Really Newsweek?

[kpete]

Jesus H Christ on a popsicle stick


In an age where women are dominating - in the workplace, at school, at home - why are they seeking to be dominated in their love lives? Recent media portrayals have shown that a rising number of modern women fantasize about being overpowered, while studies are turning out statistics that bewilder feminists. New shows like HBO’sGirls and books like Fifty Shades of Grey are showcasing the often hidden desire for powerlessness. But why? Katie Roiphe examines the submissive yet empowered female in Newsweek. “It is perhaps inconvenient for feminism that the erotic imagination does not submit to politics, or even changing demographics,” she writes.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/submission-rules.html

[chollybocker]

1. This can't be real.

Tasteless parody or senseless Poe?

No fucking way.

[steve2470]

2. here also, right hand side, "On The Cover" :

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek.html

[Lionessa]

3. Note how they make it seem sexy and good with such a knock out woman?

I wonder how different the effect on women and men would be if that image was more representative of the 40+ #s overweight many women are, and the right age too, not too many that young are "powerful women" yet.

Just saying.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. Exactly, that pic shows a very skinny model, not at all representative

of the average and the majority of females on this planet. On the other hand, magazines are photoshopping the hell out of women today to make them all look 85 lbs.

[Lionessa]

21. I think you're missing my point.

I'm trying to say that by sexualizing it in such a way, they are implicitly suggesting that wanting to be dominated is something to be striven for.

I think if it was more representative of reality, more women might think, yeah, sometimes but yuck, no not something I want to strive for nor be "okay" with.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

24. I get it. nt

[ananda]

46. Women have to be pornworthy these days...

... to make it in the media, show business, and often politics.

It's a very sick world we live in.

[lunatica]

47. This is a very astute observation

I wish I could rec this.

As a woman you're either June Cleaver or a whore. Nothing in between.

[seabeyond]

55. yup lunatica and ananda. nt

[Blue_Tires]

58. +1000

[Zalatix]

4. Is there a ship off this planet?

[LadyHawkAZ]

35. Yes, but it's owned by Newt Gingrich. Pick your poison. n/t

[Rex]

5. As opposed to the secret fantasy life of working men

that write and edit magazines. Maybe called Newsweek. Can we crawl down into their pants with a camera? Maybe they could have at least found a woman that looks more like the average working woman and not a supermodel. I know they are going for the stupid affect, but really do they have to include all the faulsauce together on the cover? Speaking of that, why cover her eyes? Just to give it that S&M look?

Oh right, that was the whole point...carry on.

[flamingdem]

8. +1 for faulsauce

[Rex]

11. I cannot believe they are towing the M$Ms line.

Pathetic, I would rather beg for cash if it was me.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

13. haha! The writer and editor were fetishists who had themselves some plywood in

their pants while writing this?

[Rex]

20. Well if they were thinking about powerful women secretly wanting

to feel powerless, they could have picked any number of visual situations besides sex to put on the cover...the fact that they went for the bondage look, meh dunno I am a guy and that was my first thought. Maybe they are into bondage and super models!?

I think it is to sell magazines.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

25. Maybe they are afraid of the Anna Wintours of the world nt

[Tom Ripley]

28. I find Anna Wintour pretty frightening :)

[Tom Ripley]

28. I find Anna Wintour pretty frightening :)

[Rex]

33. You must, you must!!!

nt.

[Tom Ripley]

37. Once for that wig, the other for those bug shades

Then there's that whole plain girl making a career out of picking on the pretty girls thing...

[Warren DeMontague]

70. Perhaps you haven't heard who is running Newsweek, these days.

She's royally fucked it up, too... And I'm not saying that just because a she's British.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

76. She majored in sensationalism. She's clearly selling the magazine to men.

I've asked some women friends about the article and issue, and they think the thing is fucking demented, and totally out of touch. However, I'll betcha anything this issue is selling like hotcakes among men who get off on that.

[Warren DeMontague]

78. She's selling the magazine to men? Really?

Men who are more interested in fashion stories and the British royal family than actual news, maybe.

I'd be extremely curious to see if you find any hard demographic data to back up that assertion.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

79. The cover shows a frumpy Queen of England? Or a skinny female playing victim in a sexual fetish

pose?

I think the cover is an attempt to get males to buy Newsweek (a la Maxim).

What happens after that, is hopefully that they'll get interested in whatever Newsweek happens to feature that week.

[Warren DeMontague]

81. Like I said, I'd be interested to see what the demographics are pre and post Tina Brown takeover.

A week ago, Newsweek was being hailed as brave feminist fighters for standing up for "puffy" Ashley Judd against the terrible male gaze misogynists at US magazine, with its 80% female readership.

Saying "it's designed to appeal to men because obviously it's designed to appeal to men" is an opinion, but not much else.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

83. Do you think that showing women naked or in sexualized poses is done because for women? nt

[Warren DeMontague]

84. I see a woman with a tie wrapped around her head.

Maybe in your neighborhood, that's "sexy". Not mine.

I think the 50 shades of grey readership is OVERWHELMINGLY female, and that's what the inconvenient article with its inconvenient assertions is about.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

85. Then I do believe you have been entirely too sheltered, if all you see is a scarf. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

86. I see a tie, not a scarf.

The tie is a reference to 50 shades of grey, which has been enormously popular with female readers, despite the inconvenience of that fact to some small remaining islets of aging 2nd wave feminists.

I guess those women who like that book, the woman who wrote it, the woman who wrote the article for newsweek and the woman who publishes it, didn't get the memo.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

87. If all you see is a tie, then you have been unduly sheltered. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

88. Yep.

I haven't read "twilight", either, and it's been over a decade since I had sex... with a republican.

I'm sure many who read this post are much more, er, worldly in those regards than myself...

[Sarah Ibarruri]

89. :) That's ok. Trust me though, that cover is not about fashion. nt

[Warren DeMontague]

90. I know, it's about 50 shades of grey and cheesy bondage porn aimed at women.

All I know is, I should have been a writer of low brow fiction.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

91. It's never too late. nt

[MADem]

18. Isn't Tina Brown editing that thing?

I think she's following the trend, not leading it. I saw this shit on TV a few days back.

[Tom Ripley]

27. That bosomy Brit vulgarian is indeed editing that thing

She's Lady Midas In Reverse; everything she touches turns to shit

[Rex]

34. Well it is all about selling...ahem news.

It's bondage news week!

[Warren DeMontague]

38. You mean, ah, "working men" ...with names like Tina Brown?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tina_Brown

Sorry, but ever since her Daily Beast took over, Newsweek has been a swirling vortex of suck.

Unless you like fashion stories and endless amounts of blibber-blabber about the British Royal Family.

[Tom Ripley]

50. She also wrecked The New Yorker; took it from midcult to lower-midcult

[Rex]

59. I am as surprised as you are.

I figured the editors were reading one too many comic books with the impossible women as their inspiration. I believe it was about two decades ago (now that I've had a night to think about it) that I recommended an article out of Newsweek to somebody. At one time, it was a halfway decent magazine.

Seems so long ago.

[Warren DeMontague]

69. I cancelled my subscription, because I now find it nearly unreadable.

[Rex]

75. Looks like they are drinking the same kool-aid as the M$M.

nt.

[flamingdem]

6. This is so creepy

Newsweek fail. I see many complaints leading to a sold out issue however and the acceptance by the mainstream that all women want to be raped, kind of, this is so fitting with the repuke drive against women. I thought Newsweek was trending a tad more liberal..

[BeyondGeography]

7. That woman never worked a day in her life

[MADem]

16. YOU WIN THE THREAD!!!

Seriously, that was hilarious!

[Lucy Goosey]

9. I hate everybody

Okay, no, but what the fuck is this? When has Katie Roiphe ever been relevant? HBO's Girls and Fifty Shades of Grey are fiction. Fiction! Why is it being presented as reality in the cover of a so-called news mag?

[Kablooie]

31. Fiction to you but reality to the characters in the stories.

You just have a different point of view.

As I do when writing this kind of inanity.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. I so don't believe this. Sex play is fun, whether it's one or the other playing alpha, but I

seriously doubt women are wanting to be overpowered regularly any more than men are regularly wanting to be overpowered by women. Besides, the same thing every time would seem boring as hell.

[flamingdem]

22. Maybe "overpower" = "show a little enthusiam for once Harry"

The overpower thing could just be the idea that the guy is "so into" as opposed to "not that into" her

[Sarah Ibarruri]

23. LOL! Maybe so. nt

[ProfessorGAC]

53. Funniest Comment On This Thread!

Good one.
GAC

[eridani]

41. Pro doms report that their most reliable customers are powerful men

Why wouldn't the same dynamic work for women. According to various kinky people, subs outnumber doms across the board, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. That makes a certain amount of sense--after all, there are always more people in the audience than on stage, and more readers than writers.

[nolabels]

42. Thanks for the insight on what is

I often wonder why large groupings of people make me apprehensive, the thoughtlessness of the follow the leader crowd and why it all seemed so foolish. Must be some inbred genetic trait i was lucky enough to miss

[Marrah_G]

62. It's very true

People on the submissive side of BDSM often do so as an escape from having to make decisions and being "in charge".

[Tom Ripley]

14. Man, if Helmut Newton's estate could claim all royalties due...

[MADem]

15. This shit was on TV the other day-- a woman was saying that all the "moms"

waiting outside the school in their minivans were reading that book while they waited , and a cadre of women were all giggling about it and talking about it as if it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

I reached for the remote--I just didn't want to deal with that foolishness.

Point is, though, Newsweek isn't operating in a vacuum. I guess that War On Women is being fought on many fronts...?

[tawadi]

17. Looks more like a cover for Vogue. eom

[Odin2005]

19. Sexist horseshit!

[Ikonoklast]

26. I'm old enough to remember when Newsweek wrote about, well, the news.

It's been years since that last happened.

When did the National Enquirer buy the name?

[Rex]

36. Same here! Was trying to remember what year it was

I recommended an article out of Newsweek. Nope, drawing a blank.

[sarge43]

40. Newsweak jumped the shark

when it glammed up Paula Jones and made her cover girl. It's been circling the drain ever since.

[GoCubsGo]

52. I thought they folded a few years ago.

I guess not. But, it looks like they should have.

[gauguin57]

30. All this tells me is that the marketing whizzes at Vintage books are working overtime

They know getting the media to analyze a trend to death (and give them an excuse to run this kind of provocative cover) will continue to sell the books of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy.

Vintage is behind all this chatter (and coverage) ... pure and simple.

[Warren DeMontague]

39. How about one on how "Tiger Moms love Bondage!"

I think we have a winner$$$$!!!!!

[Kablooie]

32. Ah. Now I understand women. I'll show this to my wife so she'll submit to me.

for the first time in our lives.

[Ship of Fools]

43. Please Please PLEASE let this be The Onion

string of expletives deleted.

[no_hypocrisy]

44. Working Girl: 2012

Bad enough if a man designed and approved this cover. Worse if women signed off on it.

[ananda]

45. This is utter bullshit.

Media crap for profits.

[mainer]

48. "Fifty Shades of Grey" is what inspired this article

I haven't read the book, but apparently it's a HUGE hit among women. Has anyone read it?

[flamingdem]

54. Here's a review from the NYT - the Cinderella fantasy + spanking

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/books/fifty-shades-of-grey-s-and-m-cinderella.html

This S-and-M story about a virginal college student and the handsome young billionaire who binds her sounds racier than it is. Mostly it’s an updated throwback to scandalous novels of the past, including “Jane Eyre” and the 1920s desert rape fantasy “The Sheik.” The main difference is that “Fifty Shades of Grey” and its two sequels, “Fifty Shades Darker” and “Fifty Shades Freed,” are set in modern-day Seattle and mix sexting with spanking.

In other words, “Fifty Shades of Grey” is to publishing what Spanx was to the undergarment business: an antiquated product re-imagined as innovation. When Sara Blakely, a former office equipment saleswoman, wanted control-top pantyhose without the hose and figured that other women might too, she started her own company, Spanx. Women embraced her light-weight girdle — once known as a foundation garment — as a body-shaping breakthrough. Ms. Blakely is now on the Forbes list of billionaires.

Similarly E L James, the British author of “Shades of Grey,” a former television executive who became an author by posting fan fiction online, wrote a typical romance novel, added some atypical sex and became an Internet sensation. Lots of women who weren’t used to reading erotic novels discovered “Shades of Grey.” And downloading was a huge part of the books’ success: readers who heard of the book from friends or Facebook could check it out instantly, cheaply and most of all, privately.

“Fifty Shades of Grey” doesn’t defy taboos in the way that other recent and much-talked-about books and magazine articles have, be it Toni Bentley’s ode to anal sex, “The Surrender: An Erotic Memoir”; Kathryn Harrison’s account of incest, “The Kiss”; or Daphne Merkin’s revelation of her spanking fetish in The New Yorker. Those accounts shocked mostly because the authors were well-known writers confessing to unseemly sexual vices. MORE

[Iris]

49. Blown way out of proportion

And nothing new, really. I think it's pretty common knowledge that sexual fantasies can be born out of what happens in day to day life. Is Newsweek implying there are no business men who are submissives or have that fantasy?

[Chorophyll]

51. Katie Roiphe, huh? That explains it.

Her personal experience applies to ALL of us women, dontcha know. She speaks for every woman who ever had a job. And the fact that a bunch of women read "Fifty Shades of Grey" means that we ALL long to be submissive in our real lives.

Nice cover by Newsweek too.

I hope I don't need to put the sarcasm thingy.

[blogslut]

71. Ms. Roiphe is quite atrocious

Bleh on her and all stupid "trend" articles.

[MineralMan]

56. Sex sells magazines.

and there it is. If circulation is down, put a naked woman on the cover. Problem solved. A writer can be found to write any foolishness needed to sell magazines.

Uff da!

[whatchamacallit]

57. That cover creeps me out

Wtf Newsweek.

[MadrasT]

60. Next week I wanna see

A submissive man on his knees kissing a woman's foot in a black leather stiletto boot.

Fuck Newsweek and its projections.

Kinky sex is as old as the hills, and it comes in far more flavors than "submissive female".

"Surrender is a feminist dream" my ass. Everything any woman anywhere does any time, does not equal "feminism", for fuck's sake.

[Warren DeMontague]

73. So do I.

I mean, uh, you know, for research purposes only. Honest.

[Marrah_G]

61. I can tell you why some women like it and why some men like it.

Many people on the submissive side of things in the BDSM world enjoy that aspect because during the rest of their lives they have to constantly be taking care of others, working, running a house, raising children. They get overwhelmed with having to be constantly making decisions about everything that they use this sexual choice as an escape.

I am not making a judgement as to whether this is right or wrong, I am just relaying the reasons behind the choice for many.

[Iris]

63. That's what I was trying to say up thread.

It's sex. People's sex live are complex and private and individual. I'm not sure what the intent of this article is b/c I don't really care about reading it. I would hope it mentions somewhere that these fantasies are fairly common amongst powerful men as well.

[Marrah_G]

64. It's one of the reasons why supermarket historical romance books are so popular.

[Iris]

66. haha! Yes, exactly!

It's not exactly rocket science!

[tallahasseedem]

67. Exactly...

As long as the participants are willing ones, that's their business.

[jp11]

65. Really what?

[Blaukraut]

68. Never mind that in an S&M type sexual relationship, the Submissive is actually in control and holds

The power. Aside from that, sexual fantasies are just that - fantasies. Most women's fantasies aren't anything they would ever want to live out in real life, threesomes being a good example. Reality would look a whole lot different that fantasy in most cases.
Newsweek is psychoanalyzing a bit too much here.

[Warren DeMontague]

72. I'm not going to tell consenting adults how to get or not get their jollies.

I will even go so far as to say that I will graciously permit adult women to decide for themselves what sorts of books they choose to read, what kind of erotica they wish to view, and how they choose to get off.

Aren't I reasonable? I know, I'm skirting the bounds of making Jesus angry perpetuating the male gaze heteronormative phallopressive oppresionotronic, wisgrovenikul patriarchy, but really, if this is what the soccer moms want, shit, that's their business. Same as if Dick Morris wants to suck a toe. Just leave me out of it.

That said, I've heard the writing in these books is atrocious.

[Chorophyll]

74. The point is, what "soccer moms" or anyone else want in the bedroom

or in their erotic literature does NOT automatically mean wanting to be "dominated" in the workplace or in the world at large. If Katie Roiphe doesn't understand that, she should STFU.

Also, the notion that women are now in charge of things when we only make up about 15% of Congress (and an even smaller percentage of CEOs) is just plain silly

[Warren DeMontague]

77. I agree with both your points.

Of course, as noted elsewhere in the thread, strong successful men seem to have a higher preponderance of sub sexual orientation, too. And given that the "strong, dominant man" in these 50 shades types stories is often one of these strong successful alpha types (who in reality is possibly more likely to be looking to be on the other end of that Power exchange) its quite possible that this sexual power dynamic is something akin to a cat chasing its own tail.

Off the subject, though, patti smith rocks.

[Chorophyll]

80. I guess I sort of don't care about the sexuality of other people all that much.

Unless I'm directly involved. But Katie Roiphe is a freaking sloppy thinker and I'm really done with her.

Patti does indeed rock!

[Warren DeMontague]

82. Ill be honest, I didnt read the whole thing.

Nor am I all that interested in reading the book in question.