Jezebel: harpers

The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: The Couture Economy, Demi Moore, & Joan Collins' Issue With Rich Guys

cheryl — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Do people get confused by Harper's Magazine and Harper's Bazaar? After all, the luxury goods industry is not so different from Halliburton — shameless, ubiquitous, and sooo fucking talented at charging more for less. So again, we're taking things to their (ill)logical end with our own "Harper's (Bazaar) Index", inspired by Harper's famous feature, which parses the world of big oil, big money, big politics and Big Pharma and puts it into easily-digested numerical form. After the jump, Anna and I look at the April issues of both magazines and juxtapose America's economic troubles with John Galliano, mock Demi Moore's personal heroine and compare the average income of "attractive" American men with Joan Collins' anecdote about a rich, nasty Arab sheikh.

(Images created by Cheryl Campbell; click image below to enlarge)

Harper's Index, 2008 [Harper's] Demi's Family Style [Harper's Bazaar]

Earlier: the Harper's (Bazaar) Index: Designer Diets, Little Miss Mortimer & Lindsay Lohan's DUIs •The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: J. Lo's Diamonds, Giuliani And The Cougar Allure •The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: January 2008 •The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: December 2007 •The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: September 2007 •The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: August 2007 •The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: July 2007

The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: J. Lo's Diamonds, Giuliani, And The 'Cougar Allure'

Anna — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:00:00 EST

Do people get confused by Harper's Magazine and Harper's Bazaar? After all, the luxury goods industry is not so different from Halliburton — shameless, ubiquitous, and really fucking talented at charging more for less. So again, we're taking things to their (ill)logical end with our own "Harper's (Bazaar) Index", inspired by Harper's famous feature, which parses the world of big oil, big money, big politics and Big Pharma and puts it into easily-digested numerical form. After the jump, Intern Cheryl helps me tally up the total retail "worth" of the February 2008 issue of Bazaar, and we also call out Marchesa designer Georgina Chapman's fashion-forward Mercedes, the allure of being a "cougar", and compare America's tired and poor to Jennifer Lopez's diamond collection.

(Images created by Cheryl Campbell; Click on image to enlarge)

Earlier: The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: January 2008
•The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: December 2007
•The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: September 2007
•The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: August 2007
•The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: July 2007

Chanel Number Nein

Anna — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:20:00 EST

From the "Readings" section of the new issue (January) of Harper's: Russian artist Yevgeniy Fiks donated copies of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism to 100 global corporations, including Amazon, Coca-Cola & Staples. Although 66 of the books were never heard from (or about) again, 14 copies were accepted, and 20 were officially rejected and returned, including the one sent to the headquarters of Chanel, which begged off with the explanation that the company has "no corporate library at this time." (Staples, for those who care, gladly accepted the book). [Harper's]

How The Halliburton Rape Cases Explain Everything We Think About

Moe — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 17:20:53 EST

"Is America establishing a culture of impunity among its contractors operating in areas of armed conflict?" That's the first line of a Harper's story on the Jamie Leigh Jones case — not to be brainfarted with the Jamie Lynn Spears case — now turning American attention to the problems created by outsourcing war to big companies. But take the last nine words away and you're left with pretty much everything that brings us the big horror hits on this site: culture of impunity. MySpace torture, Jeffrey Marsalis, Jeffrey Epstein, gray rape, the 19-year-old raped at Les Deux, the DrunkenStepfather...not gonna go on. It's probably a culture of impunity that emboldened Paul Janka to try and grope me the whole time I was in his apartment, and maybe I contributed to a culture of impunity when I blithely went about my business swatting him off and not, in the name of womanity, telling him off.

Maybe I should have left right then and there. I've always had a soft spot for impunity, ever since it gave me the uh "courage" to write my first hundred word sentence. On the other hand, the "fixing broken windows" people have a lot of fair points, too. Like the Harper's folks point out:

Human experience also teaches—since the first formation of human communities—that when the state fails to enforce order, to identify crimes as crimes and to punish them swiftly and certainly, crimes proliferate.

However, as they also point out:

We have a community of 180,000 contractors in Iraq...This community consists entirely neither of angels or devils, but of ordinary human beings, most of whom undoubtedly try to act honorably in fulfilling their duties.

Anyway so like, I wrestle with this. Quality vs. quantity, comedy vs. tragedy, pageviews vs. sanity, Victorian England vs. Kardashian US America; do you have any fucking clue what I'm talking about anymore? Yeah, neither do I. I should probably stop reading thought-provoking essays.

What the Jamie Leigh Jones Story Teaches Us [Harper's]
"What, Don't You Always End Up In Need Of Reconstructive Surgery After A Night Of Good Consensual Sex?"
Defense Contractors: If It Wasn't For Diplomatic Immunity-Protected Rape, They'd Never Get Laid

The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: January 2008

Anna — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 16:30:00 EST

Do people get confused by Harper's Magazine and Harper's Bazaar? After all, the luxury goods industry is not so different from Halliburton — shameless, ubiquitous, and really talented at charging more for less. Once again, we're taking things to their (ill)logical end with our own "Harper's (Bazaar) Index", inspired by Harper's famous feature, which parses the world of big oil, big money, and Big Pharma and puts it into easily-digested numerical form. After the jump, Intern Cheryl helps me tally up the total retail "worth" of the January 2008 issue of Bazaar (hint: it's a little more than half of what 50% of NYU students would take as payment to permanently forfeit their vote), and we riff on the diets of the rich vs. the poor, newly-pregnant Lily Allen, and the dearth of female fashion designers.

(Images created by Cheryl Campbell; Click on image to enlarge)

Earlier: The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: December 2007
The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: September 2007
The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: August 2007
The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: July 2007

The Harper's (Bazaar) Index: December 2007

Anna — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:00:00 EST

Do people get confused by Harper's Magazine and Harper's Bazaar? After all, the luxury goods industry is not so different from Halliburton — shameless, ubiquitous, and really talented at charging more for less. Following a two month hiatus, we're back with our own Harper's (Bazaar) Index, inspired by Harper's famous feature, which parses the world of big oil, big money, and Big Pharma and puts it into easily-digested numerical form. After the jump, Intern Cheryl helps us tally up the total retail "worth" of the December issue of Bazaar (hint: it's more than the oil industry has given to the 2008 presidential campaigns so far), the number of known sexual partners of the actress Renee Zellweger, and special mention of Judith Regan, Stella McCartney, and the magazine's masthead.

(Images created by Intern Cheryl; click to enlarge)

Earlier: The Harper's Bazaar Index: September 2007
The Harper's Bazaar Index: August 2007
The Harper's Bazaar Index: July 2007

The 'Harper's Bazaar' Index: September 2007

Anna — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:00:00 EDT

Do people get confused by Harper's Magazine and Harper's Bazaar? We do! After all, the luxury goods industry is not so different from Halliburton — shameless, ubiquitous, and oh so good at charging more for less. So, as usual, we're taking things to their (ill)logical end with a little mash-up of both magazines in the form of Harper's famous "Index" feature, which parses the world of big oil, big money, and Big Pharma and puts it into easily-digested numerical form. After the jump, see how Rachel Bilson is contributing to the exhaustion of the world's fossil fuels; learn why U.S. firefighters, actress Rita Wilson and singer Courtney Love are all obese; and marvel at the hypocrisy of loving one furry mammal while wearing the pelt of another.

(Images created by Cheryl Campbell. Click to enlarge)

The 'Harper's Bazaar' Index: August 2007

Anna — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:20:00 EDT

Do people get confused by Harper's Magazine and Harper's Bazaar? We do! After all, the luxury goods industry is not so different from Halliburton — shameless, ubiquitous, and oh so good at charging more for less! So, as usual, we're taking things to their (ill)logical end with a little mash-up of both magazines in the form of Harper's famous "Index" feature, which parses the world of big oil, big money, and Big Pharma and puts it into easily-digested numerical form. After the jump, see how both middle-schoolers and Jessica Simpson have become better-read; how climate-change may kill off overpriced Estée Lauder perfumes; and how the Atlanta headquarters of Cola-Cola are more culturally-diverse than most editorial fashion spreads.

[Image created by Intern Cheryl, with a large debt to Andrew Hearst]

(Click on image to enlarge)

Harper's Magazine, August 2007 [Harper's]
Jessica Simpson: American Pinup [Harper's Bazaar]
Earlier: Harper's Bazaar Index — July 2007
Harper's Bazaar Index