,The tendency for women to gossip or talk about the small issues affecting their lives and families has been manipulated by the media in many ways – one only has to glance briefly at a shelf full of women’s magazine, watch 5 minutes of tv advertising or, if one can bear it, a half hour soap opera to see just how perniciously the media pursues the female psyche, manipulating her thoughts, appealing to her emotions and generally pulling her into a glooey mass of contrived product placement. Little wonder one hears erroneous phrases like ‘shop til I drop’ or ‘retail therapy’ being uttered to justify the outcome of all this marketing: the advertisers are manipulating the female into a state of emotional confusion, specifically designed to sell more handbags, more shoes, more make-up and so on…
