Advice column: Difference between revisions

An advice column is a column at a magazine or newspaper written by an advice columnist (colloquially known as an agony aunt, or agony uncle if the columnist is a male). The image presented was originally of an older woman providing comforting advice and maternal wisdom, hence the name "aunt".

An advice columnist answers readers' queries on personal problems, in particular giving advice about sexual problems. In many cases, the queries, as well as the answers, have been created in the office, and the agony aunt is actually a team of writers. Marjorie Proops's name appeared (with photo) long after she retired. The nominal writer may be a pseudonym, or in effect a brand name; the accompanying picture may bear little resemblance to the actual author.

The term is beginning to fall into disuse, as the scope of personal advice has broadened, to include overtly sexual matters — pioneered by the likes of Dr. Ruth — as well as general lifestyle issues.

Many advice columns are now syndicated and appear in countless newspapers. Such prominent U.S. examples include Dear Abby, Ann Landers, and in a more modern form, Carolyn Hax's "Tell Me About It".

Columnist advice now appears on the Internet as well. One form is via large sites with many voluntary 'agony aunts'. These 'wisdom of the crowd' sites invite visitors to comment upon problems which are posted publicy. While this can have the benefit of getting many answers for free, frequently replies are posted by those who seek to poke fun or worse, which can be upsetting for the genuine thread posters. These sites must therefore be closely monitored. Other sites try to mix paid-for private replies with publicly-posted free answers. www.itsworthasking.com is an example of this.

A new breed of Internet agony aunt has also proved popular: the one without a 'column'. Sites like Agony Advice no longer print the problems received by correspondents but instead guarantee confidentiality of both problem and reply. Thanks to the speed of electronic communication, the agony aunts still exist but respond by email for a fee, instead of gaining revenue by higher circulations. While the masses lose out in terms of gawping at the misfortune of others, correspondents gain in terms of professionally-written personal and private replies. Many smaller sites exist as well, some of them run by teenagers, such as www.agonykate.tk and many more.

Questions are most often asked 'anonymously', with the signature assuming the problem that is being expressed. For example, someone who is asking about erratic behaviour in their partner may sign their letter "Confused, Johannesburg".

On the Internet, a greater variation on the signature theme is often seen. The person's signature may refer to the problem being expressed, but rather in a phrase, which the 'agony aunt' abbreviates so as to spell an appropriate word. For instance, "Confused About My Partner" would become "CAMP". Dan Savage uses this method to comic effect in his Savage Love column.

Inevitably the "Agony Aunt" has become the subject of fiction, often satirically or farcically. Versions of the form include:

• An agony aunt whose own personal problems and issues are more bizarre than those of her correspondents. A notable example is the British TV sitcom Agony created by Anna Raeburn, starring Maureen Lipman as the agony aunt with an overbearing mother, an unreliable husband, neurotic gay neighbours, and a career in media surrounded by self-promoting bizarros. Anna Raeburn herself works as an agony aunt on radio call-in shows, much as the main character of the sitcom does.
• Sherlock Holmes often read the "agony column", calling it "always instructive". [1] However, in that context, the "agony column" was a personals advertisements column, not an agony aunt's column. [2]
• Another classic example of the agony aunt in fiction appears in Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathaniel West.

The Agony Aunts, Dotsie and Sadie, are the chilling elderly enforcers of the Street of Negotiable Affection in author Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of novels.

• Dear Abby
• Ann Landers
• Katie Boyle
• Helen Bottel
• Marjorie Proops
• Susan Quilliam
• Claire Rayner
• Dan Savage
• Cary Tennis
• Miss Lonelyhearts
• Straight Talk, a 1992 film featuring Dolly Parton as an agony aunt

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