Katherine Rosman of the New York Times writes about the reaction to the latest issue of Wired magazine, which includes a list of the women who helped put out the magazine even though no women wrote any of the feature articles.
Rosman writes, “In a brief phone interview, Nicholas Thompson, the editor of Wired, described the Colophon column as a group enterprise among staff members.
“‘This is a group of liner notes by the staff,’ he said.
“‘Wonder Women Who Helped Get This Issue Out’ was written as a list. In addition to those mentioned above, it included: ‘my acupuncturist’; ‘senior editor Lauren Murrow’; ‘Thelma and Louise’; the actress Constance Wu; ‘Coconut the dog’; ‘the superheroic all-female Wired photo department’; and ‘the moms working at Saigon Sandwich.’
“Had the interpretation been different from the one Mr. Thompson expected when he signed off on the page? ‘Yes. Completely,’ he wrote in an email.
“As the online hubbub crescendoed, Mr. Thompson tweeted a statement from the Wired executive editor, Maria Streshinsky, that made reference to the recent release of the movie ‘Wonder Woman’ and said, in part, ‘It seemed like a good time to honor our ‘wonder women’ who get the magazine out, and that simply isn’t support staff.’
“Driving the reaction, presumably, is the subject of female representation that has vexed every facet of the technology industry, including the publications that cover it.”
Read more here.
