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"She has a ... sleek tomboy aesthetic: dark-wash jeans, clean-line crewnecks, and Chuck Taylors, with the occasional bomber jacket thrown on top." "“It’s slimm

"She has a ... sleek tomboy aesthetic: dark-wash jeans, clean-line crewnecks, and Chuck Taylors, with the occasional bomber jacket thrown on top." "“It’s slimming,” she says, shrugging, not that she needs to worry about that." Why the fuck does this damn article undermine itself by talking about what kind of clothes she wears and her shape? Completely irrelevant.

PakG1 12y ago
Dude. It's an article published by Elle. What do you want? :) You are not their target audience. Women who love fashion and other trends are. There is nothing wrong with caring about what she wears in that context (i.e. audience that cares about fashion).
vdaniuk 12y ago
Because Elle is a fashion magazine and readers are interested in these details. Is it so hard to empathize?
onion2k 12y ago
It's Elle Magazine, not Wired. Clothes, style and aesthetics is what their readers are interested in and what their advertisers make money from. Relevance requires context, and in the context of a fashion magazine it is relevant. The same line in Wired would be irrelevant. The world is a subtle and nuanced place.
- vacri 12y ago
  I'm not so sure. The slimming line, probably, but the painting of the physical picture of the person, in a biographical article? It's pretty common for a bio. Wired probably wouldn't use 'tomboy', but I'd expect they'd play up the 'hacker'-esque appearance a little. It's not the main point of the article, just setting the scene.
parennoob 12y ago
In addition to the other arguments (Elle is a fashion magazine, focused on style and suchlike) -- why is it so undermining to talk about how people look? As someone who sees a lot of overweight, sloppily dressed people (occasionally with poor personal hygiene) in our industry, I find it good to know that someone is well-dressed and of normal weight. I find it a positive characteristic, indicative of discipline and attention to detail. I have seen articles about Jack Dorsey and Steve Jobs that paid attention to their personal style, and I often like those parts of the articles. Unless the article is purely technical in nature ("Tate's parametrisation of p-adic Curves" or suchlike), could you explain why is it so important to you that that this information be deemed "undermining", and be suppressed?
- fallinghawks 12y ago
  Just for the record, I'm a female programmer, and I don't think I've ever read Elle. I think I was in my teens the last time I read something in a fashion magazine. I had assumed, perhaps mistakenly, that an important subtext of the article is to show the success of a woman in a technical field, and that a woman can achieve a leadership role at a leading technology company, in a role that is all about intellect -- not sales or customer-facing stuff where appearance matters. I found the mentions of looks and clothes to be at odds with this. Now I'm curious to know how men's fashion magazines treat similar subjects....

PakG1 12y ago

Dude. It's an article published by Elle. What do you want? :) You are not their target audience. Women who love fashion and other trends are. There is nothing wrong with caring about what she wears in that context (i.e. audience that cares about fashion).

vdaniuk 12y ago

Because Elle is a fashion magazine and readers are interested in these details. Is it so hard to empathize?

onion2k 12y ago

It's Elle Magazine, not Wired. Clothes, style and aesthetics is what their readers are interested in and what their advertisers make money from. Relevance requires context, and in the context of a fashion magazine it is relevant. The same line in Wired would be irrelevant. The world is a subtle and nuanced place.

vacri 12y ago
I'm not so sure. The slimming line, probably, but the painting of the physical picture of the person, in a biographical article? It's pretty common for a bio. Wired probably wouldn't use 'tomboy', but I'd expect they'd play up the 'hacker'-esque appearance a little. It's not the main point of the article, just setting the scene.

parennoob 12y ago

In addition to the other arguments (Elle is a fashion magazine, focused on style and suchlike) -- why is it so undermining to talk about how people look? As someone who sees a lot of overweight, sloppily dressed people (occasionally with poor personal hygiene) in our industry, I find it good to know that someone is well-dressed and of normal weight. I find it a positive characteristic, indicative of discipline and attention to detail. I have seen articles about Jack Dorsey and Steve Jobs that paid attention to their personal style, and I often like those parts of the articles. Unless the article is purely technical in nature ("Tate's parametrisation of p-adic Curves" or suchlike), could you explain why is it so important to you that that this information be deemed "undermining", and be suppressed?

fallinghawks 12y ago
Just for the record, I'm a female programmer, and I don't think I've ever read Elle. I think I was in my teens the last time I read something in a fashion magazine. I had assumed, perhaps mistakenly, that an important subtext of the article is to show the success of a woman in a technical field, and that a woman can achieve a leadership role at a leading technology company, in a role that is all about intellect -- not sales or customer-facing stuff where appearance matters. I found the mentions of looks and clothes to be at odds with this. Now I'm curious to know how men's fashion magazines treat similar subjects....