Saturday, December 17, 2005

Matters of Style and Presentation

I have to admit that part of the reason that I don't like the Darla Shine media group's magazine, Total 180! (the subject of Rebecca Traister's Salon article, which I still haven't written about) is because the whole cutesy "Happy Housewives 50's anti-intellectual chic" sets my teeth on edge. I much prefer Brain, Child magazine's slightly edgy literary presentation, which I think is aimed at the same audience of "mothers who think".

I wonder if the same subset of women that love Happy Housewives would like HRT's new Kiss My Axe cd. After listening to a sample of their lyrics & music (at the cd link above), I'm definitely sold on HRT. Unfortunately, I can't listen to it while driving my kids around in the minivan, as they would certainly learn some new vocabulary we're trying to keep them from picking up. I'm hearing "Jingle Bells, Batman Smells" enough as it is.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sandy,

You need to get a sense of humor. Do you have children? Are you married. Maybe you and Rebbecca should get together for a anger group therapy session. Total 180 magazine and my book, Happy Housewives are humor based. Both are intended to make women laugh. Why are you trying to turn it into some big war of the worlds? We are not telling career women not to work. Our target audience is the woman who is home, who wants to be home. You don't have to read the magazine or the book. But you should have before you commented on it. That would be fair right? Are you writing nasty things about Working Woman magazine? How about the new magazine Cookie? Or is it just us? Oh it's our 'back to the 50's' tone that you don't approve of right? We are not trying to set women back fifty years. My book and the magazine is all about empowering moms. All of your readers who say they are scared, oh' watch out the happy moms are coming! What are you really afraid of? That SAHMS are joining together and telling the world they are happy to be home. Why does that offend you? And, we were joking when we wrote how we were lucky our husbands let us out for pizza night. SAHMS get that one. It was just a joke. Lighten up and get that chip off your shoulder.

Sandy D. said...

Darla, honey, I *am* your target audience (as you might have noticed I stated in the entry you responded to above). I am a SAH mom with two kids. I haven't seen Cookie, so I can't comment on it, but I do think Working Woman is a fine publication. I did read about 20 pages of your book and I'm afraid that was all I could stomach.

I'm glad you are not trying to set women or feminism back fifty years, and I appreciate that you are happy at home with your kids, but your humor is...well, I understand the effort and even identify with the topics. Let's just say I find HRT a lot more to my style.

I don't know any readers of your magazine that are scared, except by the vacuousness displayed ("Don't think! Just BE HAPPY!" is the message I got), and the thought that other SAH moms would be assumed to be similarly vapid.

I can think of a lot better things to read to empower my fellow SAH moms. I would start with the reading list at MMO: http://www.mothersmovement.org/books/books.htm

And yes, a lot of it is funny. But funny in the former "Mothers Who Think" vein, not in a "Happy Housewives" way. Sorry you're so offended. Maybe you can use it as constructive criticism for your magazine.

Anonymous said...

well, this is a comment on a comment, which is weird, but as a happy SAHM, i still find the retro 50's caca on the site in question to be irritatingly, brain numbingly, lame. oh, and unfunny.

I am, oddly enough, a perfectly content SAHM without dressing up in sequined bustiers and pulling the whole surrendered wife, orefeminist, "I make a home for my MAAAANNN, so i have validation!" thing.