Is this story stylish, or fashionable?

It's great to see a story in the New York Times about the children of same-sex couples speaking out about how marriage bans affect them.

It's disappointing, however, that the story is filed in the "Fashion & Style" section.

It has been previously discussed here that serious stories—like those about, say, domestic violence, multigenerational parenting, gender bias and sexual harassment, stalking, and rape—frequently end up in the NYT "Fashion & Style" section (and the fashion/style/life/living/etc. sections of various other papers) because "style" sections are disproportionately staffed by female writers, who use whatever platform they've got to write serious stories. So I want to make it clear I'm not knocking the writer of this piece (who is, indeed, a woman).

This is an editing failure. It's a failure of relegating women disproportionately to the "style" sections in the first place, and it's a failure of letting pieces that are demonstrably not "style" content run under that header, which ultimately has the effect of marginalizing the content. Stories about women, or gay couples, are "special interest" stories only in cultures where privileged classes are not expected to treat members of those populations as their equals.

Quickly, I'll just note that I find publishing a story about the children of gay parents in the "Fashion & Style" section additionally problematic because of the unavoidable suggestion that being a gay parent is hip and trendy, or that families headed by same-sex parents are a fad. There is also the unintentional subtext of children being treated like accessories, which I patently detest. Fail all around, basically.

[H/T to Shaker EastSideKate.]

Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.

blog comments powered by Disqus