The ladies’ (news)room

So I’m doing what I normally do when the inspiration for a column is low and it’s starting to get far too late: scouring Huffington Post and demanding ideas from people around me. Surprisingly enough, it actually worked.

My two methods converged as one of my friends asked me if I looked at the Huffington Post Women’s Voices section often. This is actually a valid question due to how much I love any TLC program about wedding dresses.

Then it hit both of us. That’s precisely why we don’t go there for any kind of valuable news.

Currently, some of the headlines on the page are “6 Ways To Be Realistic About Love,” “Ryan Lochte’s next big project?” and “Why I’ll schlep anywhere to be a wedding guest.”

Not exactly interesting reading.

I don’t know if it’s shocking and I expect more out of the source because of my general love for Huffington Post or if it’s because I saw Arianna Huffington giving massages at the RNC and my fanboy adoration exponentially grew, but the Internet newspaper is normally on par.

All other sections of the website are very conscious of their target audience’s real interets even at the risk of being repetitive. Overall, the source is reliable and always witty. So why does the women’s section suck?

Media “for women” is a conundrum. Somewhere along the line, we got lost and decided that women just like their news whittled down to weddings and new sex studies.

Some sources try to battle this, but does that actually help the issue?
Jezebel, the popular website marketed toward women, often takes a very strong, Miss Independent approach in its topics and general style.

The problem is that it often has to shock and anger to gain readers.

I know I’ve accidentally been roped into reading about vaginal scents because the headline was saucy and the content abrasively sarcastic.

This kind of writing isn’t anything inherently negative, but it’s a pretty cheap trick.
And it gets especially dangerous when these sources are marketing themselves for “real women” because not all “real women” are the sassiest girls in town.

We need more media that can present real and poignant topics for women in a smart fashion.

I’m not saying we need to abolish wedding tips altogether, but I would gladly search harder for those than I would Madeline Albright’s position on women and Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney.

­— sjostrow@indiana.edu