We sure didn't have something like Shameless back then!
According to the by-line on the cover, Shameless is "for girls who get it". The editorial description calls itself "a progressive magazine for teenage girls". About a hundred years ago, when I was in that target demographic, I had a subscription to "Young Miss" (or, YM if you're nasty!). I recall one YM article that explained that if you were really into Simply Red then your best fashion style was probably a tartan mini-skirt and blazer. In my initial flip through issue 13 of Shameless my eyes fell on a brief article about the "Gulabi Gang" of northern India: female vigilantes dressed in hot pink saris carrying lathis (an Indian self-defense weapon). Banding together by the hundreds, the Gulabi Gang have halted child marriages, intervened in domestic abuse, hijacked trucks carrying stolen crops and rushed corrupt police station. Wow -- now that's making a fashion statement!
Shameless includes all of the standard features you'd expect in a "chick mag": relationship advice column; articles about body image; book, comic, blog and music reviews. There's even a DIY tip on how to cut your own hair. There's also pieces on cool careers, overseas volunteering and an article about the importance of campus radio (yay!). Of course, there are strong feminist overtone throughout all of this -- and in this era of "stupid girls" that's a good thing!
The magazine is all black & white, peppered with hip "indie" style comic art and illustrations lending it a cool underground vibe. No topic seems to be taboo either: lesbians, menstruation, itty-bitty-titties, hip hop, politics, poetry. There's even a brief interview with Toronto performance artist Jess Dobkin on her vagina dentata ("toothed vagina"); a follow-up to her "Lactation Milk Bar" in which she invited people to taste the breast milk from different women.
Obviously, not everything within these pages was my "cup of tea" BUT reading it did teach me a few things I didn't know, it was presented in a cool and appealing style and it held my interest. And considering I'm old enough to be a mother to its target audience that's pretty impressive. (Gah! Did I just say that?) Certainly no patronizing fluff pieces here. Let's say that for the next gen, Shameless is "a very special" magazine.
Oh my goodness! I remember that episode of "Diff'rent Strokes". That really creeped me out as a kid. I remember feeling very uneasy and "dirty" after watching that episode. I was at that very young age where I had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but I still wasn't 100% sure, which made the whole experience even more unsettling. Kind of like that episode of "Little House on the Prairie" where the son got hooked on drugs. The scene of him vomiting traumatized me forever. :)
ReplyDeleteI vividly remember that episode of Diff'rent Strokes becuase I had a friend over for a sleepover that night. I think that warning at the beginning spooked her, so she actually phoned her parents to make sure if was ok to watch! I asked my mom if it was ok to watch & she acted all "WTF?" like she had no idea why I'd even ask if I was allowed to watch Diff'rent Strokes! :) Those "very special episodes" always had a creepy feel to them. Do you remember the episode of "WKRP in Cincinnati" where a photographer snapped pictures of Jennifer in the changing room during a photo shoot? That was another 2-parter, as I recall. They sure loved sinister cliff-hangers back then!
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