOUCHING it. I prefer not to.

[kengk]

Amen, we had ONE guy at work that insisted on putting the lid down.

[MGZ]

What's a seat?

[hetook]

Too many mags r aimed @ the suburban mom in Pleasantville. ..maybe I don't get to right newstand?..

[Wawsanham]

Well, isn't the important part the recipes or articles? That info is useful for anyone interested in cooking, I suppose. Who cares about the ads. Besides, even skin care product ads theoretically for females have useful information for men. Try to relate as a human being, maybe, not as a man.

[BiscuitBoy]

Yes! I've always said the ads in Maxim and Hustler are geared for men AND women

[Chemicalkinetics]

<even skin care product ads theoretically for females have useful information for men>

I am told actually men require more skin product than women -- because a man's skin is more delicate. It is just that women worry more about their skin.

[ipsedixit]

... and most men care more about women's skin as well.

[Chemicalkinetics]

<most men care more about women's skin as well>

You mean most men care more about women's skin than men's skin, right? Yes, that is pretty normal because most men usually do not look at other men. Let's face it. Women look at other women. Men don't look at other men. (typically speaking). I don't remember the last time I heard a man say to another man: "Your skin looks so nice". Now, I hear that almost daily (certainly weekly) from women talk to each others.

[BiscuitBoy]

"typically" HA! Brace for impact

[MagicMarkR]

If you are actually looking to one-page advertisments on skin products geared towards women found in a cooking magazine to get information about men's skin care then you are really lost. And also at the wrong website.

[Chemicalkinetics]

It would be so awesome though.
http://www.gaiaskinnaturals.com/skin1...

[beevod]

I do feel "ignored," and, to compensate, I read "Soldier of Fortune."

[Harters]

Flicking through the current edition of Delicious magazine, I'd say the vast majority of adverts don't feature people and, as such, are not linked to gender at all. I've never really felt that, as a man, I'm being excluded from advertising. But, then, I don't really give stuff for the adverts.

[cowboyardee]

In Saveur, the only cooking mag I read much, the ads seem not to have a particular gender in mind. Most are for travel destinations, cooking supplies, and foodstuffs. True, the hand touching the dial on the new Kitchenaid oven appears to be female, but that might just be because it's less distracting than a hairy man's forearm.

Why the difference between Saveur and the other cooking mags? I don't really know, but I'd hazard a guess that Saveur has more male readers. Why's that? Again I don't really know.

[paulj]

Are you claiming that the magazine is sexist, or that the advertisers are? I suspect the magazine takes most anyone who wants to advertise, and that the advertisers (or ad agencies) pay a lot of attention to the magazine reader demographics.

I have some old copies of BA. Most of those ads were for cookware, cigs, spirits, and a few luxury cars. Not nearly as female oriented as the Good House Keeping mags that my mom used to get, nor as male oriented as the Popular Science mags that I got.

As for the many male chefs, I doubt if they read BA much, unless they are being featured.

[ipsedixit]

Now you know how the other sex feels when reading the SI Swimsuit Issue.

[brirock]

It's not just advertising either - I often read Cooking Light and in every issue there is a page featuring cosmetics/lotions, etc. in whatever the "flavor of the month" is.

I am female, but my dad taught me to cook and is the ultimate chef in our family!

[Chemicalkinetics]

<my dad taught me to cook and is the ultimate chef in our family>

Yes, and I am sure a lot of men are great cooks. Does your dad subscribes Cooking Light? 84% of Cooking Light readers are females. 84 vs 16. This is more than 5-fold. When 84% of your readers are women, it would be "unrealistic" to pretend you have a 50:50 audience.

[brirock]

He does, actually. Just something I've noticed in the magazine, no extreme social commentary intended :)

[Chemicalkinetics]

:) Oh I see. Well, your dad is a minority then.

Here is some information if you are interested
Readership:
Food Network: 90% Female
Cooking Light: 84% Female
Bon Appetit: 74% Female
Cook's Illustrated: 61% Female

Chef Magazine: 62% Male

[kengk]

I wonder how those statistics are compiled? The only magazine we get that has any cooking content is Southern Living, maybe 20% is related to food. The subscription is in my wife's name. Am I being counted as a reader?

Their advertising is mainly geared towards women.

[Chemicalkinetics]

I guess the magazine collect the information when people subscribed to them. That is certainly one way, but like you said, there is a problem with this.

Or they do what pollsters do, they call/contact their subscribes and select a small sample ~100-200 people to get an idea of readership. Is the subscriber the only, reader? Who else read the magazine, what are their the age, gender, income...etc.

[FoodPopulist]

In this age of data mining, they probably have info on other purchases by people who subscribe to the magazine.

[Chemicalkinetics]

That is certainly a better way than I have put it.

[GH1618]

I buy Cooking Light more than any other food mag, and never have given a moment's thought to a possible sex bias (I am male). I don't know that the magazine editors are pretending anything. They no doubt report their demographic (as far as they know it) to prospective advertisers, who then choose whether to place an ad. So I think your analysis is correct. If the demographic is 84% female, there will be much advertising of interest only to females. That doesn't affect my decision to buy a copy.

[Chemicalkinetics]

<That doesn't affect my decision to buy a copy.>

Certainly not. I just want to say that a magazine with a 84% female readership will not have a 50:50 advertizement ratio. So I think I just want to say that it is not sexist. It is what it is -- simply marketing and business strategy. Most video game players are male, so you and I will find more male orienated advertisements in a video game magazine.

[GH1618]

I won't find any at all, since I never read such stuff.

[Chemicalkinetics]

I don't know if it is sexist. Advertisement is advertisement. Someone decided that the readers for these two magazines fit their markets. It is whoever they want to target their audience. Keep in mind that these two magazines are not really selling cooking techniques, but about life styles. To me, sexist is judging someone's ability based on their gender, and this is not the case.

<considering they have as many male chefs on their network as they do female (if not more)>

While this may be true, it isn't about who are on show, but who read the magazine. Advertisements on a dog magazine do not sell to the dogs, but the dog owners who read the magazine. Companies are not trying sell their products to the chefs, but to the readers. We know for sure that most readers of these magazines are indeed women, by a huge margin too. In fact, most the Chow readers are also women.

[MagicMarkR]

Interestingly (maybe), ever since BA changed editors-in-chief from Barbara Fairchild to Adam Rapoport, the magazine has been redesigned to look more like Vogue, or some other fashion magazine and less like a solid food/cooking magazine.

[nlgardener]

I agree. BA has jumped the shark. I discontinued my subscription before Fairchild's departure but was " gifted" with it once again when Gourmet tanked and my subscription was switched to BA. Can't end soon enough.

[MagicMarkR]

Me too, but in a different way. It was all set to expire when my mom told me she had renewed the subscription as a gift. Sigh. Well it is the thought that counts. I even think Gourmet went downhill (before tanking) and started to look more like a artsy photography magazine with a focus on food rather than a food magazine with yummy pictures.

[GH1618]

I hardly ever buy that, but I found one issue from 2009. It has a few cosmetics advertisements in it. It never occurred to me to have an opinion on the possibility of "sexist" bias, and it still doesn't. I don't care what advertisements are in any food magazine I buy, because I buy one only for a particular article or recipe.

[Sherri]

I think that you have chosen two examples that absolutely do target a female audience. The upwardly-mobile housewife = Bon Appetit. Just look at the advertizing. It is "shelter magazine" with an emphasis on living/food. FN magazine is geared towards the many female viewers of the shows (and day-to-day household cooks). Choose a more serious publication, Fine Cooking or Saveur, and you will not find the same gender bias.

Professional chefs will likely read Food Arts since it is geared to the profession.

[Bacardi1]

I'm female, but I know where you're coming from.

While it's true that yes, there are many, many, many professional male chefs these days - as well as serious male home cooks - it's also still true that for the most part the day-to-day home cook in the average family is female.

Advertising dollars are getting slimmer & slimmer, thus they need to spend their dollars where they feel they'll get the best end result. And that's not the professional male chef or even the male home cook.