Meet the women behind Reductress, the feminist Onion

[ismnotwasm]

Founders Sarah Pappalardo and Beth Newell, both improv and sketch comedians, saw the space for Reductress because they’re religious consumers of women’s online media; Reductress, designed to look like any other “women’s” publication, is a clear play on magazines like Cosmopolitan and Shape and feminist websites like Jezebel and xoJane (disclosure: I've written for them).

Reductress is not only biting, “goes-there” hilarious, it’s a fantastic, sad, and much-needed look at the way the media talks down to women, convincing us we need products we don’t and playing on our every insecurity. (Need a boyfriend? Too fat? Not giving your fetus the jumpstart it needs to attend Harvard?)

My favorite headlines? Having witnessed a “Women in TV Writing” panel in which the host, a journalist for Entertainment Weekly, kept asking the women about their bangs rather than their very successful careers, I’d have to say the “Creator of ‘Rape in America’ Documentary Talks About Hair Care” headline is depressingly spot-on. How about “A Homemaker’s Guide to Maybe Thinking About Wanting to Have Sex?” Or “White Woman Speaks: I’m So Exhausted From Saving the Day All the Time.” Or “‘How to Not Get Raped’ Class a Big Hit in Indiana Town,” which includes this gem:

Instructor Michael Kearns, 54, says, “We tell these girls about the dangers of mixed signals. If you’re dating a bunch of jerks but then you won’t put out for a nice guy, the injustice of your behavior might drive the nice guy to desperate measures.

It also takes down the annoying habit companies have of slapping “For Her” on a product and calling it new. Remember Bic’s ill-fated “pens for women” campaign that was destroyed by witty feminist Amazon reviewers? Reductress introduces us to “Bologna for Her.” In satirizing the way we blame Taylor Swift for everything, the site accuses the pop star of destroying the space-time continuum and of breaking up the Beatles.

http://www.dailydot.com/lol/reductress-feminist-satire-news-interview/

[redqueen]

1. Brilliant.

Thank you so much for posting this!

Ok so, its a little less impressive than this writer made it sound IMO. Still a good idea though.

[Heidi]

2. Kick!