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

Feministing's got a piece on the New York Times Magazine cover article about former Gawker blogger, Emily Gould. You know, the one where she's lying on her back on rumpled bedsheets? Feministing quotes one of my role models, Rebecca Traitster, who offered her own analysis on Salon.com. Her title, "Another Pretty Face of a Generation," is a pretty apt summation of her point:

"When we are fed -- and gobble up -- stories by or about single urban working women, those exotic and potentially threatening creatures presented to us are often doing things like confessing their self-doubt, discussing their sex lives, lying on rumpled sheets looking pretty...The thing that is wrong -- really wrong -- is when we forget that these kinds of stories are not the only ones that women have to tell. (Emphasis mine.)"

I had chalked Gould's article and cover photo up to a desperate attempt by the Times magazine to be hip. The Times is often months/years late to the party and I can just imagine the editorial meeting when they decided this was a bang-up way to write about those blog kids! It's a likely explanation given the context of my own experience with the media scene in New York City (for the most part I find it to be very white, moneyed, clubby, and not in touch with average people). So when I read Gould's article last Saturday morning, I was, in fact, irritated at how insider-y, how NYC media-scene-y, the article was and how unrepresentative Gould is of actual women bloggers. But because I'm so cynical about this little industry of ours, perhaps my outrage meter fails to give a reading.

But in the back of my mind, I could understand the editor's strategic reasons for running it with the cover photo they did. I'm a conspiracy theorist -- who knows, it may have even been intentionally manufactured / a ploy for easy press. I mean, really, look at the reaction! The Times magazine loves the press they're getting over this.

I still think the same "eh, not a big deal" way about the cover photo as I did when I blogged about it twice last week. But based on my unofficial inquiry of media friends at dinners and barbecues and whatnot, I'm in the minority.

In any case, there's a fabulously succinct comment on the Feministing post:

Wow. Gould is young, conventionally pretty, white, straight, and middle-to upper-middle class. Way to break the mold, NYT.