I doubt there's a mother of teenage boys in the land whose heart didn't plummet as she read that Loaded magazine is to return to reassure men they can 'ogle beautiful women'. Give us a break.
What reassurance do poor, downtrodden men need when they can ogle (virtually) naked beautiful women on every red carpet? Or, at the flick of a switch, watch endless online p*rn?
After a nine-year hiatus, the rebranded Loaded World will return with the stated aim of recreating the nostalgic — or retrograde, in my opinion — feel of the title which folded in 2015 as competition from the internet and changing tastes sounded the death knell for so-called 'lads' mags'.
The editor says it's aimed at the original Loaded audience but it's not grown men we need to worry about. They're already a lost cause. It's boys who need to learn they should have respect for women. They need to understand the feelings and fears of women and girls at a time when violence against us is in the news every day. They need to know that ogling near-naked women relegates them to mere objects.
After a nine-year hiatus, the rebranded Loaded World will return. Liz Hurley fronts the relaunch of Loaded online
Some might argue that readily available hardcore p*rn is infinitely more disturbing than anything Loaded might produce. But I find lurid magazine pictures dangerous, too. No matter how beautiful the women are, they're still presented as pieces of meat.
My two boys were teenagers in the 1990s when the likes of Loaded and FHM made lusting after naked women so acceptable that they came down to the lower shelves in newsagents, supermarkets, even pharmacies.
My two never bought the magazines to my knowledge. If they did, they wouldn't have dared bring them home. But their friends at school did and were generous in sharing around some of the more raunchy full-page spreads.
I don't know if my boys thought I never went into their rooms to tidy up, but one day they were shocked to discover a furious mother insisting they 'take down all those disgusting pictures from the walls'.
The conversations we had about why I called them 'disgusting' were rather delicate. The last thing any mother wants to do as a teenage boy's sexuality is developing is make him think sex and the admiration of a woman's body is somehow dirty.
But I needed to make them understand that it might be hard for the women to expose themselves and they were probably only doing it because they desperately needed the money.
It was also important to explain that there was more to women than just their bodies. They needed to think about learning to value them for their brains and humanity. Ogling might be an insult to the women they may get to know in the future.
I suppose it was easier for my boys to get the point. After all, their mother was the presenter of Woman's Hour and had led many a discussion on the iniquity of Page 3. Many women cheered when in 2015, the same year The Sun dropped Page 3, Loaded ceased publication. It seemed the message from feminists like me was finally getting through.
So, I was more than disappointed to read of the return of Loaded — particularly as it's to be edited by a woman. Danni Levy says she wants to provide a 'safe space' for men to lust after females. She claims that while it is acceptable for women to be feminists, men did not have the equivalent freedom: 'Men need to be men.'
In the 1990s, the likes of Loaded and FHM made lusting after naked women so acceptable that the magazines came down to the lower shelves in newsagents, supermarkets, and even pharmacies
Excuse me, Danni, but men do have freedom. The good ones have learned about feminism and understand how demeaning it can be for a woman to have to earn her living posing for titillating pictures or filming p*rn.
They've accepted that women feel fearful and uncomfortable at being objectified. They've understood the extent to which women are harmed by sexual and domestic violence.
It might be a good idea for Danni to grasp the extent to which the presence of this lack of respect for women in popular culture undermines everything feminists have fought for. If my two boys were able to comprehend the risks of objectifying women from a young age, why can't the editor, who is 39, not see it too?
Soon after I discovered that Loaded was to return, I read about the actress Doon Mackichan's concerns about the rise of what she calls 'crime p*rn'.
Like Doon, who's best known for the brilliant comedy series Smack The Pony, I've ceased to watch programmes such as Silent Witness because I, too, am sick of seeing so many women become the victims of horrible crimes.
Doon says she's lost work because of her zero-tolerance policy towards violence against women on screen. She turned down a job on Silent Witness when she was asked: 'Are you happy with nakedness on the [mortuary] slab?'
She's right when she says that what we watch affects our culture: 'We are wading in very, very ugly waters of misogyny and violence against women,' she told the Hay Festival this week.
There may be no violence in Loaded's pictures but there is misogyny in the notion of encouraging men to ogle women. It's part of the culture that insists women are fair game, not equal to men, and I don't want boys to learn that that's in any way OK.
Why ARE girls afraid of the Pill?
Those of us who fought for abortion to be legalised were at pains to point out it must not be used as a means of contraception. It was to save the desperate woman from illegal 'backstreet' operations.
A growing number of women are fearful of taking the Pill because of TikTok videos warning of dangers from hormonal contraception
The number of abortions is now at its highest since legalisation in 1967. Most worrying, though, is that the biggest rise is among women aged 25-29. Part of the reason is a growing number fearing the Pill.
TikTok videos warn of the dangers from hormonal contraception, but, like many over-50s, I took the Pill for years without any regrets. The Pill is a reliable method of contraception. Abortion is not.
When I travelled the West Coast Main Line, I always applied for compensation for delayed trains. We called it 'Virgin on the ridiculous'. Now I find the compensation comes not from the train company, but the taxpayer.
How could the Government privatise the railways, then end up paying for their incompetence? That really is ridiculous.
Don't glamourise killer bikes, Jodie
I'm a big fan of Jodie Comer, but I'm sad to see she's starring in a film, The Bikeriders, which will inevitably glamourise motorbiking culture.
The Peak District, where I used to live, has lots of quiet, narrow, winding roads. Not quiet on a Sunday afternoon when the motorbikes roar by, one by one.
It's also dangerous. During a trip across the Pennines to see my parents, I once passed four dead motorcyclists. Heart-breaking for both their relatives and the drivers whose cars they had hit.
Jodie Comer is starring in The Bikeriders, a film that will inevitably glamourise motorbiking culture, writes Jenni Murray
Judi Dench, who once said retirement is a dirty word, appears finally to have given in at the age of 89. She has macular degeneration and says she can no longer see. She will be missed.
Judi Dench appears to have retired at the age of 89. She has macular degeneration and can no longer see
