Women and men, feminists and fashionistas, wealthy heirs and high-heel wearers, militant multi-taskers, Camus-carrying intellectuals, and rifle-wielding libertarians, let's all take a look back at the past week on
The Baffler online:
"Feminism is going to make it possible for the first time for men to be free." Thus begins the
Baffler's excerpt of
FLOYD DELL's 100-year-old treatise "Feminism for Men," reprinted in our current issue, published online this week with an accompanying introduction by
SUSAN FALUDI, entitled, appropriately, "Feminism for Them?" (Both pieces are illustrated by Katherine Streeter, whose work appears above.)
A very silly social science survey about how tech toys make people appear "more authoritative" inspired us to resurrect a hilarious, cutting piece from Issue 8, back in 1996, by
JENNIFER BROSTROM. Her salvo "The Time Management Gospel" takes on the absurdly expensive and complicated Franklin Planner organizational system from the 1990s. Our tools may have changed since then, but the aspirational gibberish associated with them sure hasn't.
ANNE ELIZABETH MOORE's insightful review of the fashion magazine collection
The WORN ARCHIVE reveals all the ways in which this supposedly feminist work fails to address the real issues that matter. Fashion isn't just about pretty clothes; it's a massive, globalized industry, with equally massive political implications.
In her piece "What Workplace Intolerance Really Looks Like,"
KATHLEEN GEIER pointed out that attention on high-profile dismissals of CEOs and activists can distract from the much more insidious, everyday threats to freedom of expression in the workplace. Did you know that it's perfectly legal for an employer to fire a worker for, say, wearing the wrong color tie, or voting the wrong way, or for posting a
Dilbert cartoon on the break-room bulletin board?
JIM NEWELL was on a roll this week, attacking
rich-kid heirs who are convinced they won't fall into the same philanthropic traps as their parents,
left-leaning billionaires who are convinced they won't fall into the same political-donation traps as their right-wing counterparts, and
the gun nuts who think they need to loosen state laws so they can have more freedom to travel with their toys.
LAUREN KIRCHNER wrote the definitive list of the ten best quotes and excerpts of a horrifying
New York Times artcile about women undergoing foot surgery to fit into their tightest, highest heels. Featured: the new term "toebesity" and the (thankfully still fictional) procedure "toe liposuction."
Finally, the great
GEORGE SCIALABBA took a look back at the long, illustrious run of
Partisan Review on the occasion of the digitization of its archives, and wondered, could its writers have started a magazine like that today? Would it have had the same impact? Would anyone have gotten
paid?
Have a great weekend, everybody.
