Sunday, August 29, 2004
NewMatilda.com – a review
Just as I – among others – feared months ago, this new, supposedly diverse online mag is just another boomer-monoculture vehicle.
Despite boomer editor Natasha Cica’s efforts to spin it to the contrary – "We have a very good spread in terms of age as well, which ranges from about 24 to 70-plus" – GenX is almost invisible in the line-up of the first-issue.
The (token) “about 24” year old, is presumably the supremely vacuous, self-described generation Y-er, Marni Cordell: “As a cohort we represent the biggest buying power since the Boomers”. I’m sure you do, Marni – so why don’t do take your over-sized buying power off with you to some quiet place, and go fuck yourself with it?
In terms of the (probably) two articles written by Xers, one is by the definitely 30-something Oz male journo George Megalogenis, who has developed a specialty subject over the last year or so of how GenX women are leaving everyone else – and especially GenX men – behind in their wake. While I suspect that there may be some empirical truth here, the argument sure looks strange when it is repeatedly, and only, made by a man.
Proving my point here, the other probable Xer-written article is by “Sydney writer and lawyer” Kate Horrocks, who muses – mildly – about the excesses of a lavishly re-furbished shopping mall in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Not sure what her point is, but clearly Megalogenis could count her article as his supporting evidence exhibit # 10000001 – (token) GenX women scores the precious column bandwidth, with lack of anything to say being no apparent barrier. (In fairness to Horrocks, the airheaded-ness of her article was presumably either expected or demanded by editor Cica – we wouldn’t want Xers to be actually expressing opinions, would we?)
Correction 16 October 2004
Marni Cordell emails me that NewMatilda editor Cica is 36, and so hardly a boomer. Point taken. Marni also informs me that she was being intentionally ironic in the above quote – I’ll leave it to my readership to decide this one.
NewMatilda has also just decided to become subscription based, so copying the late Zeitgeist Gazette’s business model for doomed-to-fail webzines.
Just as I – among others – feared months ago, this new, supposedly diverse online mag is just another boomer-monoculture vehicle.
Despite boomer editor Natasha Cica’s efforts to spin it to the contrary – "We have a very good spread in terms of age as well, which ranges from about 24 to 70-plus" – GenX is almost invisible in the line-up of the first-issue.
The (token) “about 24” year old, is presumably the supremely vacuous, self-described generation Y-er, Marni Cordell: “As a cohort we represent the biggest buying power since the Boomers”. I’m sure you do, Marni – so why don’t do take your over-sized buying power off with you to some quiet place, and go fuck yourself with it?
In terms of the (probably) two articles written by Xers, one is by the definitely 30-something Oz male journo George Megalogenis, who has developed a specialty subject over the last year or so of how GenX women are leaving everyone else – and especially GenX men – behind in their wake. While I suspect that there may be some empirical truth here, the argument sure looks strange when it is repeatedly, and only, made by a man.
Proving my point here, the other probable Xer-written article is by “Sydney writer and lawyer” Kate Horrocks, who muses – mildly – about the excesses of a lavishly re-furbished shopping mall in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Not sure what her point is, but clearly Megalogenis could count her article as his supporting evidence exhibit # 10000001 – (token) GenX women scores the precious column bandwidth, with lack of anything to say being no apparent barrier. (In fairness to Horrocks, the airheaded-ness of her article was presumably either expected or demanded by editor Cica – we wouldn’t want Xers to be actually expressing opinions, would we?)
Correction 16 October 2004
Marni Cordell emails me that NewMatilda editor Cica is 36, and so hardly a boomer. Point taken. Marni also informs me that she was being intentionally ironic in the above quote – I’ll leave it to my readership to decide this one.
NewMatilda has also just decided to become subscription based, so copying the late Zeitgeist Gazette’s business model for doomed-to-fail webzines.
