Orange Magazine is gone.
The paper hit stands a day late this week, because Media General head honchos objected to the word “c*nt” in an article about handbags sold at a site with the word in the name.
I like Mitzi Gordon, Orange’s former editor, very much on a personal level and I think she’s a good writer, too, but I don’t really understand how she thought that word was gonna fly in a paper that shares leadership with the Tampa Tribune. Freelancer Greg Caracci, who could be considered a colleague because we both freelanced for the rag, although we don’t know each other at all, doesn’t really earn too many points in my book for this one, either.
First off, I don’t really care if the proprietor of these handbags is ‘taking the word back’ or whatever she claims. It’s a stupid, offensive word to use if you actually expect your business to grow. If you make dope handbags from high-quality materials, they will sell without you using some idiotically sensational term that, frankly, the bags aren’t going to mainstream, anyway. Karl Lagerfeld hangs out with Lindsay Lohan, for Christ’s sake, and he doesn’t use words like that in his work. Are we gonna see Diane von Furstenburg naming her sexy dresses after vulgar terms because she’s a feminist?
The argument for the pitch and its acceptance is that Orange wanted a college audience, and the use of the word would get people turning the pages, which I understand, but I also understand it as sophomoric. Fashion is supposed to be aspirational and I just don’t think anyone aspires to be a c*nt. (Yes, yes, hit the comments and tell me I’m a c*nt now. Someone wants to, hmm?)
Professional writing shouldn’t be so pretentious that its point can’t stand alone, and the point that should have been made here – oooh, look, pretty handbags made by a feminist – relies on pretending we can all just toss around a word that isn’t professional at all.
I guess the thing that bothers me about all this is its predictability. Let me preface this by saying that I am the only person I know under the age of thirty who makes a seriously decent living off of doing nothing but writing. I know people who write freelance for the love. I know people who have writing-only jobs, but either rely on partners, too, or are broke. I know people who make hot money writing and doing a bunch of other adminstrative or operational tasks, or have night jobs doing completely unrelated things, but writing and doing nothing else for cash and living large is hard. The market is tight and there’s plenty of competition.
So, if you want to write for money, and especially if you want to write for money that comes from a major corporation, you have to write professionally. There are plenty of opportunties to write where you don’t have to act professionally – like, say, your journal, your blog, Tommy’s blog, progressive open mics, fiction workshops – but a weekly that’s subsidized by a major paper isn’t one of them. Experimentation is absolutely necessary for writers to grow in skill. The value of writing just to test out ideas and shape and format and language is incredibly rewarding, but experiment in the appropriate avenues or lose your professional credibility.
Greg’s error was, sadly and simply, a lack of professionalism. Mitzi’s error was accepting that lack of professionalism under the guise of progressiveness. She got a bit suckered by what was essentially Greg’s intellectual pretension, this idea that his creative impulse could override standards of conduct that are pretty obvious to people with jobs. Who knows? Maybe he got suckered, too, by the handbag lady. It’s all very terrible, honestly, because the handbags even sound stupid – handbags are not about feminism – but they felled a freakin’ newspaper, didn’t they?
Or maybe not. Mitzi says she wasn’t told she was fired because of the article, but that no one else will do her job so there’s no more paper (a claim I believe, knowing what her job entailed and her level of income). Perhaps the article was just a red herring to keep everyone’s mind off the fact that the upper management and general philosophy of the company sucked.
Let’s see – the art director is all over MySpace looking for a roommate and a part-time job. This girl isn’t just some intern; she’s the director. What the h*ll are these people getting paid? In addition, most freelancers were always curious as to why checks were so late and so conveniently short so often. That never happened to me freelancing with the other papers in town. Creative issues? Sometimes, but nobody ever f*cked with my money.
Also, I referred probably twelve people to the first ad salesperson at the paper and she never got back to one of them. Distribution was embarrassing - I would walk all over South Tampa and downtown St. Pete and not find a paper. St. Pete locations were up to a week behind. I mean, why did Media General even start the paper if they didn’t care about doing anything with it?
Here’s the rub: Mitzi might have screwed up really badly with this c*nt thing – I’m not really sure, because I only know what she tells me and there could be a lot more or less to it – but the girl was behind this paper’s success all the way. When I produced a section that went above and beyond the expectations of my contract, I negotiated for more money. Guess where the money came from? Her checking account, which she didn’t mention during negotiations at all. When Aaron Edwards didn’t get a very large check anywhere near on time, right before Christmas, guess who fronted him the money? Yup, Mitzi. Sure, you can say she just floated a friend a loan, but you know she felt like he needed to be paid.
The irony of this isn’t lost on me. There is nothing professional about paying freelancers yourself because you don’t have the corporate support to pay for people that create an interesting paper with fresh, edgy content. It’s almost an error of immaturity, but it’s also an act of love and dedication and flat-out interest in a progressive-minded success based on ideals and nothing else.
Worth letting the girl throw in a misguided, nasty word every now and then, I’d say. Worth getting your lazy-ass ad sales people out on the streets, too.
Please feel free to let me know if you need the services of a professional writer, artist or photographer. I now know several who are very good and have no present source of income.
David Jenkins
3 years ago
Well, sh*t, I just got a guy in from there this Wed. to come in and cover This is How it Goes for their next issue.
Sucks to be me. Press is press, man.
Jason
3 years ago
I only saw a box for this paper once or twice. I wasn’t even sure if it was still in print. Good post though.
tim
3 years ago
It was hard to find? Copies were all over my building (CIS) and at my bar (LA Hangout)… I didn’t realize there were distribution issues.
This sucks. I liked Orange.
Robert Maddrey
3 years ago
Well, I honestly cannot say I am surprised. I was never really blown away by content or quality but as a magazine publisher I can empathize with these issues. They gave it a run and its over. My hat’s off.
dreaming
3 years ago
i doubt that dumbly thinking she could print the word cunt in a tampa tribune publication is what got mitzi fired, stupid and naive though that was. i suspect her criticism of her employer in a rival publication – blurbex or weekly planet – is what really did her in. media gen was desperate for readers in places other than sun city center and outer plant city when it created orange a year ago. but the news biz has changed since even then, with more migration to online content. orange didnt get enough ads to pay for itself. there are a lot of lazy incompetents at the trib and the ad sales staff is no exception. its too bad its gone, even though orange appeared to be little more, at times, than pix of dumb kids drinking in soho bars.
Liat
3 years ago
Um, I dont beleive you have ever actually looked at my webpage. I am not just some feminist who makes bags. Infact I make very few bags. I started my webpage to make people more aware of menstrual taboos and womens health. The merch. came in later, after people asked me to make them shirts, pillows, ties, etc. I use the word cunt because it was once used to describe women with power. Becasue of your patriarchal society, it has come to be a “dirty” word. Have you heard of group trying to reclaim words like “queer?” its the same concept. Eve Ensler (writer of the Vagina Monologues) has a monologue called “reclaiming cunt” and Inga Muscio had even written a book called CUNT. I think that you should do some research before writing about something you have no knowledge about. And yes, if Mitzi was fired I do feel bad, however, it is not my fault that our society is so closed minded that it censors words that should be made public.
-Liat
http://www.thecuntshop.com
BrotherFire
3 years ago
Yes, as a writer, I agree. Some words are just too “sensationally idiotic,” and shouldn’t be used by “professional” writers. Even those who work for magazines with ads for whores, like Creative Loafing. I never read Orange, but Matt Pleasant was nice. Working for Media General at all is pretty “sophomoric.” We should all avoid the “stupid” and “offensive” whenever possible, epecially when we’re “living large,” oh, shoot, now I have to stop reading Sticks of Fire.
bint alshamsa
3 years ago
Perhaps one of them should be given your job. I can’t imagine they could possibly be less competent than you are.
curious
3 years ago
‘cunt’ is not professional, but fur, leather and animal cruelty are? go figure.
see also: http://www.ocweekly.com/index.php?option=com_ocsearch&Itemid=219&searchword=cunt
that’d be a link to 2 pages of results from searching for the word “cunt” on the OC Weekly website by a multitude of different professional writers who beg to differ.
Greg Caracci
3 years ago
Jesus.
Since you admittedly don’t know me at all, your ability to pick out my intellectual pretension and try to sum up the personal philosophy behind my Orange work/tenure is really quite remarkable. I’ve heard that in journalism that it’s generally best to confirm with sources before stating things like this, but what do I know? And hey, this is just a blog, right?
I just got back from the full-time job you essentially imply that I don’t have. Trust me, I am not under the impression that my creative impulses override any standards of conduct. I’m typically well regarded by my employers and co-workers. I did not, nor do I frankly believe I’m capable of bullying or “suckering” Mitzi into anything, least of all where her livelihood is concerned. My pitch, at least as I understand it (i.e., markedly different from how you represent it), was to attract attention to what was an upcoming fashion show/concert using one of the participants that had not been covered in the magazine before (the organizers, Orianna Kurrus and Ken Spivey, both have been, as you well know of the first). It was bolstered by an approach and concept I hadn’t seen used before in fashion, and I still would have done the story if the clothing had another tag. I don’t use the word “cunt” in my other writing, nor do I toss it out in everyday speech. Tell you the truth, I never much liked the word. It’s too sharp and harsh sounding for the anatomy, and I prefer to make my insults and criticisms gender neutral (examples: arrogant, presumptuous, etc.) not make it sound like I believe that a woman with bad personality traits is worse than a man with those same traits, which is basically what a term like “cunt” says when applied to a female. Like you, I don’t think the line’s going to bring the word into the mainstream. I really don’t care if it does. I don’t need it. But when the shit hit the fan, I argued for justification based on the fairly innocuous context it was used in, and whether you like Liat or not (I have grown to count her as a friend), she’s sincere in the things she says and does, she emphasizes the history of the word and its shifted connotation in her purpose with the line, and whether you also believe it’s misguided or not, the word was not used gratuitously by her or me–whatever that means in a magazine where the guidelines were for the writer to feel like there’s as much leeway with content as in Creative Loafing. Think CL would throw a fit over this?
As for the product itself, art (unless you don’t count fashion as art–do you?) is meant to house ideas and represent them with things which, yeah, in a base sense, don’t actually have much to do with the idea, be it blobs of paint representing a person in a certain mood or letters strung together to form words of one of hundreds of languages, all put in order to represent a scene. Fashion isn’t my area of expertise, but I’d wager a handbag’s whatever the hell its creator wants it to be.
Look, I am new to this, I’ll admit. It may in fact have been an error on my part to assume that my job as a writer is to find timely, interesting and unique local people, places, and products, and in the course of an interview, prod them in a way that gets them to elaborate on the characteristics and intents behind whatever it is they’re shilling–regardless of whether I agree with them or not. Apparently, it’s actually to impress my own values upon the subject in order to skew perception of it and to make asinine presumptions (or purposeful straw men to lazily knock down) about people involved in a situation I have a shallow understanding of and then post them in a public forum. I’ll make a note of it and tape it to my mirror, if, you know, I can still stand to look in it after such a precise and professional dissection.
tim
3 years ago
I can’t believe such a fuss has been made over a silly word. Greg is right, CL would certainly not have such a crisis.
It’s a FREAKIN’ WORD, PEOPLE. GET YOUR CROSSES OUT OF YOUR BUTTS and chill out!
Jason
3 years ago
I called a girl that one time and she got mad! I should have told her I was taking it back.
voxpopuli
3 years ago
Maybe this was just some good attention getting marketing (no objection cause I ikinda dig mitzi too) … but orange is still out there
hopin it doesn’t just turn into some weird version of the south tampa style page. I think we can expect better from those guys …. I’ve followed them along and frankly, only pick up the paper out of respect for them so let’s keep it real over to the orange and call em as you see em. yeah, don’t call girls that. HAHA
M
3 years ago
I think my biggest issue is not the fact that a story that is telling you “See You Next Tuesday!” made print (as we know that Wayne will have a great time using the word on Wednesday in CL), but that that the reporter provided the story to the source pre-publication? That, to me, is a serious breach of ethics. You don’t give a story to a source ahead of publication … where is the credibility?
Also, where is the upper management in all of this? Shouldn’t Ms. Gordon have been communicating with her bosses? I’m sure she wasn’t the top of the list. What is her boss’ role in this and how is he or she being punished?
I never understood Orange, yet again, I’m 30 and obviously past what some have discribed as an age threshold. And I’m paid to write professionally, too, and make a very good living at it, even pre-30, so you aren’t alone there, Rachel. And I doubt the two of us are the only ones, so let’s not get too blown up.
Orianna Kurrus
3 years ago
I was the organizer / lead designer for the fashion show that this article was promoting. The event raised a good amount of money for charity (The Boys + Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay), while also introducing people to art/music/performance combinations that they had never seen before. It was a pretty sucessful event, and I’m proud to say that there were NO complaints about the word “CUNT” being proudly displayed in front of Liat’s merch table. The event was held in a CATHOLIC center, of all places, and THEY thought her fashion designs were wonderful! Orange (a supposedly progressive magazine) is apparently less open-minded than strict Catholics… something is definately wrong with that!
Greg Caracci
3 years ago
M–for the record, I only provided the source the story pre-publication in that I showed her my final draft after the story was (literally) scrapped and I more or less lost hope in it being published in Orange. I had no intention of taking it anywhere else, so I showed her what could have been and gave her permission to publish it on her website if she’d like. She liked.
M
3 years ago
Greg: Thanks for the clarification. I misunderstood the timeline then in your MySpace post.
I personally have no issue then if this was provided after the story was dead.
Anonymous
3 years ago
CUNT: Can’t Understand New Thoughts
voxpopuli
3 years ago
I will say that it seems kinda desperate to go this far for attention.
Flash in the pan kinda stuff IMO
Observer
3 years ago
Well they wqere a very bad paper, tissue thin with no imagination, just pcitures of bar scences and the latest info on the staff’s friends. It was a lousy lousy paper, and that had a lot more to do with why it is gone.
Ashleigh
3 years ago
Wow, way to show your professionalism there by completely missing the point of Liat’s art. Yes, ART. Not some meant-to-be-marketed mass-produced mainstream boring handbags. Did you even bother to research her intent or purpose before you labeled her as “the handbag lady” and completely dismissed her ideas?
Please, go to http://www.thecuntshop.com and actually read about what she’s trying to do. You don’t have to be a fan of the word cunt, but you and your readers can show their “professionalism” by understanding the context of CUNT in this situation without resorting to petty insults.
Anyway, aren’t there more important things going on in the world right now than to worry about what words people care to use or enjoy?
Wendy Withers
3 years ago
I am a freelancer, intern and college student. I have written stories about The Cunt Shop as features, because Liat produces quality products that actually convey the message a woman’s anatomy should be revered and taken care of. she sells pillows, handbags, clothing, washable pads and speculum bags. What she makes is art, and it shouldn’t be lumped with the people out there who use profanity to get attention. Orange Magazine was supposed to be an outlet for creativity and nightlife in Tampa, therefore I believe Gordon was justified in promoting a fresh product her readers would have been interested in. Of course, Media General was looking out for its own interests by cutting it out. I hope the mainstream media in Tampa will one day be ready to promote and support its artists; until then, they will continue to move to other cities, like Orianna Kurrus and Liat Silverman plan to do. Even jewels like Frank Strunk have a hard time finding their niche in this area.
Observer
3 years ago
Lets get off the high-horse poeple!
It isn’t about their courage for using low brow filth, it was not the company’s limited vision.
It was a truly bad paper that deserved to be killed! No content worthy of note, a little gossip rag about bars and the small clique of the staff. The thing was a joke!
As for suporting the arts community, please! Unless the art was in a bar or showed one of the staff’s work it wasn’t in Ornage.
Childishly simpke writing on inane topics and you let the call them selves “artists”.
Hey, anyone know the difference betwen an Artist and a Reporter?
tampabaymuse
3 years ago
Orange magazine failed because it was good idea poorly implemented. Look at local free publication Reax for how to do it correctly. Orange was poorly marketed, poorly distributed, and had little original content. They basically mined myspace for their articles, if you could really call them articles. I would call them more like Blurbs.
I have been trying to support the local arts scene with tampabaymuse. Orange magazine actually hurt the local arts scene in the “big picture”. For those of you who loved Orange and Mitzi, i am sorry, but to really believe that a media conglomerate like Media General was going to save the Tampa arts scene was naive and counter productive.
curious
3 years ago
I agree with the first 3 sentences of your post, Muse.
I’m wondering where you got the idea that Media General was trying to save the Tampa arts scene. Anyone trying to do that is going to need more than a weekly paper. Cut them some slack.
The difference between Reax and Orange is the funding. If Orange was independent, I’m sure it would have been an entirely different publication. Apples to.. Oranges. Haha. Ahem.
Also – Orange magazine hurt the local arts scene? How’s that, exactly?
Mitzi Gordon
3 years ago
Where should I begin?
What’s done is done. I’m through analyzing and second-guessing my decisions. I felt the full context of Liat’s story made up for the potential offensiveness of a single word.
The word “fuck” had already appeared in Orange with zero backlash — is that worse? better? — so I felt only slight cause for concern. Raised eyebrows, some loud gasps. But this?
I worked for Sunbelt Newspapers for four and a half years, making my way into an editor position after paying dues as a community reporter. (FYI Rachel, you are far from the authority on how to make a living as a writer in this town.)
I worked my ass off for Sunbelt back then … but even more so for Orange, which was essentially a two-person show. Point me to another alt-weekly in this country that survives with a full-time staff of two.
I am not perfect, but I tried hard and was fully dedicated. We were always a work in progress, in my mind. Not everyone liked the paper, but that’s how it goes.
Many will not agree with my decisions, but I made them alone, and will stand by them. At Media General, that core value is called “integrity.”
I might agree with one person’s comment that speaking out against the company — not pushing the limits of their taste — was my biggest mistake.
I was frustrated, tired of having my hands bound, and tired of all the mixed signals.
Now, what’s done is done.
Rachel, I’m not sure what your goal was with this commentary, but I feel several of your points are off the mark. I don’t need to repeat everyone else’s arguments (25 comments — not too shabby), but … I was suckered? Immature? This from someone who “lives large” under the tenet of “Cash Rules Everything Around Me”?
I am many things, but “sucker” is not one of them, thank you. Sure, I was unrealistic (or idealistic) about what Media General would permit. It’s hard to say, as they never gave me consistent guidance. They told me to be myself, and then didn’t like what they saw.
Don’t talk to me about being professional after you pressed me several times for a “holiday bonus” you knew full well was coming from my own pocket. If you want to call that out as a mistake, I can certainly stop payment on the check.
You were only in it for the money. That was made clear to me from the start. So go ahead, talk, concoct theories and sling your opinions around. Everyone will … but nobody knows a damn thing about what my shoes really feel like.
Observer
3 years ago
Well argued and well written Mitzi. We were wrong to assume Rachel was writing as an informed authority on the subject.
supson
3 years ago
*SNAP!*
tampafilmfan
3 years ago
OMG, I am now officially a Mitzi Gordon fan.
dreaming
3 years ago
well put, mitzi. you got fired because you betrayed your employer and made the mistake of thinking that orange belonged to you. but orange died because the over-the-hill geniuses at media general didnt know what they were doing. they should have fired the ad sales staff and hired some people to sell real space. if reax can do it, as purported ‘amateurs,’ then surely big bad media general’s pros could have done it.
orange was born of desperation for readers and jealousy of rival st pete times tbt*, lame as that thing is. mg should carve out its weekend tab as the freebie that orange tried to be and go from there. duh. and im not even a genius.
Renae Luginbuhl
3 years ago
ALL RIGHT IM SO HAPPY THAT YOU HAVE SO MUCH PRIDE IN YOUR WORK AND THINK YOU ARE SOOOOOO “PROFESSIONAL” THATS GREAT HAPPY FOR YOU! BUT I MUST RESPOND I AM FROM CONNECTICUT AND A FRIEND FOR TOLD ME TO CHECK OUT THE CUNT SHOP ON MYSPACE AND I WAS VERY HAPPY TO SEE ANOTHER WOMEN NOT AFFRAID OF WHAT SOCIETY HAS TAUGHT WOMEN ABOUT THE WORD “CUNT” ITS NOT A BAD WORD, ITS ONLY BAD IF YOU HAVE TAKEN ON WHAT SOCIETY AND THE TIGHTASSES OF THIS NATION WANT…WHICH YOU CLEARLY HAVE BEING THE PROFESSIONAL AND ALL…HAS FOR YOU CLAMING ITS A “STUPID, OFFENSIVE WORD” GIVE ME A BREAK LADY AND GET YOUR PANTIES OUT OF A WAD!! MAYBE LOOK AROUND THE WORLD AND IM SURE YOU HAVE BECAUSE YOUR SO “PROFESSIONAL” AS YOU CLAIM. WHICH I FIND VERY INTERESTING THAT YOU HAD TO SAY THAT SO MANY TIMES IN YOUR ARTICALE WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO CONVINCE YOURSELF OR EVERYONE ELSE…MOST PEOPLE IF THEY KNOW SOMETHING AND BELIEVE IT ABOUT THEMSELFS DONT HAVE TO SAY IT SO MANY TIME COME ON “MS. PROFESSIONAL” AS FOR THE CUNTSHOP SORRY TO SAY SHE IS NOT GETTING BUSINESS TAKEN AWAY IF YOU KNEW ANYTHING ABOUT HER YOU WOULD SEE IT IS TAKING OFF AMEN!! IM GLAD I FOUND HER WORK AND NOW HAVE ALOT OF HER TALENT IN MY HOME AND ON MY CLOTHES SO MS. JUDGE JUDY GO FOR IT CUT DOWN THIS GIRL SOME MORE BUT YOU MUST KNOW ALOT OF PEOPLE THINK YOU THE “PROFESSIONAL” AND OF COURSE I HAVE TO SAY HAS MUCH AS YOU DO SO YOU CAN KNOW YOU ARE…LOL ARE A PLAIN OLD TIGHTASS SO GO HAVE SOME SEX OR SOMETHING AND LOOK AT THE ART HERE AND THE TALENT BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THE CUNTSHOP IS ART TALENT AND THE TRUTH LOVE AND KISSES FROM RENAE IN CT
LONG LIVE THE CUNTSHOP AND ROCK ON GIRL BECAUSE YOU ARE SPEAKING THE TRUTH THROUGH EVERY PEICE YOU MAKE AND SELL!!!
RENAE LUGINBUHL
3 years ago
OH ONE MORE THING MS. “PROFESSIONAL” WHY DONT YOU GET OFF THE WORD CUNT AND TAKE A LOOK AT GEORGE BUSH AND ALL THE KILLING THAT IS GOING ON GIVE ME A BREAK HMMMMMMMMM THE WORD CUNT OR KILLING THANKS RENAE LUGINBUHL FROM MILFORD, CT IT HAS BEEN A PLEASURE
Liat
3 years ago
Apparently creative loafing doesnt have a problem publishing the word cunt. nice job CL!
http://tampa.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A187343
curious
3 years ago
there was some really good posts here until somebody’s caps got stuck. ugh.
EditChick1711
3 years ago
Talk about “intellectual pretension.” You needn’t have mentioned your age demograhic; it showed clearly in your writing.
It’s also overly clear that you love to hear your own voice. Your post wears a very thin disguise of “passion”; it’s obvious you care only about your own interests, and about nothing or no one else.
Mitzi, I think Media General doomed you from the start. But I still immensely respect your willingness to go for it. True professionals (and true intellectuals) will not judge you only by your successes, but also by how well you handle your failures.
People make mistakes; it’s human nature. But human nature is what we’re here to rise above. Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and get on with the next adventure. When you know what you’re capable of, the criticism of others means exactly this: Zero.
Renae Luginbuhl
3 years ago
Sorry “CURIOUS” about the all caps I was really angry when I saw that this women was attacking theCUNTshops work take care
Renae from Milfor, CT
curious
3 years ago
EditChick1711 summed it up.
The end.
El Marido
3 years ago
Wow, Rachel*, your petulance really shines through in your commentary. Are you too busy cultivating a champagne-spraying-party-girl persona to show a little respect and gratitude? It sure seems like it. This detached-hipster thing is a bit played out, no?
Mitzi, I’ve never worked with you. I only know of what transpired at Orange by what I have read in the media. Even the non-flattering articles paint you as talented, ambitious, hard-working, honest, and responsible (all at 30, to boot). This may sound like damage control, but you probably learned in 20 months at Orange what many won’t learn in a lifetime. Good luck in your next endeavor(s).
Ani A Desilets
3 years ago
To the Professional,
Wow. After reading your “professional” blog, littered with both grammatical errors and poor word usages, I am beginning to wonder if this was a gesture to sell yourself as a journalist and convince yourself that you are indeed a writer? Are you looking for a job or commenting on a piece someone else wrote? I am not so sure.
Ani A Desilets
3 years ago
To the Professional,
Wow. After reading your “professional” blog, littered with both grammatical errors and poor word usages, I am beginning to wonder if this was a gesture to sell yourself as a journalist and convince yourself that you are indeed a writer? Are you looking for a job or commenting on a piece someone else wrote? I am not so sure.
Now I will address the substantive issues here. I think it is shortsighted to comment on her marketability to high end fashion distributors or draw the comparison between vanguard art and paris hilton clones. One must know their audience right? I do not think Liat is catering to those women who would spend $1,500 on an ugly purse that bears the name Prada. Liat has a different audience, one that supports both her ambitions and products, which is more than anyone can say of L. Vitton or any of those other venture capitalists.
As for that dirty little word that gets self-proclaimed professionals like yourself in a tither, it is dirty and pejorative. I do not like the word either and I am both an intellectual and a feminist- a professional too. But I will not take up space as you did to proclaim it here. If you had taken to time to complete your journalistic research, you would have noticed that Liat is not selling her products based on CUNT. Liat does not sell cunts or ear plugs to those who find the word repulsive. Liat is an artist who is empowering women by reinvesting the pejorative term and the organs to which it applies with the beauty it embodies. Liat does this by centralizing the cunt and not the phallic on cards, tee shirts, and other tangible items. Liat also works to disseminate timely health information to women. Lastly, a substantial amount of her proceeds go to benefit such worthy cause as the Boys and Girls club.
Sounds like you may not have chosen such a lucrative career Ms. Professional, and hey if you are hurting for money Dominoes pizza is always hiring for drivers. I delivered pizza while working on my dissertation and there is no shame in that.
Blurbex » Blog Archive » Orange Reaction
3 years ago
[...] freelancer and homeless-hater-turned-homeless-cigarette-purchaser Rachel* writes that editor Mitzi Gordon was not-too-smart and suckered into trying to print the article that got [...]
Mcgill
2 years ago
It doesn’t really matter how much quality handbags are used as long as you are showing up those mediocre slang terms on bags. It carries the image of the company.