Why is it that frequent car adverts state ‘one lady owner’ as an inducement to purchase a car? Adverts stating ‘one male owner’ just don’t exist.

What is it that ‘one lady owner’ means a car is a good purchase? Do one lady owners really only poddle around town rather than burning up the motorway to go to the Edinburgh Festival , Glastonbury, Totnes, and a drive through the tunnel for a long French weekend.

Rubbish. One lady owner has often had all kinds of adventures in her car but those that put these ads in are usually traditional (boring old fart chauvanists) with traditional meal serving, husband knows best, wives who have never dared drive further than the post office or the local school.

This means that the car is good, but if you are a woman buying it you sooooo want to meet the wife and somehow help her escape and see a life beyond the confines of her macho prison.

Trouble is some women are happy that way – no major bills to pay, no huge decisions to take, and all the long journeys in life navigated by somebody else.

At least many more of us steer our own course, and if we do own a poddly little car it takes us on so many adventures that it usually dies and gets scrapped rather than ending up (shamefully) as a ‘one lady owner’ ad.

Despite the fact that trillions of people don’t receive Valentines cards, flowers or chocolates you can feel that you are the only single in a worldful of couples if you don’t receive one.  Well I haven’t – apart from the childrens and an e-card which looks suspiciously like it was sent by a friend or my mother!

Having fallen out with Gary a few weeks ago I am now single, but too busy and too hacked off to want to start a relationship with anyone else. Valentines day shouldn’t matter but when the world is full of hearts and flowers, colleagues and friends are discussing their evening plans – romantic dinners etc – and everyone asks everyone else if they got a card it is hard to be Valentine-less.

But maybe that’s more honest than all the cards, flowers and chocolates papering over the cracks of unfaithfulness, distrust and boredom which will reappear tomorrow when the day is done.

Valentines day has a fatal flaw…if love is true it manifests every day throughout the year. If it doesn’t then a day full of grand sentimental gestures really won’t make a jot of difference.

The shops (fashion, not greengrocers) are displaying underwear to entice men thinking of buying a valentine gift, who are brave enough to choose wisps of lacy nothingness while being served by giggling assistants or middle aged ladies that remind them of their mum.

The choice of knickers alone, is unbelievable although it is probably easier for a man because he just chooses sexy. However, unless he knows her exact size he will get it wrong. If he chooses something that is too big, she thinks he thinks she’s fat, too small and she knows they won’t fit, but won’t admit it so he thinks that she doesn’t like them.

Women have to choose from briefs, hi-leg, thongs, sexy, big knickers, French knickers or elasticated body shapers. Their knicker drawer needs to contain, best sexy knickers, every day knickers and body flattening or big knickers for those fat days.

The trouble is that (like the Bridget Jones film) it is often when wearing the biggest, oldest or saggiest knickers when you wish you were wearing the sexiest.

I wonder why we say a pair of knickers instead of a knicker – although we say knicker drawer? Yet we never refer to a pair of bras.

Burns Night is looming and there are more men with kilts around bars, pubs and clubs than at any other time of year, unless of course you live in Scotland.

I always think men look attractive in kilts but it is still an unusual sight. Men don’t have any other type of official skirt or dress that I can think of, apart from robes (Muslims, vicars and priests,) or tunics (toga parties or Santa.)

If all things were equal then men would be wearing skirts and dresses as much as women wear trousers, but it doesn’t seem to be happening that way round. In fact there was a huge reaction when David Beckham wore a sarong.

So why is it, in 2008 that men aren’t dressing in skirts and dresses as much as women are wearing trousers?

21st Century Mum asks can someone please enlighten as to why you never ever see half dressed (undressed) men on the cover of gadget magazines? I can’t enlighten anyone but the whole topic depresses me. Just when I think equality is winning and sexist pigs are dead, something like this reminds me that I am living in la la land. Obviously the editors of these magazines think that gadgets will interest far more men than women, so they put images that they think will appeal to men on the front cover. The thing is women DO like gadgets but what woman wants to buy a mag with a half nude woman on the front? So woman don’t buy the magazine and the editors continue to think that women aren’t into gadgets. It’s just a shame that some of the men reading the magazine don’t ask for images that are a bit more relevant to the subject of the magazine, and why aren’t they annoyed that the editors are assuming that part of their brain is in their trousers?

Susan Sangster has amassed 18 million through three divorces and is now after another huge fortune from her fourth.

Why is it that as a result of marriage somebody can take a slice of a fortune that was built for many years before the relationship? Why do people risk marriage when on the strength of a short relationship they can lose half of everything they have worked their lives to accumulate?

Where is the pride of women or men who would rather walk away with money than dignity?

Surely it is fair, only to make a claim on what has been accumulated together during the life of the relationship and then to (both) provide for the children.

Unfortunately seems to be far more common for women to get a huge payout from their ex- husbands which means that men still feel that women are dependant on them. It is humiliating for those of us that don’t expect men to provide for us in or out of a relationship.

So Susan, Heather Mills and all you other parasites, PLEASE STOP MAKING WOMANKIND LOOK FEEBLE AND MAKE DO WITH YOUR OWN MONEY!

I would say sod his money and walk away with dignity knowing that I do not need to depend on an ex for any part of my future and in fact I would rather sleep in a box than do so.

What price love when pride goes out the window at the last.

Going out for one night and finding that the gorgeous hunk you snogged is actually a black toothed sniggering lout who calls you love and burps a lot is bad enough but having a rose tinted view of a partner in a longer term relationship is far worse.

You forever see them as you believe they are and want them to be. You find umpteen excuses for the way they let you down, time and time again. You find that the miserable times far outweigh the happy times but persist in the hope that they need you, you can help them and it will get better.

You spend most of the time discussing their needs, their problems, their issues, but would they spend so much time and effort on you? Try discuss your own issues, problems and needs and see how quickly they divert the conversation back to theirs.

You have lost so much self esteem in the process of gradual disillusionment that you don’t have the energy to see that no relationship is worth so much work for so little reward.

The weird thing is that so many people would rather superimpose the ideal person in their head onto the selfish egotistical pig they are with, than be alone.

I’ve just listened to an audio book the Ex-Wife’s Survival Guide by Debby Holt. It was very funny in parts but the heroine ended up with another man, which is a total cop out, given the title of the book.

I am not opposed to a happy endings or romance, but the story was about a woman who had a traditional housewife type role, having to reassess her life when her rat of a partner found someone else. She started to gain independence and develop confidence as an individual, so why was the ending woman finds man, and not woman learns that independence and freedom make her so happy that any future relationship is a bonus?

There was I thinking ‘yea this woman is becoming strong and independent’ then not only does she almost melt into coupledom as the result of a holiday romance but succumbs to a kiss that should have been in a Mills and Boon book. I am seething!

It’s similar to soaps or dramas with great storylines headed by a nasty character who suddenly gets killed or conveniently disappears so that two weeks down the track they are barely ever spoken of despite all the havoc they caused. It always irritates me to death because I want to see the victim bringing them to book and dealing with the fallout rather thank knowing that they have died and escaped justice. In my opinion this is sloppy writing; as bad as ‘they woke up and it was all a dream.’

TV adverts are cheesy, sexist and patronizing. Although I hate the political correctness gone barmy brigade, I cannot believe that companies still broadcast so many women in kitchen roles.After years of ‘so called’ equality we are still suffering stereotypical Mums chattering inanely about childrens’ lunchbox treats, serving up sweet corn to little boys or waxing lyrical over washing powders. Men who do domestic tasks in adverts do it in an arch helpful way as though they are doing a favour ‘for’ their partner,because it is hers and not their responsibility. Today a major superstore put out an advert for toys which included a dance mat and a remote control truck. They actually specified that the dance mat would be an ‘ideal present for girls’ while showing a girl dressed up in party clothes, using the mat, and ‘the truck for boys’ as a boy rolled it along. Not only was I put off both products but also the entire store. The ads certainly did not impress my kids either. Having said that, most adverts featuring kids don’t impress kids. They always cast shiny bouncy, cheerful kids who act about three years younger than their actual age. I’ve never met a real child that looks or acts like one in an advertisement. Then there are the ‘lets patronize the older generation’ ads, especially the hair colouring one where an older woman’s asks if it would do her ‘little bit of grey,’ and her smiley brunette daughter simpers , ‘Yes Mum’.Double glazing, cars, carpets, sofas and settees always feature ‘amazing offers’ ‘never to be repeated deals’ and ask you to ‘visit their store ‘now!’ The actors talks in loud, hyperactive, urgent voices which would be brilliant on an alarm clock for a heavy sleeper. On ads they just make you feel tense and irritable as though there was a buzzing bluebottle or mosquito in the room. The worrying thing is that there are people all over the country who are responding to these ads, or they would not be using them. Who are you? Please seek help.