Notes from the Epicenter: Finding Your Inner Cyber-Femme

Andrea Dudrow

The other day as I sat flipping through Bazaar while waiting for my nail polish to dry I began to get the sneaky feeling that the folks at “Bazaar” were telling me I should look more like Gwyneth Paltrow. Of course I actually enjoy eating and I don’t have a personal trainer or a makeup artist, and Georgio Armani is not giving me free clothes, so I figure the chances I will turn into Gwyneth Paltrow are about nil. Which, I reasoned, is fine because I read in “Vanity Fair” that she’s kind of a spoiled whiner anyway.

Help is Out There After All
So what’s a young urban girl to do? If I eschew “Bazaar” and its ilk, where will I find all those great pictures of clothes? Where will I find someone to tell me if grape-seed oil really is right for my skin? How will I find out if the stars have a dynamic month in store for me? Well, I figured, the Web has always had answers for me in the past; why not call on the cyber-gods to help me now?

So I pointed my browser toward what turned out to be a rather exhaustive supply of women-centric e-zines, and it turns out that I can let my subscription to “Bazaar” lapse after all. Because the Web has everything a young woman needs to feel good about herself. It turns out it’s OK to enjoy fashion and not look like Gwyneth Paltrow; it’s OK to enjoy cooking and gardening and not live like Martha Stewart; and it’s OK if I only go running once a week and my hand weights are getting a bit dusty. According to a hefty selection of e-zines I turned up, I can do all of these things and still even call myself a feminist. And here’s how you can do it, too:

Sites for One and All
First of all, check out the mother of all girl-power mags, Bust. This zine, which has an offline component as well (with way cool fashion spreads), combines housework tips (like how to make natural cleaners) and fashion fun (they even show you how to make cool clothes yourself) with pop culture critique from a modern feminist perspective. It even has recipes and erotica thrown in for good measure.

For the truly erudite, there’s Bitch, also with a print version and based right here in everyone’s favorite wired town. The tag line, “Feminist response to pop culture,” says it all. A representative article examines whether Buffy the Vampire Slayer is good or bad for young girls’ self image (the answer: a little of both).

Maxi, also based in San Francisco and a member of the girl-zine umbrella network ChickClick, has issue themes like Power and Obsession (heady stuff). Recent articles include advice on how to find a good bra and how to snap back after a break-up (ice cream figures heavily). Despite the sometimes girly-sounding fare, there are no Gwyneth lovers here; it’s all about feeling good about yourself.

Speaking of, Adios Barbie is the place to go if you’re feeling an all-consuming guilt about that donut you had for breakfast. Highlights include a feed-the-model Shockwave game and articles by men admitting their own body image insecurities (which comes as no surprise to me since my boyfriend spends his time walking around the house asking if he looks chubby).

Geek Girl (tag line: “the world’s first cyberfeminist hyperzine”) is an Australian e-zine with not as much content as one might like but with enough brightly colored background designs to make me wish I were Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. This appeals to the cyberfeminist home decorator in me.

The musician Joan Osborne has backed another e-zine, Heroine (tag line: “for women of substance”). This one tackles such all-important fare as whether one should love or hate Hillary Rodham Clinton. My favorite recent article is an expose on Georgia laws covering pubic hair on strippers (even more fascinating than it sounds — really).

Another one of my favorites is Fabula (also a part of ChickClick) which makes sure its readers know that “this ain’t your mama’s feminism.” Issue-driven articles such as an examination of genetically modified foods share space with essays on such topics as girl power gone bad (also the subject of a recent “New York Times” feature making it oh-so current).

Cyber-Vogueing From Now On
So next weekend I’ve made plans to burn all of my back issues of “Vogue” and “Bazaar,” and I’m going to try to purge myself of all of those “Cosmo” does-he-really-love-you quizzes I’ve been filling out since teenagehood. Because from now on I’m getting my fashion and beauty news with healthy doses of feminism and reality — right here on the Web.