Dear readers,
This is an open letter to The New Yorker. We wrote it as an extended reaction to Lucky Peach‘s “Gender Issue” and The New Yorker article about Bustle, which ran Sept. 23. Our specific reaction to Lizzie Widdicombe’s NYer article about Bustle founder Bryan Goldberg stems from an ongoing frustration with the trivialization of women’s publishing. We are also aware, as two women working in publishing, how precious each page of a magazine is, and to print a longform piece that mocks and discredits a man who has already been mocked and discredited by every other news source is unproductive and thoughtless.
Below, our letter. We think of it as an extension to our feminesto and a shout amongst all the chatter.
The image of Bustle founder Bryan Goldberg and unnamed Bustle editors that The New Yorker included in its 9.23 feature.
Dear New Yorker editors,
Last week we were reminded how sophomoric the magazine industry still is when it comes to gender. (Not that we had forgotten, but yikes.) The yikes we are referencing here is Lucky Peach’s “Gender Issue” and Lizzie Widdicombe’s profile on Bryan Goldberg, er, we mean the new “women’s interest online magazine” Bustle. It felt like an angsty John Hughes prom scene, with the boys on this wall and the girls on this wall; nobody mingles or makes eye contact, because what would boy and girl have to talk about, anyway?
First, Lucky Peach. The cover caught our eye because of the euphemistic artwork that features visually delicious vaginas and penises – what a riot! But then we noticed that the magazine had been literally divided in half – one half for MEN, the other for WOMEN – save a middle section where the two genders meet for SEX. Ha ha.
The WOMEN section is introduced by the only female staff member on the editorial board, Rachel Khong. She says that she was “forced” by her male higher-ups to write the intro “…to prove that there is, you know, a female working on this magazine.”
This brings us to the meat of the issue (excuse our pun). Instead of making a mockery of a very real problem, why not offer a direct response to all the letters that readers send to LP asking “‘WHERE ARE ALL THE LADIES?'” Because we are still wondering, where are they? The female writers, we mean. Instead of LP patting its editorial calendar on the back – Good thing we snuck that “Gender Issue” in there – why not simply publish more women in every issue?
Then, there’s Bryan. The guy who believes in women. Or rather, he believes in advertising revenue geared toward women in their twenties, who, by Bustle’s definition, are painting their nails while discussing Zumba and the Senate’s next move. Bryan knows this because he’s not afraid to ask the woman behind the counter at the salon, and the woman behind the hostess stand at the restaurant, and the woman behind the bar serving drinks: “’What Web sites do you read?’” Inquisitive fellow.
The real inquisition, we think, should be directed toward you, The New Yorker editors. After Bryan’s blog faceplant wherein he inspired gaggles of sarcastic articles and Twitter disses, why publish this article, which accentuates how asinine the genesis and concept of Bustle is (see: Lizzie’s “infinite-monkey theorem” and Bryan’s enthusiastic reaction to the term “bustle:” “A guy who’s successful, busy, cool, and popular – people would say he’s a real hustler… A woman who’s successful, busy, living in a city – maybe she’s a bustler!”)? Not only does this article make Bryan seem like, well, “a giant six-year-old,” but also it disempowers women’s publishing by default. Is this all we have to look forward to?
On the question of why: We are also wondering why you chose to publish an article about a high-profile man who has already raised 6.5 million dollars for his cause and spend 9 precious pages painting the “giant six-year-old” picture? Bad press is still press. We think – quite modestly, we must add – that those 9 pages could have been better spent on organizations and startups that are actually doing something to address and change the misconceptions of gender in the magazine industry.
But we are just two women in our twenties.
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Kaylen Ralph + Joanna Demkiewicz, co-founders and co-editors of The Riveter, an online and print magazine that publishes longform journalism by women for everyone
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