testing

Yay comments work now!

So I was looking through Jane's blog and they have a "boobs" blog in which readers take pitcutres of their breasts and post them up and say why they love their boobs.

Now I am ALL about boob love and I love my boobs too! I show my boobs how much I love them by having my gyno feel them up for bumps every year and by getting mamograms later in life [I'm 20], but I am not going to take pictures of my boobs and post them on the internet to show them I love them...

I pictured 13-year-old boys home alone after school looking at this boob blog and telling their friends about it the next day at school...

I don't know it just seemed plain weird to me...

Not at all sorry to hear that Jane is gone.

That was a pathetic coda to Sassy, which I adored in high school (and still have a few copies of in the basement somewhere). It was in Sassy that I first learned about "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland. I totally dug it as an antidote to big hair, and back then, they showed, in my opinion, a far better variety of models -- color, body shape, and style. Sassy was the first girl's mag, as far as I knew, to give voice to girls' personal stories, as varied as overcoming childhood abuse to choosing to convert to Islam (and that was the eighties, folks!) I think Sassy was probably my first introduction to feminism in printed form. As I recall, it dealt with women's and girls' concerns in an intelligent and respectful manner.

The few times I picked up Jane, I thought it was pure garbage. I'm not interested in the editor's fluffy perspectives on her bisexuality, or in where to buy the coolest stripper gear. Wasn't Pam Anderson writing a regular column in Jane? Thanks, but really, I'll pass. It made me think of Maxim posing as a girl's mag. I never found anything remotely positive in it.

Good riddance for now.

Hey, I really liked Jane! I spent many hours reading that mag between classes at the university library. Now what am I supposed to do? Read Cosmo? Ugh, I'm not that desperate!

But yeah, Jane was awesome. I remember they did a huge thing on birth control and what different types there were and everything. I sent it to all my friends. Gosh dern.

I really liked Jane too. Not enough to subscribe, but enough that I bought a few issues here and there. They definitely championed women's rights, especially reproductive rights, and as far as the boobs blog, I totally supported it. I mean, how often have you and your friends complained about how much you hate them? However, they are completely a part of who we are as women, and I totally loved that the boobs blog gave women the confidence to show them and say how they felt about them, namely what they loved about them, including women who had had mammograms.

As far as the virgin blog, anyone who actually bothered to read it would know that Sarah just wanted to meet as many men as possible, which would hopefully lead to a relationship in which she would have sex. I don't see what's so offensive, amoral, or exploitative about that. Plenty of people have sex while in relationships.

I'm not saying reading Jane was as intellectually stimulating as reading War and Peace, but it definitely was a magazine that I felt had some merits and was a much needed antidote to Cosmo (which is nothing more than women's Maxim). I'm sad to see it go.

I did like Jane )though not as much as much my beloved Sassy), until she left, and actually enjoyed a couple of Pam Anderson's columns... I've pick Allure or MarieClaire over the contemporaries.

Most women's/girl's mags have covers I find so odious I never take them off the shelf. What mags do commenters here read, and why? For example, Beck mentions Allure and Marie Clare--anyone else read them? How are they different?

While I admittedly have not ever purchased Jane, I can admit to reading through it in the gym a few times while on the bike, treadmill, or elliptical to help pass the time. I apparently missed the offensive stuff (and am not going to claim that I found it all that intellectually stimulating, which is not what I'm looking for in gym reading anyway), but I did catch some pretty interesting interviews and articles occasionally. It sure beat the hell out of most of my other choices (save Marie Claire which I find sometimes has some really good articles as well and Vogue because I actually like the fashion stuff) like Cosmo and Glamour.

*sigh* I really wish they'd bring Sassy back. I think even in my 30's I'd still read Sassy.

Yeah, I'll 'fess up. I liked Jane, it's most appealing aspect being that it was mad cheap. I subscribed (shit - am I going to get my money back for this year?) I will, however, say that I hated myself for liking it. I hated they way they insinuated that it was entirely appropriate and reasonable to expect 20-somethings to pay $70 for a pair of underpants. I hated the more than blatant product placement. I hated their patronizing writers...

But I LOOOOVED it! Oh, forgive me! It was like candy - intellectual empty calories. I think every time it came in my mailbox I'd say to myself "well...at least it's not Cosmo."

I of course preferred Sassy (even though I never once saw any of those "realistic models" in it that everyone seems to remember). In fact, I still have every issue I ever received, and I thank my mom for being cool enough to subscribe to it for me when I was, like, 10. If it came down to re-reading an old issue of Sassy that I'd already read a billion times or a new Jane, I'd pick the former every time.

Seriously though...what the fuck am I going to read now? Bust? At least Jane didn't pretend it was a feminist mag.

Oh, and about Sassy and everyone wanting them to bring it back...

I firmly believe that Sassy was simply a product of it's time. They DID bring it back - in the form of Jane - and I think the reason Jane sucked so much in comparison to Sassy was kind of due to societal and cultural differences between the late 80s/early 90s and late 90s/2000s. I mean, does anyone remember Seventeen from the early 90s (I do because I kept my really old copies and still read 'em)? It's fucking disturbing how different (and much more conservative) the mag is now than it was when I was reading it - and I'm only 23. We're (obviously) currently in a period of crazy out-of-control consumption, celebrity worship, celebration of superficiality, not to mention a return to conservative values, and magazines are reflecting that. The early 90s were fairly progressive (after having seen a period in the 80s similar to what was previously mentioned), and once the pendulum started to swing the other way, pop culture, and therefore magazines, started to piss us off again (more than usual). Let's just hope it swings back, for Christ's sake.

I guess my point is that if they brought back Sassy now, it would probably be terrible. It would probably be Jane. The magic is gone - it was a relic of a different time, may it rest in peace.

Jane has had some seriously shitty moments but also many great highlights. It even began to redeem itself in recent months with its newer format. I understand many of the criticisms but I will also still honestly miss it.

Oh Jane, I had such great hopes for you. When we (CODEPINK) noticed you were running pro-military ads in your magazine with a very specific target of duping young women into believing that the military is a truly viable career choice, we tried to let you know that was a problem. When we called and talked to Brandon Holley, Managing Editor, and she said that there would be no more ads we felt that you got that young women deserve more than a prettily packaged push into a system that devalues and dehumanizes women. The ads appeared a few months later and we told you that we would start a full-blown pressure campaign until you pulled the ads for good. You dismissed our calls, emails and when we tried to come to your office you didn't allow us past the Fort Knox-like security. We only wanted to make you better- we swear. When your Ad-Exec called us and eventually said that the ads would "not appear for the next few months but could not give any guarantees" and were tight-lipped as to why, we felt vaguely victorious. It felt a bit like when Hillary Clinton votes the right way 1 time out of 20. You are kind of satiated for a hot minute. We then pitched the idea of a story on women that were working to end the war, with ample access to young women military resisters but to no avail. I in fact, perused your pages just last week to see if the military ads were there. Nope. So Jane, I'm kind of sad to see you go but not really.

Ok danacodepink - you just officially pushed me to the "I hate Jane" side. Shit sucks.

carolina girl- what exactly is wrong with glamour? They discuss fashion, health, interview celebrities and political figures, they discuss women's issues on a global scale, Marianne Pearl is going around the world and interviewing strong women who make a difference...

Aww, man! Yeah, I know Jane wasn't great, and I certainly took issue with some of their editorial content and cover choices (Paris, Nicole, Mischa Barton.)
It was something I could grab off the newsstands at Stop n Shop, it had some good articles, and it wasn't Cosmo.
No, it certianly wasn't Sassy, either. I was only a young teen when Sassy was in print, but damn, what a great mag.
Did anyone else have a 'zine in high school? Or have one now? I was wondering if the young folks were still doing that.

Well, Rock Star, I stand corrected and will have to take a look at Glamour this afternoon when I hit the gym.

I am not sad at all about this news. After buying Jane occasionally after it came out, I gave up picking it up when I needed something easy for a plane or train journey. For something with pretty pictures and little content, I'll take Lucky, thanks.

Jane was constantly justifying in her editor's letter why they had to put such fluffy celebrities on their cover. It was embarrassing. But what I really disliked was what that Bitch piece eloquently described: Jane haughtily thought of itself as the perfect intersection between pop culture, fashion consumerism, and feminism. But it never seemed to be able to make up its mind what it was about, and so really leaned more towards fashion consumerism. I'd say it had fuck all to do with feminism. This thin rag had more ads and promotions than it did content or beauty and fashion editorials.

And MoodyStarr, yes, I was recently part of a zine collective that put out a zine, and hope to again soon, but the indie pop community emphasizes and promotes the DIY aesthetic greatly.

i personally loved sassy but never got into jane. i like nylon tho, it reminds me of sassy in some ways combined with interview. and i still read bust even if it makes me cringe, alongside reading bitch and venus and up til this past month, punk planet. who just folded. and which is way sadder than jane folding cos punk planet supported women and featured smart interesting political articles. there was a pretty even number of female to male columnists and one of the main editors was female. so yeah, ill cry for the death of punk planet, for jane, i say, ehhh.

I never much liked Jane.

But Sassy... ah, Sassy... I learned how to use a tampon from reading Sassy. It was a lifesaver!

"Women's magazines," like menstruation, consist of the same annoying stuff every month. Most of the "ten things to hate about jane" could have been accurately stated about any of these generic monthly McFashionmag-cum-relationship manuals. But in terms of a pecking order among them, wasn't Jane at least a small notch above, say, Marie Claire?

Glamour magazine in the UK is awful. In the last few months I've seen all kinds of anti-abortion, paris/nichole/misha arse kissing, too-skinny-model awfulness. In fact I would say that UK Glamour is one of the worst magazines in the country, as it clearly likes to think it is different.