The cover of the summer issue of Port magazine sparked controversy. It featured six white men in suits, and they weren’t a boy band or a sports team.

The British quarterly deemed these men “the editors running the best magazines in the world.” Apparently, these six guys are solely responsible for bringing us “a new golden age of print media” — though it looks quite similar to the last one.

It doesn’t seem right that these editors are the only people to thank for our world of websites, applications and multimedia journalism.

While Port magazine, a men’s niche publication, is certainly not our most trusted authority on all things in the world, the cover serves as yet another portrayal of men controlling yet another field.

Women, even at the highest levels of magazine publishing, are disregarded.

Port’s editor, Dan Crowe, said women are not the people editing truly excellent magazines, according to an article by The New Republic.

There are, however, plenty of women in the magazine industry.

In fact, some women are editors of general-interest magazines similar to those of editors on the cover of Port. There’s Katrina vanden Heuvel at The Nation, Ellen Rosenbush at Harper’s Magazine, and Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery at Mother Jones.

Crowe and Port are focusing their attack on women’s magazines, which are primarily edited by women.

Women’s magazines seem to be getting snubbed every which way.

At the American Society of Magazine Editors Awards last year — like the Oscars for journalists — there weren’t any women finalists in a major category. This year, men won in almost every category except service and lifestyle — categories in which women gain the majority of the awards.

Jessica Grose of The New Republic called out this attack, and posed the question of whether women’s magazines can produce “serious journalism,” or long-form pieces.

The answer is yes, they can.

The editor of Elle, Robbie Myers, addressed this issue in a piece adapted from her August 2013 letter from the editor.

Besides pointing out that “men have always confused length with quality,” she encouraged readers to celebrate women’s ambitious magazine writing and share their favorite long-form pieces on Twitter, via the hashtag #WomenAtLength.

Accomplished journalist Amy Wallace also started the hashtag #WomenEdsWeLove to bring recognition to great female editors. The viral response only further proved that women are fully capable of tackling hard-hitting topics, which some blindly assume can only be conquered by men.

For example, July’s Marie Claire showcased seven brave women who survived mass shootings, such as those in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., and how they’re taking action to prevent violence like this in the future.

The July issue of Glamour recognized a generation of fearless women who are leading the fight against rape and sexual violence.

Joanna Coles, the editor of Cosmopolitan, announced two weeks ago that the magazine is going to add more political content to its usual coverage. While the magazine is already popular for its sex and relationship expertise, Coles plans to use Cosmo’s platform as one of the most widely read magazines in the world to inform young women on issues that affect them — health care, gun violence and closing the wage gap, to name a few.

It’s nothing new that men are outwardly dominating an industry that women work equally as hard in — something Port editors like Crowe could have picked up on if they read any of the women’s magazines that discussed pay inequality in April.

These praised magazine editors owe their success just as much to the women working with them. GQ, Vanity Fair and New York magazines, among others included in Port, are depicted as primarily male-dominated — but they certainly have women on their staffs and as writers.

It’s time to stop ignoring what women are capable of. We are indeed writing about issues other than shoes and makeup.

Many of my female peers at Syracuse University and I are pursuing magazine journalism and picture ourselves one day becoming renowned editors at major magazines. It’s sad to think that, in this day and age, being female can possibly stand in the way of our career goals.

Sure, the six men on the cover may be great editors, but they’re not the only great editors. Female editors deserve to be recognized — not kicked to the curb.

 Laura Cohen is a Magazine Journalism and Women’s and Gender Studies major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected]. 

 

Published on July 4, 2013 at 10:24 pm