Mag Hags

It’s the final episode of Mag Hags and what better way to bid you farewell than with a behind-the-scenes tour of the show! Find out how we make it, how much it all costs, and what (if any) money we make from it. We also dig into what’s hot and what’s not about making a show like Mag Hags, and hash out our Season 3 vision board. Thank you all so much for listening and coming with us on this br...

Got a crush on your married colleague? Has masturbation become mundane? Looking for ways to make your beauty routine more efficient?  It’s October 1990. Mr Bean is in, Margaret Thatcher is out, and Germaine Greer is shaking it all about in a long and highly convoluted essay on masturbation. Is it self-love or self-abuse? We’re not sure we’ve emerged any the wiser. Elsewhere this week (the fin...

Ooh la la! This week we’re donning our berets and nibbling disinterestedly on our croissants as we attempt to unpick the British cultural obsession with French women. From their revolutionary spirit, to their ability to combine women’s liberation with flawless lipstick, we ponder whether French women have it all. However, 15 page “Francophile special” from Cosmopolitan 1989 suggests that coveted j...

Curious about the latest form of contraception? Is your friend’s husband mansplaining ironing to you? Wondering how on earth you can look sexy in just sixty minutes?  This week the Hags are going back to 1973 to explore a very mysterious magazine called Eve. Not to be confused with Eve magazine that ran from 2000-2008 or for that matter with Eve magazine that ran from 1926 til 1955. This Eve...

Do you have a “big personality”? This week we’re talking all things body image and size, helped by 70s body positivity icon, Janet Webb. Janet was a plus-size actor and TV star who appeared in The Morecambe & Wise Show from the late 60s onwards. We’ve encountered her twice now in the pages of the magazines we’ve looked at and we cannot wait for you guys to meet her! Welcome to Mag Hags “Sideba...

Have you faced discrimination at work? Knocking back one too many bacardi and cokes? Are you looking for the perfect hi vis jacket?  It’s 1998 and we’re looking back in anger at 10 years of Section 28. It’s still legal to discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation and equal marriage is yet a dream. But that doesn’t mean we can’t also have fun. It’s beer goggles at the ready as we dive into...

Why are men? It’s a question that has perplexed women for decades and, honestly, the jury’s still out. This week, we glance over the culture and history of the “what men really think” feature, which was such a mainstay of women’s magazines through the 80s and 90s, and find out what – if anything – has changed. Welcome to Mag Hags “Sidebar” where we talk about the stuff we couldn’t fit into the mai...

Do you consider laziness a crime? Struggling to ask for what you want in bed? Is your anxiety actually a form of narcissism?  This week, the Hags leaf through the pages of a magazine from a time when Thatcher was in Number 10, Michael Jackson was at Number 1, and Cosmo readers were spending their freshly minted £1 coins on gold lamé gloves and home highlighting kits. Yep, it’s 1983 and the ba...

Fix up, look sharp! One of the biggest accusations levelled at women’s mags is that they promote unrealistic standards. But what if media is actually just part of… culture? This week, we examine everything magazines have suggested *might* be wrong with us and decide whether it’s really the editorial that’s to blame. Welcome to Mag Hags “Sidebar” where we talk about the stuff we couldn’t fit into t...

Have you recently joined the Labour party? Are you searching for the perfect cycling shorts? Did you just accidentally stub out your cigarette on a priceless artwork? It’s probably time to launch a new magazine. This week, Franki catches up with founder of DIVA magazine, and self-confessed “delinquent mother” Frances Williams. From sipping tea with Derek Jarman to getting drunk in the pages of Tim...

Affairs, adultery, love rats, being unfaithful, infidelity, fuckboys, two-timing… however you look at it, cheating is a topic we don’t ever seem to get tired of talking and writing about. On this week’s Sidebar we look at how the narratives around sexual and romantic infidelity have shifted over the decades and ask: Is infidelity inevitable? Welcome to Mag Hags “Sidebar” where we talk about the st...

Gone and put your Crimplene on a hot wash? Worried about your kids getting mixed up in organised vandalism? Thinking of switching to powder eyeshadow?  It’s August 1977, the Sex Pistols have been banned from the BBC, Donna Summer is pumping put from every nightclub and the Hags are wondering… should we… move to the countryside? On this week’s show, we find out how stars of the small screen st...

Nothing to wear? This week we’re going back at a time when clothes were well-made and fashion advice was geared around helping you find your personal style, rather than be a slave to trends. While fashion editorials certainly showcased the new and shiny, a good deal of copy was also dedicated to helping you make the most of your existing wardrobe. “Fashion is there to inspire you,” said Company ma...

Left your filofax on the train? Fancy yourself as the next Jerry Hall? Had a holiday fling with Italian waiter? This week we’re going back to the power ballad era and coming with us is a very special guest host. Former Honey editor Jo Fairley is back in the studio and together we’re going to be diving into an issue she edited! If you’ve ever wondered how exactly they came up with the idea to quiz...

One for the road? This week, Franki gets some tips on how to drink responsibly… in 1979. Some, such as ‘don’t drink on an empty stomach’ were familiar enough. Others had us floored. Which, coincidentally, is also where you’d be if you stuck to the 1970s recommended drinking allowances. Welcome to Mag Hags “Sidebar” where we talk about the stuff we couldn’t fit into the main episode. Or else go off...

Ever had a Hollywood star flirt with you in front of 200 people? Has your wrist been slapped by Bette Davies? Do you know where Margaret Thatcher bought her underwear? This week, The Hags sit down with former Look Now and Honey editor Josephine Fairley to get all the behind the scenes gossip from the magazine world in the 70s and 80s. From secretarial school at 16, to becoming the youngest ever ma...

Are you a dirty dreamer or a brazen babe? Do you prefer to wear your gems in your hair or in your belly button? Have you heard Denise van Outen’s playing the next Bond girl?  It’s the one you’ve been waiting for… it’s More! Magazine.  The year is 1999 and it’s Valentine’s Day which can mean only one thing: We’re spicing up our sex lives. But before we get to that, we’ve got to wade throu...

Have you got a light? We’re going back in time to when smoking was standard, cigarette  brands (and indeed medical journals) still thought “middle tar” was a good thing, and ad agencies competed to see who could communicate the most about with the least. Welcome to Mag Hags “Sidebar” where we talk about the stuff we couldn’t fit into the main episode. Or else go off on a mad tangent about som...

Can men cook dinner? Would you consider doing a job-share? Have you been overthinking picnics? This week we return to our new favourite magazine, Company! We last hung out in 1979 and now we’re back for 1981. And she does not disappoint. It’s a vibrant issue for a less-than-vibrant period in British history.  Calling itself “the livelier magazine,” (livelier than whom, we wonder) Company offe...

Are you betraying the sisterhood if you dress like a 50s housewife? No, this isn't a discussion of the latest Tik Tok trend. This is a debate from 1974, when Over 21 interviewed three trans women in order to dig into "what it means to be a woman." We had to cut large chunks of this chat from the main episode for time reasons but we're sharing it in full now. Welcome to Mag Hags “Sidebar” where we...

Four shillings and how much? The Hags are pre-decimalisation this week as they head back in time to October 1970 to meet the mother of British women’s magazines: Nova.  Demonstrating that smart and sexy are not mutually exclusive, Nova has it all: premium art direction, radical reporting at the cutting edge of culture… and adverts for snakeskin shoes.  We’ve got some intrepid reporting i...

Somewhere around the mid-50s, car manufacturers cottoned on to the idea that women drive cars. Not only that, but women *have opinions* about the sort of car they drive. This ushered in a whole new creative challenge for the second half of the 20th century: How to sell cars to girls. And where better to reach them than in the magazines they were reading? Welcome to Mag Hags “Sidebar” where we talk...

Something a little different this week… Franki and Lucy aren’t doing a magazine deep dive. Instead, they’re turning the spotlight on a woman with far more expertise in women’s mags: Fiona Gibson.  Fiona is the former editor of Just 17 and more! magazines – not to mention the writer behind a Mag Hags’ favourite – “How to throw a disaster-free dinner party (New Woman, Sept 97) – and author...

In 1977 Vogue published a crash diet that advocated three days consuming nothing but white wine and boiled eggs. In 2018 this diet was unearthed and went viral as people shared it, horrified (but also somehow smugly vindicated) to learn that this was the advice women were being given in the 70s. But the idea that something like this would be published uncritically didn't sit right with us and we d...

Remember RIVA magazine? Nope, didn't think so. It lasted just seven issues!. And Lucy's got an inkling as to why. This week she’s taking us back to 1988 on a tour of a short-lived mag attempting to bring the gloss of a monthly in a fast-moving, weekly format. There’s plenty for our duo to rake through in this existentially confused mag. Like, why have we got such a sexy denim editorial against an...