No Feminazi Ramblings for Moi!

To be frank, I rarely ever write about sexism. It's not that I don't care, I just don't care to write about it. I'm a grand believer that if something is written it should be written well, and my neo-feminism just isn't feverish enough to print.

So today I found this article this article and thought, "wow, I couldn't have said it better myself."

The internet is exploding today with stories about "Lindsey's Vonn's controversial SI cover." Oh, no! So sexist! So objectifying! So the way you tuck into position going down a mountain at 60 mph. Is the position flattering? Nah. Is the picture cheesy? Totally. Sexual? Give me a break.

As the opinion piece states

The headline reads "America's best woman skier ever", for Jean-Claude's sake! Why can't she be both the best skier in the world and really, really attractive too? Tom Brady's a great athlete and a handsome dude and I don't hear people whine when he's shirtless in GQ.

So brace yourself for another of my "because I work in print advertising moments." Yes, Sports Illustrated rarely has female athletes on the cover. Sorry ladies, but your sports just aren't that popular with the mainstream. Second, SI knows its audience is mostly men. Manly sports men. That's why the swimsuit issue sells every year except those women are in barely there bikinis. In that case, the sex is selling on purpose. Honestly, I didn't see the controversy in this cover until I read the articles. Sports Illustrated is, in my opinion, the superior of all sports magazines. It combines real news with human interest pieces and, unlike ESPN, doesn't toot its own horn at every possible moment. SI works its craft and works it well.

If you want to be dirty minded, fine. The rest of us normal people will take the picture for what it's worth, a beautiful female athlete practicing the sport she has worked for her entire career.

Introducing the Poverty Elite

When I graduated college and I knew very little about my next steps. I had a signed lease for an apartment on Chicago's north side and a decent amount of my life's possessions (worth moving) in boxes. For graduation, I received a check from my dad with "Continued Support" written on the memo line.

After a brief gig in inside sales (cold calling is nobody's friend) and waiting tables (working 25 hours a week was unemployment in my book) I landed my current job. I work for an internationally renowned advertising group. We are a main subsidiary of one of the big four advertising holding companies. On paper, my gig is pretty fantastic. I assist in planning for consumer products for a multi-billion dollar company, I communicate with magazine reps coordinating book layouts and I enjoy a few perks along the way.

I also work two jobs to make up for my lack of salary.

I am part of a new group featured in a New York magazine article, Let Them Eat Crabcakes. Myself, and my co-workers, are part of the Poverty Elite. We are twenty-something college graduates jamming our closets with the best finds H&M offers us and the best sales Express can run while still rolling out profit. Our salaries are incredibly laughable, especially for this city. However, through our professional perks we rack up high lunch bills at Chicago's hottest spots, enjoy the benefits of regular facials, and (recently) saw Avatar the Thursday before its release.  Yes, I saw Avatar before John Mayer.  Unlike Mr. Mayer, I am somewhere around the poverty line.

We are not spoiled at our jobs by any means. My team alone supplies magazines with millions of dollars in spending...in one month. ONE scent strip in a certain woman's magazine can pay from my parent's house and my neighbor's. Myself and my team are immensely excited by our little perks. In the last month alone I shook hands with the fashion editor of a major Conde Nast beauty magazine, joked with a Hearst publisher over a fantastic lunch, and attempted to make ravioli from scratch at a cooking class with Meredith. I have connections with publishing houses and independent entrepreneurs. Most importantly, I have earned their respect.

So one day I will roll out of the poverty elite, ideally in a silver Audi, as I take that next big step in my career.  Until then, I will be waiting tables in downtown Chicago and scratching my head about my 11% tip from the French couple at table 55.

I Will NOT Cover Sarah Palin's Newsweek Cover in this Post

I am continuously disappointed by the lack of journalistic integrity and morals in the entertainment industry. This magazine cover for Atlanta Magazine is a solid example.

"Couture, Catfights, and Collagen - Welcome to the Jungle!" Awful.



I work with a small number of magazines that make me cringe. I still admire the hard working reps and respect the partnership between my team and the books. I cannot stand behind the endless covers of Jon + Kate and KStew and RPatz (did I really just type that?). After years of divorce I find it hard to understand why Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston still appear on covers.

The readers of these magazines probably log onto Perez every day too.

Cringe. Cringe. Cringe.

Okay, rant over.

For some brilliant, groundbreaking and beautiful covers (see: art) please view ASME's Top 40 Magazine Covers of the Last 40 Years. This list, released in 2005, features outstanding work that puts shame to magazines now sitting in my recycling bin.

Assignment Detroit: A Special Time Inc. Project

Urban decay is present around the country, whether people want to discover it or care to is another story. For four years, I lived in the Midtown area of St. Louis, the 48th largest city in the U.S. In 1890, it was the fourth largest. Each morning I woke up to the Arch shining through my freshmen dorm window. Only miles to the north of SLU's beautiful oasis are the projects. When I volunteered there senior year small, black children gawked at us through the cracked open doorways of their homes. They stared for two main reasons: we were white and we weren't cops. White people don't typically come into those areas for good reasons. Below is an example of a once beautiful mansion in the same area. Now it's mostly recycled for scraps.



Because of my time in St. Louis, I took particular interest in Time Inc.'s newest project, "Assignment Detroit." The editors of Time magazine recently purchased a home in Detroit for a year long evaluation of city and its past and future role in American society. Journalists, photographers and bloggers will spend a year living in this home and emerging themselves in Detroit's history. They are hosting BBQs and inviting neighbors over for lawn parties. It's not just reporting, it's immersion. The introduction of why time is in Detroit is here and an amazing article.

People [lots of Chicagoans] that say "Detroit sucks!" are ignorant. Detroit's story is the most important milestone in America economic history's since the Industrial Revolution. (If this is already too far over your head then stop reading.)

Detroit is still the world's automotive center. Detroit as a whole cannot fail. Detroit is at the forefront of health care and poverty issues, to name a few facing national policy. For all of these reasons, I will follow this story as it unfolds and look into all the possiblities presented to me. And whoever else wants to discover the story.

"While we do not intend to be cheerleaders or apologists, we do have a point of view: we want Detroit to recover and find its way into the future."

United Arts Theater Built in 1928, vacant since the 1970s)

Body Image

Another case of tarnished self image in the media. Another girl has been objectified and terminated from her contract for being unable "to meet the obligations under her contract with us"/too fat. Filippa Hamilton, who is my age, has been modeling with Ralph Lauren since she was fifteen. Take a step back - what were YOU doing at 15? I was hardly finished picking food from my braces and buying horrendous jeans from Aeropostale. Neither here nor there.

Filippa is a total babe. She will be hired elsewhere by an agency who truly appreciates her for her talent and basic hotness.

Her situation is not alone. I see it Monday through Friday.


I work in print advertising. I have about 137 magazines on my desk RIGHT now and twelve unopened manila envelopes. Underneath my phone, Milla Jovovich is downright staring at me while tugging her shirt off. (I needed to pull info for a Maxim July 2009 invoice.) Truthfully, I rarely read these. The word "regurgitate" is fair to use when describing the content of mostly any publication. Our society is obsessed with self help, celebrity smut, and a quick influx of information.


Why not, let's discover what you can learn from my desk...

● The 50 hottest men/mas guapos
● What is going on between R. Patz and Kirsten Stewart?
● Jon and Kate Gosselin need to be banished to an island in Asia (Jon would be happy)
● It is very unlikely that you will fail as a parent - but you will fear it
● The best beauty buys for ANYTHING
● How to lose 10 pounds this week!
● Sex...anything. Just sex.
● Jacob Lautner is 17 years old. And super hot.
● Why you will never look as good as anyone in a magazine whether it's hair, clothes, make anything. However, you will spend your paycheck attempting to and that's exactly what they want

So go ahead, keep on picking up those publications at the grocery store check out line. It will be like the first time you ever read the article - even though you did four months ago!

Mommy Mommy Magazine

With literally hundreds of magazines crossing my path at work I often glance at titles for fun. Print exists for every health ailment, relationship inadequacy and celebrity fascination out there. Among them there is an incredible amount of magazines concering parenting - rumored to be the most difficult job of all. How to feed, the best schools, should kids watch TV or not? Bla, bla, bla. New comer Cookie proudly boats it is for the "upscale" mom - whether this is for the suburban house wife or the power working mommy I am not certain.

Hell, I am 22 years old and my parents still exhibit naivety when it comes to my transition into adulthood.

These magazines make me wonder whether these readers are more concerned with parental success - or failure. "Mommy bloggers" are some of the most active producers of original material presently on the internet. Their impact is far reaching and affects everything from appropriate advertising and product segmentation. Women no longer just ask their mothers or matronly friends for help - they go to the blogosphere at the slighest jolt of misbehavior from Junior.

As someone with absolutely no aspirations of becoming a parent in the near distant future I will most likely watch these publications develop and fold from the sidelines. Until the time I find it necessary to pick up the magazine Conceive for the...ya, I think you understand.