June 02, 2008

"Tortured women will never go out of fashion"

Speaking of subculture and moral panic, why is the cleverest thing I have read in the NZ Herald this year hidden away in the Viva supplement, where it can do nothing but be discarded and buried with the rest of the advertorials?
Noelle McCarthy was sadly wasted in that space, although she has a regular column in the Saturday edition. Her analysis of tortured women and their fashionable appeal to a wide audience was spot on and showed that this is neither a new phenomenon ever since Britney Spears lost her battle with weight loss, nor a sole American preserve, what with Amy Winehouse and all:
Like her fellow chanteuses, Lily Allen, MIA and Cat Power, Winehouse was not created _ rather she came on the scene fully formed, with no need for the tweaking, air-brushing or full-on reinvention that accompanies the career trajectory of so many others. Nobody invented Amy Winehouse; how could you?
Why can't Herald editors yank her out of the feminine ghetto and into the opinion pages and put that doddery Garth "Vader" George out to pasture?

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