The Telegraph has launched a new section exclusively for its male readers, Telegraph Men, with the tag line “Sharp opinion and expert advice for the modern male”. There was a swish launch party with lots of dapper looking lads and lasses at Rook & Raven on Tuesday evening, followed by a website and Twitter launch today.
The Mole cannot help but wonder at the logic behind this new development. The Telegraph is already strongly weighted towards the Y chromosome both in terms of its writers and the issues that it covers – if you’d like to test this out, visit their blogs page and scroll down – today I counted 18 men, not a single woman. Are we seeing the creation of a new platform on which to debate questions of masculinity, looking at the issues that really affect British men? Will there be space for gay and trans writers, or will everything that does not conform to a GQ-slick template of dark blues, suits, sexism and materialism? (And a vehicle, excuse the pun, for advertising expensive cars?)
The Guardian’s Hadley Freeman tweeted this morning:
Telegraph Men. For men who find the rest of the Telegraph too feminist.
— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) September 12, 2013
Clearly she is not prepared to give Telegraph Men the benefit of the doubt. But this Mole keeps an open mind. There is room in the media landscape for writing which takes a contemporary view of parenting, mental health, identity and masculinity – will Telegraph Men be it?
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