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New Magazine launches:
Sex drops out of the Top Ten

"Maybe it's because of the Internet" Myrna Blyth's articles on women's culture at NRO are often interesting. Today's is about new magazine launches in the year just past, 2004. Blyth is a former magazine editor and today she talks over new magazine launches with Samir Husni, an expert in the subject. What Samir has to say is encouraging:
Samir thinks the magazines that will succeed today appeal not to the buzz-based, let's-do-lunch-at-Michael's media elite but to the genuine interests of red-state readers. Another launch he likes is a teenage magazine called Justine, published in Memphis, Tenn. "It has beauty and fashion and relationship features but it is wholesome. My daughter reads it." And what do you think was the category with the most launches in 2004? "Crafts!" Samir reports. "Everybody in America is making something for their home." And which category had far less launches than in the past? "Sex. Maybe because of the Internet. But for the first time it wasn't even in the top ten."
It little things like this, I see hope for the future. We could all use less Cosmo in our lives and in the lives of the young women we care about. A full blown Return to Modesty would be grand, but that's still a ways off. I can vouch for the craft thing. Rebecca is crocheting (not knitting! I've been warned) and through her and her friends I've seen a real wave of interest in traditional women's craft. They seem to be doing it, not because they have to, but because there seems to be a resurgence of interest in what mothers used to do; it's curiosity and it's pride. I think this trend is quite cool. It's been a while since I've been able to say that.

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