When it comes to putting a career in women’s magazines into perspective, Madonna says it best when she says, “I know that buying shoes will not bring me happiness, but that doesn’t mean that I’ve stopped buying them.” While Madge has enjoyed countless incarnations, none of them have involved editing a magazine (yet). But her sentiment resonates with me. After 10 years in women’s magazines – four of those spent editing Elle – I too know that shoe shopping is not the key to happiness, yet I own a fair amount of gorgeous shoes. And I’m thrilled with this outcome.
What I’m less thrilled about is how a love for things like shoes (or lipstick) is still equated with a low intellect, particularly if the said fetishes coincide with a career in women’s magazines.
I’ve long wished that some clever designer would create a push-up bra for the intellect. I would don mine immediately (along with my sleekest pair of black leather, knee-high stiletto boots and my Chanel-red lipstick) and take Tim Modise and Jenny Cryws Williams to lunch. Perhaps with such an obvious contraption showing off my brain, they would be able drop their preconceived ideas about the women who work on women’s magazines. Aren’t you just tired of hearing the same old thing about this segment and its editors, whether on Tim’s weekly editors’ forum on 702/Cape Talk, or in the kind of speech Jenny made as MC at the recent Mondi Magazine Awards? I don’t mean to single out Tim or Jenny, but listening to both of them recently made me wonder why they refuse to look at women’s magazines from the same fresh perspective that they apply to everything else. It’s like a blind spot, and the result is that some of the most intelligent women I know are too frequently cast aside as frivolous. “Well,” I hear you say, “with sitcoms like Just Shoot Me and films like How to lose a guy in 10 days as society’s reference points for life on a magazine, how are we supposed to see anything but a bunched of book club babes with over-plucked eyebrows?” Sorry, I don’t buy that. Were that the case, Ally McBeal would’ve put the entire legal profession into disrepute.
Now call me biased, if you will, but I’ve enjoyed a decade of working under or alongside many of the women currently editing women’s magazines. On Cosmopolitan, I was hired and edited by Jane Raphaely, managed by Ann Donald and Suzy Brokensha. Later, I was inherited by Vanessa Raphaely and managed by Heather Parker, subbed by Kerryn du Preez and seated in the office next to Jacqui Myburgh (the then Femina bureau chief). Now, back at Associated Magazines, I work with Clare O Donaghue, Kate Wilson, Kgomotso Matsunyane and, of course, Jane, Vanessa and Suzy.
I know the vast amount of knowledge and wisdom that I’ve gained and continue to gain from each of these women and, yes, in most cases the content they choose to run. And it offends me to hear them tarred with that old blush brush at every opportunity. It goes without saying that I take personal offence too.
Thing is, South Africa’s women’s magazine editors are brand strategists, marketers, managers, accountants, trend forecasters, psychologists and public speakers rolled into one (admittedly) well-dressed package. In short, it’s a lot like running a small business. Of course, the above functions merely happen alongside the core functions: writing like demons, rewriting loose copy into tightly coiled text, directing the visual side of the publication, and dreaming up hundreds of feature ideas and financially savvy advertising and promotional opportunities. I’m sure even Jenny will agree that one needs a little more than a steady lipstick hand to pull this position off.
Nadine Rubin is group editorial consultant at Associated Magazines.