Thursday, November 04, 2004

Trend Watch

First Jack Shafer, now Tom Maguire--we're just one hit away from an Official Ana Marie Cox Backlash Trend. Maguire says:

Mr. Greenfield also mentioned Wonkette for political gossip, and cited the first thing everyone mentions when they mention the Wonkette. Groan.

Look, I understand that she needs a paycheck, that Howard Stern is a ratings monster, that sex sells, and that "Sex and the City" has extended the boundaries of hip and humorous.

I also understand that folks like Jeff Greenfield may stop by for the jokes, but they stay for the content, which I have no doubt is first rate.

That said, I am old enough to remember when comedians would substitute the 'F' word for a punchline - I was not a fan of shock humor then, nor have I warmed to it over the years (Yes, I made an exception for the baked beans scene in "Blazing Saddles"). And I am especially irked by my sense that Wonkette is only considered to be funny because she is a woman - would Jeff Greenfield by yukking it up if those a**-f****** jokes were coming from a guy's site? Doubtful.

Grrr. If this is the sort of attention-seeking behavior that leads to success for female journalists, then I have a vested interest in what seems even to me to be a tired feminist argument. Since I have some smart-as-a-whip nieces and daughters who are talented researchers and writers, I would prefer that they not be evaluated on their willingness to engage in raunchy rhetoric.


What I want to know is, if Shafer and Maguire are so smart, where's their $275,000 book advance? I can't stand people who hate on a girl just because she's successful and talented. Word on the street is that Cox's forthcoming novel, Dog Days, is going to be awesome: Sort of Anna Karenina meets The Devil Wears Prada. Only with cursing and, you know, A2M.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Define "hit."

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't a novel have to be, first, written, and then read, before it's described as awsome? It was an advance after all, not the number of copies sold. Also, this sounds like the supposed complaint about chicken hawks--must Maguire be a novelist before opining about the talents of a vulgar on-line gissip columnist?