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| Tatler hasn't gone tits up, despite appearances | Tatler hasn't gone tits up, despite appearances |
| (about 20 hours later) | |
| Tits: they exist. Some are small, some are large, some, Tatler would have you believe, are ginger (my own chest is bald, mores the pity). If you're a lady it's likely that, at one point or another, your tits have been ogled by a pervy colleague or caused you to get stuck in a denim boob-tube in the changing rooms at New Look (or is that just me? The sales assistant found me flailing with my arms pinned to my head. It took two of them to yank it off.) If you're a certain sort of lady (upper-middle class, minor royal or media dahling) you've probably even had your tits ogled by Tatler. | Tits: they exist. Some are small, some are large, some, Tatler would have you believe, are ginger (my own chest is bald, mores the pity). If you're a lady it's likely that, at one point or another, your tits have been ogled by a pervy colleague or caused you to get stuck in a denim boob-tube in the changing rooms at New Look (or is that just me? The sales assistant found me flailing with my arms pinned to my head. It took two of them to yank it off.) If you're a certain sort of lady (upper-middle class, minor royal or media dahling) you've probably even had your tits ogled by Tatler. |
| In case your subscription is late this month, I'm talking about the 'Titler' feature in May's issue. No, this isn't breasts painted to look like Hitler, which is what genuinely comes up if you Google 'Titler', it is a two-and-a-bit page spread depicting a rundown of "the most magnificent and marvellous breasts in all society". From Princess Charlene of Monaco's "Runaway Tits" to Clare Balding's "Racing Tits" by way of Louise Mensch's "Tweeting Tits", Tatler compiles a bumper pack of posh breasts (although, I may hasten to add, the bosoms in question are not pictured bare, but are all nestling respectably beneath sumptuous fabrics). LOL. Or not LOL all all, if you were so angered by the feature that you felt it necessary to support the new campaign No to Titler at Tatler, which argues that "characterising respected women's 'tits' is demeaning, degrading and will not be tolerated!!" | In case your subscription is late this month, I'm talking about the 'Titler' feature in May's issue. No, this isn't breasts painted to look like Hitler, which is what genuinely comes up if you Google 'Titler', it is a two-and-a-bit page spread depicting a rundown of "the most magnificent and marvellous breasts in all society". From Princess Charlene of Monaco's "Runaway Tits" to Clare Balding's "Racing Tits" by way of Louise Mensch's "Tweeting Tits", Tatler compiles a bumper pack of posh breasts (although, I may hasten to add, the bosoms in question are not pictured bare, but are all nestling respectably beneath sumptuous fabrics). LOL. Or not LOL all all, if you were so angered by the feature that you felt it necessary to support the new campaign No to Titler at Tatler, which argues that "characterising respected women's 'tits' is demeaning, degrading and will not be tolerated!!" |
| Now, just to be clear, I'm not down with demeaning and degrading women either (I am, after all, a proper, card-carrying female myself) but I'm just not sure if Tatler is the right place to be focusing a feminist takedown. For a start, and as "Bluestocking Tits" entry Victoria Coren has pointed out, the magazine doesn't take itself particularly seriously. Last year, they had a corgi as a cover star and a comic strip featuring the Queen as a superhero. Each month they have a different joke on the spine. A magazine focused on the wealthy and titled is an existential nightmare in a world where people are getting poorer by the day and like many of its editors before her, Kate Reardon had to decide where she could sail the good ship Tatler that would keep it on-brand but also afloat. She chose the seas of sarcasm and irreverence, of which the Titler piece is a product. It made me snort anyway. | Now, just to be clear, I'm not down with demeaning and degrading women either (I am, after all, a proper, card-carrying female myself) but I'm just not sure if Tatler is the right place to be focusing a feminist takedown. For a start, and as "Bluestocking Tits" entry Victoria Coren has pointed out, the magazine doesn't take itself particularly seriously. Last year, they had a corgi as a cover star and a comic strip featuring the Queen as a superhero. Each month they have a different joke on the spine. A magazine focused on the wealthy and titled is an existential nightmare in a world where people are getting poorer by the day and like many of its editors before her, Kate Reardon had to decide where she could sail the good ship Tatler that would keep it on-brand but also afloat. She chose the seas of sarcasm and irreverence, of which the Titler piece is a product. It made me snort anyway. |
| Louise Mensch, however, did not find it snort-worthy. "Please don't edit magazines drunk. #feminism" she tweeted. This is Louise Mensch, chick-lit author turned politician turned fashionista, the very same Louise Mensch who has a column in the Sun. I'm not sure if she's noticed but the Sun features a different topless woman every day. Probably best, Louise, to save up all the #feminisms you've got to tackle that or one of the other misogynistic, degrading and just plain crap publications out there, like the one you write for, and join the No More Page 3 campaign. Or are working-class tits somehow less of a problem than posh ones? | Louise Mensch, however, did not find it snort-worthy. "Please don't edit magazines drunk. #feminism" she tweeted. This is Louise Mensch, chick-lit author turned politician turned fashionista, the very same Louise Mensch who has a column in the Sun. I'm not sure if she's noticed but the Sun features a different topless woman every day. Probably best, Louise, to save up all the #feminisms you've got to tackle that or one of the other misogynistic, degrading and just plain crap publications out there, like the one you write for, and join the No More Page 3 campaign. Or are working-class tits somehow less of a problem than posh ones? |
| The thing is, Tatler is staffed by women, almost exclusively, and so it's safe to say that they have tits of their own. Their feature might have been misguided in its assumption that everyone would find it as much of a right-rollicking laugh as they do but that doesn't mean that they weren't seriously trying to celebrate "the most magnificent, marvellous breasts in all society". Barer boobs than these have, after all, become de rigueur in the fight for feminism. Just look at Femen. | |
| Whether you believe that Tatler is just embracing its feminist side (albeit in its own particular Sloaney way) or not, it'd probably be best for the crew to apologise to any offended boobs, although I doubt there are that many. Indeed, Coren's view on the matter was: "I don't want to disappoint anyone who's genuinely offended but I'm utterly committed to a free press." Free press or free breasts? Perhaps it's time the ladies at Tatler put their money where their mouths are and show us some actual Tatler tits – go on Tatler, GET YER TITS OUT! |