An advice column is a column in a magazine or newspaper written by an advice columnist (colloquially known in British English 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 can also be someone who gives advice to people who send in problems to the newspaper.
An advice columnist answers readers' queries on personal problems. Sometimes the author is in fact a composite or a team: 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 sexual matters — pioneered by the likes of Dr. Ruth — as well as general lifestyle issues.
Read more about Advice Column: Examples of Advice Columnists, Typical Format, Advice Columns On The Internet, Ethical Issues, Related Fiction
Famous quotes containing the words advice and/or column:
“There is hardly a man on earth who will take advice unless he is certain that it is positively bad.”
—Edward Dahlberg (1900–1977)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)