...is to stop referring to grown women as "girls."

They editorial content is dictated by advertisers, who are selling the very opposite of confidence. A smart, professional woman sees looks as one of the weapons in her arsenal to deal effectively with the world - not the only weapon and not the most important weapon. And those magazines are focued on looks to the exclusion of all else. Oprah's magazine is perhaps the one exception.

but who can rival Bitch? For anyone who values critical thinking in relation to gender, race, and pop culture, it's THE magazine. The minute it comes in the mail I stop what I'm doing and read the whole thing, then wait on pins and needles for the next issue.

A self-professed "girl's magazine" finally published one piece critical of a celebrity--a "celebrity" on the last rung on her way down, and suddenly their publicists snow everyone over (including the ever-gullible Broadsheet writers) with press releases about how now they're some pro-feminist force to be reckoned with.

Please.

Oh, and by the way, now that we're all shocked and amazed at Ashlee Simpson not being a paragon of virtue, not practicing what she preaches (OMG!) what will stop the presses next? A Republican who preaches against (insert vice here) but actively and secretly practices (insert same vice here)?!?!

When Marie Claire's staff turns away from celebrities perhaps they'll notice a few things they could begin to educate their readership about if they ever wish to be anything more than one step up from Teen Beat. They could start with the hose job we're getting from the current occupant at the White House.

all you had to do was look at everyone else in her family to see the low 6 figure investment in surgery though.

Maggie Gyllenhaal? What are you talking about? The popularity of the Gyllenhaal kids proves that America now loves the Average Joe and Jen (e.g., someone who looks like Jennifer Aniston being wildly popular). How can you delude yourself that Maggie even approaches gorgeousness? This is almost as bad as the reference to the actress who plays Chloe on "24" as a hottie that appeared in some magazine a few months ago. Please. Maybe she's popular, but popularity does not bestow gorgeousness.

I used to subscribe to "Jane" and it was a great sassy (insider's joke, for those who get it) mag for thinking women. But then they were bought and recently it's changed to a shallow make-up obsessed magazine, so I let my subscription lapse.

It would be nice to have a young women's magazine that's not superficial again.

To paraphrase Charles Foster Kane "If the girl is smart enough, it makes the cover smart enough!".

Oh, and I have always thought that Maggie Gyllenhaal was gorgeous - not sure who the writer above has been looking at. Traditionally "celeb-boring-pretty" no, but average!?!? Never average.

I've always liked Marie Claire, but when I picked up the August issue (the first with the new ed), I noticed a change for the worse immediately. Here's one of the heads:

Perfect Jeans: They'll Make Your Ass Look Awesome!

Need I say more? Not a good sign.

In addition, they had a nice piece on the children who have become "night commuters" in Uganda, but had no information for readers who might like to help by donating money or time. What an opportunity for good wasted.

This is weird--I just read the very issue of MC in question yesterday at the gym. MC is one of the only 'women's' magazines I can tolerate, usually, as they always go out of their way to include pertinent, serious articles and essays about issues effecting women's lives (stuff like violence and poverty as opposed to cellulite and fat upper arms). But! The piece about Ashlee Simpson was absolute dreck--a cheesy, fluffy, lighter-than-air rah-rah-girl-power piece documenting a staged incident where Ashlee and a bunch of inner city high school girls paint a wall with brainless pro-woman platitudes and end up flicking the paint at each other and giggling their heads off. Then a few quotes thrown in by Ashlee about what a tomboy she's always been, how Jessica always had the bigger boobs and that never bothered Ashlee at all, 'cause she thinks her own smaller boobs are just great (no mention of the nose though), and so on and so forth. What the fuck, I thought, is going on at Marie Claire? The whole piece was so wildly insincere I wouldn't have been surprised if the next day Ashlee decided to go the Cher route, ribs removed, the whole bit.

to Sandra M and anyone else on earth who thinks the magazine edit content is dictated by advertisers: you are WRONG. I certainly can't speak for every title, but I have spent a great deal of time in my magazine career keeping edit and any possibly-related advertising as far away from each other as possible. Edit is planned and executed months in advance and ads close at the last minute--it simply does not work that way you suggest. I work (and have worked) with talented editors of tremendous integrity who aren't in anyone's pocket. I'm sorry if you don't care for a certain kind of publication, but the idea that we're all a bunch of shills is very insulting.

Poor Ashley has no defenders in Broadsheet readers! Though I’ve never been a fan of hers—-or of what cosmetic surgery represents in our culture—-I can’t help but doubt the sincerity of anyone making an issue out of this. Or applauding MC readers for doing the same.

For one, the whole pleasure of celeb articles is so we can criticize them! Remember Jen vs. Angie?

And, two, it’s no secret that performers drastically alter their bodies, whether through surgery or fad diets (not to mention personality makeovers) to sell themselves into the proper marketing bracket. NOT that that’s an excuse, but, my point is, the only thing Ashley did differently from all our celeb BFFs was to become famous, but not popular. (Not to those who fall into the over-the-counter Plan B age-group, anyway.) Had Ashley not been the lip-syncing younger sister of Jessica Einstein-Simpson, I can’t believe ner nose would be much of a story. After all, Cher is practically a feminist icon in some circles. And, Jane Fonda actually IS.