One Vice I Can Do Without
If you haven't had a chance to flip through Vice Magazine, consider yourself lucky. This beautiful looking, glossy booklet of crap is available at hipster stores across the city, for free. The magazine presents itself as a hip testiment to risque journalism, an image driven, in-your-face (tits and ass) documentation of pop culture. And it even attempts to display a "concious" side, as seen in recent articles on the struggles of poor, Filipino families living in cemetery shanty towns (see Living Dead: Manila North Cemetery Houses More Warm Bodies Than Cold) and young, sex-workers in Syria (see I Went Undercover in the World of Syrian Whorehouses).
The magazine is anything but conscious. In fact, it's drenched in racist misogyny. Most of the written pieces and images are purely there for the sake of sensationalism (as seen in the piece on the sexual exploitation of young Arab girls, where the "journalist" is going on a joyride through Syrian brothels). A lack of any sort of analysis (not to mention, journalistic and artistic integrity) moves the sensationalism of these written and visual pieces from the realm of ignorant, irresponsible and oppressive to that of pure violence.
"Is is wrong to want to rape Kimberly Kane?" (quote from Triple Ecstasy, a review of a porn film, where writer mistakes misogyny for humour, or perhaps sees them as one and the same).
Pseudo Journalism. Bad politics. Shitty writing.
And a highly supported magazine with big money.
That's just messed up.
If you haven't had a chance to flip through Vice Magazine, consider yourself lucky. This beautiful looking, glossy booklet of crap is available at hipster stores across the city, for free. The magazine presents itself as a hip testiment to risque journalism, an image driven, in-your-face (tits and ass) documentation of pop culture. And it even attempts to display a "concious" side, as seen in recent articles on the struggles of poor, Filipino families living in cemetery shanty towns (see Living Dead: Manila North Cemetery Houses More Warm Bodies Than Cold) and young, sex-workers in Syria (see I Went Undercover in the World of Syrian Whorehouses).
The magazine is anything but conscious. In fact, it's drenched in racist misogyny. Most of the written pieces and images are purely there for the sake of sensationalism (as seen in the piece on the sexual exploitation of young Arab girls, where the "journalist" is going on a joyride through Syrian brothels). A lack of any sort of analysis (not to mention, journalistic and artistic integrity) moves the sensationalism of these written and visual pieces from the realm of ignorant, irresponsible and oppressive to that of pure violence.
"Is is wrong to want to rape Kimberly Kane?" (quote from Triple Ecstasy, a review of a porn film, where writer mistakes misogyny for humour, or perhaps sees them as one and the same).
Pseudo Journalism. Bad politics. Shitty writing.
And a highly supported magazine with big money.
That's just messed up.
posted by pomegranate queen at 11/24/2007
5 Comments:
THANK YOU! i hate vice magazine too.
hey nadia thanks for stopping by my blog page and leaving a comment. i've hated this magazine for a long while but haven't ever expressed it in a public forum and in writing. just felt like it was time to do that.
Hi PQ,
We have free newspapers here like that too. Although they do try to hide their racism and misogyny. That is until you turn to the back pages and see the ads for 'escorts' and other services.
Big companies eat it up though, their pages are full of advertisements from so-called maintream companies.
ahh those ads. damn those ads. i'm thinking of one in particular...american apparel. those ads are messed up. just messed up. and of course, vice eats up the american apparel ads.
VICE is very very aware of what they're doing, like that's the point. i know way too many dudes with that sense of humour. it's like when you were twelve and just discovered swearwords and would say them all the time to get a reaction. it's not even worth mentioning, the attention is what they want.
Post a Comment
<< Home