A weekly benefit of my daily (German) newspaper is that I receive a short supplement (in English) from the New York Times. I'm a big fan of the NYT. Unfortunately, the main target group of this supplement appears to be "women", and with "women" I mean those interested in reading about how new fashions come about, how life is as a single woman, how people get married in different countries, etc. Women's magazine stuff, in other words. I'm disappointed each week.
There's nothing wrong with women's magazines if you like them. From one of my earliest posts you may know that I don't. I think I said something along the lines that most of them are, for me, "mind numbing". They encourage too much naval grazing ("I should think about my nail polish color"), or comparing people based on strange factors ("that hairdo was so last season"). Sure, I admit, there's an occasional serious and inspiring article once in a while, and sometimes it's fine to just let your (and my) brain wind down to zero by flipping through 150 pages in five minutes.
In any case, the NYT has a special feature called "Female Factor", which "examines the most recent shifts in women's power...around the world". Exciting stuff, except that we learn about the Ethiopian shoe designer and Berlin vintage fashion blogger. Is it surprising that the latter article then states that "there are no comparable high-profile figures like...Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook)"?
Come on, NYT, there must be some more inspiring, interesting females out there in the world. I can send you a list of a dozen just from among my friends. (They may flip through the occasional women's magazine as well, but oh boy can they do a lot more!).
How to the point! Frustrating, isn't it?! We should team up to publish the ideal Female Factor supplement! Watch out NYT, competition awaits!
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