Rosie, the Magazine
Thu., September 19, 11:02 AM
Rosie O’Donnell has announced that she is leaving her magazine, the first women’s magazine that’s interested me in twenty years. It will probably cease publication with the December issue. I don’t know if I’m more disappointed or angry.
I know about ladies magazines, for I read them almost as soon as I could read – which was pretty darned young. I read Ladies Home Journal, Woman’s Home Companion, and McCalls, as well as Women’s Day and Family Circle. By the time I had reached my teens, I was tired of them. These magazines repeat and repeat, since their readership is constantly changing, and I had already heard most of this stuff. Once I had a library card, I could find better material.
Move forward twenty years. As a young mother, I needed something in the house that babies could tear with impunity – and leave my books alone. This time, it was Good Housekeeping and Redbook. They were better than the earlier ones, but they held my interest only a couple of years. There is a limit to how much home economics you can absorb. But they did have pretty good short stories.
Warily (it was McCalls?) I bought my first issue of Rosie because I liked the show. I subscribed before the next issue came out. This was good. I couldn’t eat the recipes, I could care less about the fashions, and the crafts were not my style. But the articles were wonderful. Breast cancer, depression, super kids. They found people you really enjoyed reading about. They supported causes that needed support. And they wrote about alternate families. That, I fear, is where the dispute begins.
Rosie O’Donnell is a woman who does not back down because of threats about money. (She doesn’t suffer bullies.) And some jackass at the publisher thinks that, if she champions homosexuals – let alone lives as one – the magazine might make a few dollars less. Rose has the courage to say, “fine, I’ll take away my name, I’ll make less money,” and – ha ha – they won’t make any money on it.
If you read this magazine, let ’em know what you think. Here’s their address:
By the way, I’m going to try to forward this to the magazine. I happen to be the mother of three and married (to a male!) for over thirty years. Nevertheless, despite the attitude of some demographer, that doesn’t affect whether or not I will read Rosie’s opinions or agree with her beliefs. Don’t you people learn anything?
