Yesterday, Gawker posted a short quote from Peter Carlson's Washington Post article on the new "catazine" Cargo:
Cargo might be the worst idea for a magazine in human history. It's certainly the worst idea for a magazine since December 2000, when Conde Nast launched Lucky, a shopping magazine for women.What's more insulting, of course, is the idea that Carlson wants us to read the articles in women's magazines. But my favorite line in the piece goes like this: Each non-purchase of Cargo will "strike a blow against … the wimpification of America -- while at the same time showing that men are less shallow than women." Because, men, if you don't strike a blow, wimpification will attack you. And, the deeper you are, the more you realize one's depth is measured solely by the interest one takes in clothes and surpassing women. Posted by nchicha at March 24, 2004 05:23 AM
The apparent idea behind Lucky was simple: Women are too dumb to read magazine articles. They just want to look at pictures of shoes and makeup and handbags and hairdos. The idea was profoundly insulting to women, and women responded by enthusiastically embracing Lucky, which now sells 900,000 copies a month.