From "How to Bitchface" in "Rookie," the online magazine built on the persona of Tavi Gavinson, who started a fashion blog when she was 11 and is now 16 and profiled in this long NYT Magazine article.
In reaching out to young girls like herself, Ms. Gevinson seems to be positioning Rookie as a kind of antidote to what they are reading elsewhere.... [S]he criticized one of her competitors, Seventeen magazine: “I feel like if I followed their articles about boys and truly believed it was as important to do certain things or avoid certain things as they say, I would probably go crazy. Sometimes their ‘embarrassing’ stories are literally about boys finding out that you have your period.”
Indeed, it’s possible to see Rookie as a rejoinder to a teenage culture overrun by synthetic pop confections like Justin Bieber and “Twilight.” In her (decreasingly) eccentric attire and deadpan prose, Ms. Gevinson has carved out a distinct countercultural voice, the kind that existed in full force during the bygone decades she celebrates.
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15 comments:
Evidently she hasn't written about liberals.
My son experimented, briefly, with a variation on one of these looks. My response, which was effective, was also indifference: to various requests made for anything apart from the survival basics. Requests for rides. Requests for electronics time. Requests for the code to download a game. Requests for a sleepover. Requests for/to...well, you get the picture. He's young yet, so this might not work the next time.
But so far, it's worked like a charm!
Don't ever be tempted to outgrow that business, kiddo. That kind of sweetness and charm--not to mention that nice clean language of yours--will take you far in life!
Someday she could be Queen of England.
The only difference between this one and every other one is awareness. The faces come naturally. It's not an art, it's just being that age. It's the awareness that makes it, somewhat, funny. I think it mentions that the sharpness is fading. Well, yeah, it does that as they get older.
She bitchfaces the world to hide her scaredface...or her lostface...or her whatdoIdoI don'tknowwhattodopleasesomeonepleasetellmewhattodoface...or, worst of all, her childwonderface.
Which are all perfectly normal faces at that very green stage of life. Normal faces, not the grotesque coverup of a bitch face.
Better than childwonderface would have been innocentface. Why hide the most wonderful thing about that stage of life, innocence and wonder, under a knowing bitchface?
Some of what she says is very sensible, but I see the possibility of a slide back into Gloria Steinbrenner feminism, which isn't.
But, yeah, I can see her point about Seventeen.
OMG that is hilarious. Thank you for this very very funny link. That girl is a gem. Smize. Props. She's wonderful.
Ugh. Do you know how hard it is to provide medical care to a teenager doing this routine? You would be surprised how often they pull the stunt in a doctor's office. I know that sometimes they are just afraid, and sometimes they are there against their will, but you really do need a basic level of meaningful communication to do a decent basic job of medical care.
Someone thinks they're too cool for school.
We will hear much more from this intriguing young lady in years to come. I hope she grows into the next Dorothy Parker and not the next Janeane Garofalo.
Every one of those faces turns me on. She better watch out for unintended results with her shtick.
It seems like this young lady has put a lot of thought into these "bitchfaces" and yet my daughter does all the same faces as if she was born knowing how.
I seem to remember someone trying to make me care about this child (or someone sounding a hell of a lot like her) about this time last year.
Nope, still don't give a damn.
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