Yahoo launches site focused on women
I hate stuff like this. See, to the best of my knowledge I am in fact a woman, and yet it’s a sure bet that anything targeted to women is going to have zero appeal for me and many of my female friends. Case in point, Yahoo is going to launch “Shine”, “a site for women between ages 25 and 54.” After admitting that this is all about targeting advertising to this group, Yahoo pretends they have a nobler mission..
“These women were sort of caretakers for everybody in their lives,” she said. “They didn’t feel like there was a place that was looking at the whole them — as a parent, as a spouse, as a daughter. They were looking for one place that gave them everything.”
Everything? So this site is going to have world news? In-depth political analysis? Science and technology? Well, not exactly:
With Shine, Yahoo plans to expand its offerings in parenting, sex and love, healthy living, food, career and money, entertainment, fashion, beauty, home life, and astrology.
Sigh. So in other words, the usual lineup for anything prefaced by the word “Women’s”. Now, I have nothing against many of these things in isolation, but why is it that “Women’s” issues/magazines/websites/etc always focus exclusively on these and only these topics? Sadly, I think the answer has nothing to do with the oppression of the patriarchy or whatnot, but rather has to do with the fact that on the average, this is what most women are interested in. Women probably still do most of the grocery shopping, and if they tended to buy the Economist or Atlantic Monthly or even something like Wired as impulse buys, then those magazines would be next to the checkout instead of Cosmo, Good Housekeeping, and People. But they aren’t.
Thing is, I spent last Saturday evening hanging out with five people I’m reasonably certain are women, and I don’t think we talked about any of the above topics. I don’t remember everything we discussed, but I know politics was huge, and other topics included mice, blogging, batshit insane neighbors, and how to immobilize an ostrich. I ask you, when will Yahoo make a website for women like us??
