Lucky
Nelson, Ashley
KIM FRANCE wouldn't blush over her new magazine, Lucky, even if pink cheeks would flatter the posh outfits she adores wearing. As editor-in-chief of the latest craze to hit women's...
...very like Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot" skirt—even if she could lay down the $245...
...Shopping," she mentions yet again, "is all about realizing your fantasies...
...Excessive spending is hardly something to feel ashamed about...
...In order to master this sport, you need only be impulsive, thoughtless, obsessive—oh, and female, but that, the editors suggest, goes without saying...
...As editor-in-chief of the latest craze to hit women's magazines—a publication devoted solely to shopping--she proudly asserts that it is not merely another fashion magazine encouraging unrealistic desires, but a tool that can help young, upscale women realize their fantasies...
...It seems a rather weakened form of political activity...
...Of course, no one will be the next sex symbol just by wearing a "woohoo...
...Shopper" treats one "patient" who cannot find any occasion worthy of displaying her new $350 Christian Louboutin sandals...
...That France had the audacity to make such a dimwitted, shameless statement amazes me each time I slog through this line...
...Despite having an array of posh personalities to choose from, for most women these are unrealizable fantasies...
...There are no outfits for work featured here...
...I feel kinda bad...
...Countless captions refer to the "stuff we can't live without" and the fashions we'd "kill for...
...In small ways, yes...
...We made such a mess...
...Nevertheless, if women are to combat the denigrating portrait Lucky draws of them and prove they do have agency and ability, the first thing they should do is thoughtfully bypass both the magazine and its message...
...Mark it...
...Their fantasies have rights...
...WOMEN, apolitical, unconcerned, and unable, are best served by forgoing the difficult stuff and settling for the consolation that any flippant purchase can provide...
...Women—supposedly independent ones— are encouraged to buy their way into identity, the more identities the better...
...That's because shopping, women's "abiding passion," is, according to France, "all about realizing your fantasies...
...The goal is to "lose it," and to have no regrets...
...Desires have the run of reason...
...Rather, it is good for your health, and necessary for your confidence...
...The question is why is the unimportant, the "non-hard," defined as girly...
...In other words, despite her efforts outside Lucky to argue that women who shop without thinking can still lead challenging and involved lives, the implication in the magazine is that, when given a choice between living a life defined by meaning or materials, women will (and should) opt for the second, more expensive option...
...or better, you are who you are when you are buying...
...Three popular choices are "the blondest, prettiest A-list girl," the "urban-warrior princess type," and the "floral, chintzy, country bumpkin chic...
...For when you come to that critical point in the game, when you must think, "To buy or not to buy," or rather, "To spend or to splurge," you can always hear the writers, like cheerleaders at a sporting event, chanting, "Splurge...
...one that is based not on activism, but on passivity—on what you won't say, won't do, won't buy...
...But there is something markedly different about Lucky, something that makes one think, "Only now...
...It even comes with a page of stickers labeled "Yes" so that you can keep track of the items France says "you absolutely must have and just might die without...
...In some deep, unconscious pocket of your soul," she tells the reader, "you feel that DISSENT / Fall 2000 n 103 MAGAZINES your sandals are looking down on you...
...There is no analyzing the approach on the brutal seventeenth hole at Pebble Beach...
...Here "intellectual" space is constructed by the choice between buying a sophisticated metal stapler or a hip purple one...
...But Lucky reminds us that today, for better or worse, you are what you buy...
...It's the same way that you might look at a golf magazine and see a spread of nine irons...
...If it feels good, you can send the ball flying into the water hazard and still be a 102 n DISSENT / Fall 2000 winner...
...But then again, if she's been buying Lucky's message and has the credit, she might...
...Only now in the way post-recession days of one-click shopping and irrational exuberance could we have a magazine that does not conceal its abiding lust for material pleasures over all things, even, it seems, world peace...
...That women are hardwired to buy things— often anything—here precludes them from making reasonable decisions or from even thinking at all...
...They are protected by laws that exempt women from bearing any guilt for misfortunes caused by them...
...My thought was," the Web shopper explains, "buy a classic...
...There is only one very vague reference to work in the first issue, a page of "groovy accessories [that] will make your desk look totally top-drawer...
...What is disturbing here is the ruthless way in which women are targeted as unreasonable creatures: impractical, primal beings whose desires are constantly in flux...
...Think Crate and Barrel with a groove," one writer suggests when describing a home goods store in London...
...Whatever the cost, the fix that comes of the department store hunt and kill must be had...
...There's nothing new about Lucky's associating females and shopping...
...Instead they present them as even more necessary than genuine needs...
...With it, she completely dismantles her already weak argument that shopping represents only one interest in women's lives, by openly admitting that "on days that are like most days in my life so far," she hasn't really done much else...
...Simple, shameless and, France would add, harmless...
...Often the magazine simply offers up a few carefully selected types of girls to be...
...But there is no mention of any "hard thoughts" or "hard jobs" in Lucky...
...But it also makes no pretense about promoting perhaps the only hobby that requires its participants to have an almost mindless and certainly careless attitude...
...The writer of one article on Web shopping whimpers, "I am trying to remain calm...
...These are not choices determined by one's sense of style, but by the size of one's wallet (or bravado in emptying it...
...The difference is, of course, that you buy golf clubs to improve your game, but you shop, according to France, simply for the "very real pleasure" of shopping...
...Perhaps this attitude is best captured in France's "Letter from the Editor...
...104 n DISSENT / Fall 2000...
...All of my smartest girlfriends think plenty of hard thoughts, work at hard jobs, but they still like to talk about blowdryers...
...Buy it...
...And being independent means relying on fashion magazines to, as France says she does, give you ideas about how to look, what to wear, and even who to be...
...Cosmopolitan and Mademoiselle attempt—if unconvincingly—to maintain two discourses, one focused on "serious" issues like career and health and another on lighter topics like consumption and "him...
...A very distant cousin" of $545 fiberglass armchairs can be found for $50, but, editors assure readers, the originals are "worth the splurge...
...In her "Letter from the Editor," France laments that most of what she dreams about is out of her price range...
...Love it...
...Impractical," for instance, is used alongside "elegant" and "addictive" to describe the advantages of a particular shoe style...
...The real world is on the wrong side of the locked doors...
...Here is a lovely site from the renowned gift shop of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City...
...Breathing, breathing...
...But no one is suggesting that people, even smart, responsible people, can't have fun or enjoy life...
...But take control...
...Such consumption without consequence is most disturbing because it encourages readers to detach themselves from what exists outside the store doors...
...And yes I said yes I will yes...
...But," she continues, "on days that are like most days in my life so far—days when I don't settle the conflict in Kosovo, win the lottery, or establish a system of economic and social opportunity that creates true equality for all—I'm willing to settle for the very real joy that there is to be had in finding the perfect kitten-heel pump...
...But I'd do it again in a second...
...If women's bodies are strewn all over the socio-economic landscape (behind desks or cash registers, breastfeeding or truck driving), from the neck up they are in the clouds, daydreaming of things to buy, people to be...
...Anyone who would normally spend $50 on a dress is not suddenly going to spend an extra $500 on another simply because she prefers its slightly more ruffled ruffles...
...The debut Spring/Summer issue, with a circulation of three hundred thousand, gives readers the impression that they are fine-tuning a necessary skill—learning where to go, which brands to buy, and what "lingo" to use when doing so...
...In an interview with Inside.com , France argued that intelligent women can find Lucky helpful and enjoyable...
...She hopes to rectify this problem for the Lucky reader...
...Above all, Lucky constructs a world of leisure, a place to escape from reality...
...In the New York Times in May, she described the new Conde Nast publication as a hobby magazine...
...This is a woman's world...
...perhaps a "Greek goddess" one day and an "Italian screen goddess" the next, but always reliably "girly...
...Or it is so determined by commodities that it is a pathetic form of contemplation...
...Acting stupid, in MAGAZINES other words, no longer means you are stupid...
...The creators of Lucky do not make any apologies for their desires, however outrageous...
...It is not even excused as something one does just every now and then...
...Face to face with these objects of affection, women seem incapable of responding to them rationally or even without breaking a sweat...
...It picks out the season's favorite fashions before they hit stores, tells you where you can buy them, and for how much...
...But it is very easy to spend $1,000 on a "simple" outfit here...
...Maxing out your credit card is a necessary evil in the quest to fulfill your desires...
...Find it...
...On the advice page, "Dr...
...Splurge...
...These shoes "are never going to allow you to wear them until you confront your label-and-cost prejudices and accept the shoes as fully realized members of your wardrobe, with the same rights and limitations as anything else in your closet...
...It's Molly Bloom meets Penthouse Letters meets Vogue...
...But, nevertheless, editors suggest that in Lucky they are presenting wonderful but also accessible dreams...
...Such a passage illustrates the absence of reflection on which the editors stake the whole magazine...
...the caption asks...
...Shopper never considers that the reader may be ashamed of her purchase because now she can't pay her rent...
...It's that simple—and that shameless...
...France responds to critics by asking, "How condescending is it to suggest that women need to learn important issues in fashion magazines...
...Most women's fashion magazines portray their readers as compulsive and irresponsible shoppers...
...The prices in Lucky bring readers down to earth, but only to make the launch into their dream world all the more exciting...
...This rationale is that women can be reckless, dreamy, impulsive—and respected for it...
...0 NE ARTICLE captures the "ideal" fantasy by photographing the adventures of three women locked in a department store...
...If not, a story-line above the montage, which features the women half-naked primping in front of mirrors, frantically searching for the perfect shirt, and putting on each other's make-up, lets you know just what you're missing: "Okay, I'll admit that by the end, we lost it and just had to try on everything at once, including about a thousand pairs of shoes...
...ASHLEY NELSON is a graduate student in the liberal studies program in the Graduate Faculty at the New School...
...In the age of the fur wars, freerange chickens, and sports utility vehicles, Americans make their statements through what they purchase...
...Ever daydreamed about getting stranded in a department store overnight...
...Part of being a strong, independent woman right now is flouting that part of you that can be girly...
...Reflection is an empty term that comes between seeing an object and pulling out the Visa card...
...Because ultimately these extremes represent the choice between reality and fantasy— and getting lucky is about escaping the one to attain the other, at all costs...
...Isolated in fictions, worlds of make-believe, they sit happily unconcerned with those who cannot spend their every waking minute debating between the blue one and the brown one, ultimately deciding on both...
...You no longer have to act like that means you're stupid...
...It is at these moments that the editors exhibit their immense arsenal of adjectives...
Vol. 47 • September 2000 • No. 4
