Internet | Media

June 25, 2008

Fashion Magazines' Arch-Nemesis

Anna Holmes, the editor of Jezebel.com, mercilessly mocks the Vogues and Cosmos of the world.

Michael Gluckstadt

To a male reader who is unfamiliar with Jezebel, the experience of immersing yourself in its content kind of feels like going through your sister's closet. There are some things that may feel icky and uncomfortable, but ultimately you learn more about women than most men who aren't doctors have any need to know. In just a few short weeks following the site, I learned what the cover of Glamour is really telling you, that Anne Hathaway is in denial of her ex-boyfriend's fraudulent ways, and that having big boobs is a pain in the neck.

Anna Holmes has been the managing editor of Jezebel since it launched just over a year ago. Since then, it has grown into one of the most popular Gawker Media sites, and is famous for exposing the absurdity of women's fashion magazines. It would, however, be a disservice to reduce the site to celebrity-photo and body-image anti-clichés. There is also sophisticated political and media coverage through a female-oriented lens—though not one that is blind to other estrogen-less factors.

Gelf exchanged emails with Holmes while she was taking a break from the site to go on her honeymoon. In the interview below, she tells us what makes Jezebel commenters different, how she plans to make women's fashion magazines obsolete, and that while you don't have to like Maureen Dowd, you had better respect her. You can hear Holmes, as well as writer/blogger Chez Pazienza and Hipster Handbook author Robert Lanham, at Gelf's free Non-Motivational Speaker Series event on Thursday, June 26, in the Lower East Side. (The following interview has been edited for clarity and the datedness that accrues when an interview with a blogger is conducted over a month's time.)







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Article by Michael Gluckstadt

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