On the New York Times Magazine's Blog Article, Continued

I saw the friend that first told me about the cover of New York Times Magazine this week -- the one for a former Gawker editor's article about the consequences of writing about her personal life online -- at a party tonight and I told him I wasn't upset about the cover, like he'd expected me to be.

He said that he felt the cover was victimizing in how it depicted the author both in a vulnerable position. I said the depiction of vulnerability was tangible, but I hesitated to call the author a victim based on the article, or to say that cover photograph depicted as a victim. He asked if the article had been written by a man, if he would have been posed in such a way. I asked if the man had been posed in such a way, would he still consider the picture victimizing.

We agreed to disagree on this one. But it harkens back to a conversation yesterday with an Asian male friend:

"Are you bothered," I asked, "by fetishization of Asian women?" "Yes, it really bothers me," he replied, "but I don't want to always assume it's fetishization when I see something having to do with Asian women."