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Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
Taylor Lautner Breaks Down Three Types Of Twihards
Madonna: "I Did A Photo Shoot With Steven Klein, And I Painted My Face Black"
But Can It Act?
Jon & Kate Custody Questions; Evan Rachel Makes Marilyn Feel Violent
Adam Lambert To (Maybe) Come Out; Aniston & Mayer Back On?
Notable/Quotable
Fallon Throws Gossip Girl A Surprise Party
Brad Pitt: "I Get Enraged When People Start Telling Other People How To Live Their Lives"
Britney Spears: "I Feel Like An Old Person Now"

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DorothyZbornak
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
You can read text on paper or the internet. The thing that sets actual magazines and newspapers apart is the visual layout. A fantastic layout does not transfer to the internet. You can't see it the way you can printed on paper. So, for magazines and newspapers to play down the one last card in their deck is just ridiculous to me.

I mean, let's be real, most people at newsstands pick up magazines based on the cover photo/art, not the cover lines or articles inside.
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viklane
12/07/09

@DorothyZbornak: Agreed -- if I saw any of those classics styles on the newsstands, I'd probably be intrigued and want to buy it. I'm so absolutely bored by seeing the same concept again and again that I've stopped buying my usual magazines altogether. Well, that and "Cover Lies."
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DorothyZbornak promoted this comment viklane was starred viklane was unstarred

DorothyZbornak
12/07/09

@viklane: Same concepts, same cover models, same cover lines. It never changes. I mean, if I have to see one more Vogue with Keira Knightly on the cover, I'm going to strangle someone. It's all just so boring and unimaginative now.
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viklane
12/07/09

@DorothyZbornak: It's fascinating how people view Anna Wintour as this dominating force in the world of fashion. Maybe that's precisely the problem -- she's all domination and no imagination.
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DorothyZbornak
12/07/09

@viklane: Yep. Have you seen "The September Issue?" It was really interesting to see her shooting down really gorgeous, creative things Grace Coddington put together. I think if Grace were calling the shots, Vogue would be a lot better, or at least, more creative.
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viklane
12/07/09

@DorothyZbornak: And that's what I don't get. If you're in a business that is all about change, why do you want your magazine to look exactly the same every single month? It should say something that a woman in the fashion industry has been wearing the same look and the same hair for 20 years. Being able to run a tight ship is nice, but when did this stop being about art?
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bess marvin, girl detective
12/07/09

@DorothyZbornak: really? grace is just as unimaginative as anna only her ideas cost more money. how many jumping models against gray backgrounds (which are inexplicably set in an expensive environment never featured) can you feature? hundreds apparently and dear old coddington will continue drumming them out.

also, when you appeal to a large group, innovation is usually a killer. as seen with most artists, when they try to go outside their comfort zone whether it's reese witherspoon doing a smart comedy (i.e. election) or kanye experimenting with auto-tune (i.e. 808s and heartbreak), their sales usually diminish. very few people succeed with providing the public with different things.
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Edited by bess marvin, girl detective at 12/07/09 6:15 PM

DorothyZbornak
12/08/09

@bess marvin, girl detective: I was thinking more of those elaborate shots she had for the '20s spread in the movie, the ones that Anna cut for being too over-the-top. I agree the jumping models thing is certainly played out.

But, I feel like if all they ever worry about is the bottom line, or at least what they think will help their bottom line, magazines are going to be more and more boring, and thus, will die.
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
At this point, I think a few of the ladymags deserve to go out of business. They are nothing but bullshit frankly - sexist, sizeist, racist bullshit. Maybe if a big one goes under, the rest will pull their heads out of their size 0 asses and take stock of what they have become. I don't buy them anymore and haven't for at least a year now.
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activearchivist is lovely, in a moist, fluffy sort of way
12/07/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): Agreed. This is also why I have a two year subscription to Bust. A lack of sizest, sexist bullshit is awesome.

I don't think they're particularly racist, but they also aren't any better than the rest of the magazines in featuring diverse models and stories in my recollection. Two out of three at anyrate.
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BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit) promoted this comment

BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit)
12/07/09

@activearchivist is lovely, in a moist, fluffy sort of way: I only say racist because of the lack of women of color on covers.
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activearchivist is lovely, in a moist, fluffy sort of way
12/07/09

@BrutallyHonestBabes (aka Mrs. Sarah.of.a.Lesser.Hobbit): Bust isn't much better in that respect, unfortunately. But thanks for the clarification!
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Grim Reaper of the Forest
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
That blonde paired with Gwyneth Paltrow looks strangely like Paris Hilton.
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DorothyZbornak
12/07/09

@Grim Reaper of the Forest: I was just thinking the same thing.
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soykatrina
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
It's not just the covers. I find the inside spreads to be just as drab, lackluster, and lacking of creativity. But, I'm kind of a design snob. Still, I shouldn't be able to look at things created by professionals and know I could have done better with my basic knowledge of indesign and photoshop and layout design from few undergrad classes taken 4 years ago.
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hortense promoted this comment Edited by soykatrina at 12/07/09 2:16 PM soykatrina was starred soykatrina was unstarred

Diziet_Sma
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
He's not taking into account how much the readership has changed. Vogue is now mass-market, not niche, as it was back in the day (despite its high profile), so its visual style is more middle of the road to appeal to the highest number of readers. There are a gazillion niche fashion/art titles that have taken up the baton of visual experimentation, especially on their covers - Pop, Flaunt, Love, V spring to mind, as well as Black Book itself.

That said, his work is awesome.
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Irin
12/07/09

@Diziet_Sma: Very true. But it's not a long shot to think that Vogue is going to become a more niche product again as the media landscape keeps fragmenting. It's one way to save itself, I'd say.
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Diziet_Sma
12/07/09

@Irin: Wouldn't that be great? I'd love it if it rediscovered its edge.
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cookieman
12/07/09

@Diziet_Sma: Agreed. I have to say that his gripe should be more with Condé Nast for how they turned Vogue into a recognizable brand name that needs to be "protected" and mainstreamed the magazine rather than blame Vogue itself for not maintaining their edge. I'm not even going to get into the editorial leadership and mass market pablum issues, but strictly speaking from a corporate point of view, generic "man in suit" counting advertiser revenues and subscription numbers is going to need a little purple pill if he were to get a load of a Liberman-esque cover or complete content layout. I like risky. Bean counters do not like risky.

Cookieman as a graphic design professional, worships at the Liberman altar. I have known for a long time I have to find my creative fix outside of the mainstream print media (and even leeching over into museum/gallery) culture.
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JanaNye
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
The death of print saddens me. A few of my favorite mags have gone all digital. My favorite thing about a mag (besides it content obviously) was sitting down on my fluffy couch with some coffee and holding it, flipping through the pages, touching it. Then putting it on a shelf for future collage making or a flyer or something.

I'd love to have something as attention grabbing as the 1944 issue of Vouge on the stands today. So now... my favorite part of my morning is sitting at my desk, drinking coffee, reading jezebel.
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Tchotchke
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
I think there are still some great magazines, visually-speaking, they just tend to be very expensive ($15-$20) and have a very limited circulation.
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Trulymadlyme
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
I actually think the problem isn't the visuals--it's the lackluster, boring writing that passes as features or basic journalism these days. You can almost feel the crouch of public relations on content via the innocuous, inoffensive, unthinking celebrity profile that reads like a mad lib.

When I found out Joan Didion's "On Self Respect" actually originally ran in Vogue , I was shocked. I couldn't imagine something similar being published today absent there being some sort of sell in terms of sex or consumerism or celebrity. That's the problem with magazines. Outside of the generic article about "diseases" or "downtrodden oppressed women in generic third world hell hole (and aren't we lucky to live in America!)" or its journalistic cousin the "oppressed American female who suffers with nobility" or my favorite, the post-modern take on "I hate ___ but I really should love ___ because society says so," they are all just so unthinking, unexamined.
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Edited by Trulymadlyme at 12/07/09 2:02 PM Trulymadlyme was starred Trulymadlyme was unstarred

Alohamaid
12/07/09

@Trulymadlyme: I agree, and the PR teams have taken down most beauty blogs as well when they threatened to take over too much space from magazines. When PR firms began to realize blogs had been key in starting major "lemmings" for certain products they descending with a vengence. Offering bloggers freebies galore, hell Lancome even took some on a free trip to Paris. Now most of the formerly great sites like Blogdorf Goodman or All Laquered Up are little more than thinly veiled industry press releases and uniform glowing reviews of products.
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Tchotchke
12/07/09

@Trulymadlyme: Vogue and Elle do suffer from a lack of true journalism and interesting stories. Far too often, both magazines' print content focuses on topics such as: "Finding the right nanny is hard!" or "Ground-breaking discoveries in the realm of injectable fillers!"

In small doses, stories about those issues are fine, in my opinion, because they do represent reality for a certain fraction of those magazines' readership. However, almost every issue includes stories about cosmetic procedures, regaining your pre-pregnancy body, and the like. If there was balance, like articles on women's issues or contemporary political debates, I wouldn't be inclined to complain. In short, these magazines are in dire need of balance in all senses of the term, visual and otherwise.
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Trulymadlyme
12/07/09

@Alohamaid: The FTC finally stepped in to end that nonsense thankfully. But yes, it's kind of hilarious to see the influence of PR on journalism because of the whole impossible tenet of "objectivity" you hear constantly thrown around.
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Trulymadlyme
12/07/09

@Tchotchke: But I also think there's just less thinking. Point blank.

It's been a long time since I've read a piece of writing that could be (1) described as a feature; (2) contained insight that was somewhat cerebral or fascinating; and (3) and the ideas behind the story didn't try to make me want to have sex with it; buy it; or wear it; eat it; drink it; or simply want to be it.

I honestly think Jenna's "I Am The Anonymous Model" was probably the closest thing I've seen in years. And that was on this blog. I really doubt that feature, in its present form, would have ever run in a national glossy magazine.
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Tchotchke
12/07/09

@Trulymadlyme: Oh, I agree 100%. One thing that I find particularly painful is the obligatory description paragraph in celebrity features. Every magazine will dedicate an entire paragraph to describing what the subject looks like, what they wore to the interview and what his/her appeal to the opposite sex may be. First of all, those things are usually self-evident and secondly, it strikes me as an obvious attempt to use up space because when you get to the root of it, the people just aren't that interesting.

Another problem? In the non-celebrity profiles, they blatantly look for a subject who will garner sympathy and look glamourous doing it. Thus, we have Anna Wintour rejecting story ideas because the subject is not photogenic enough for her taste.
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Trulymadlyme
12/07/09

@Tchotchke: the root of it, the people just aren't that interesting.

Exactly. I'd actually kind of find it stunning if I read a celebrity profile that evinces this point. I would love, love to see a celebrity doing an interview about their fashion line be stumped with questions about the mathematics of textile design. I would cackle with joy.
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badmutha
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
Fashion Mags used to be about fashion. And fashion used to be so beautiful and artistic. Now you have to have the botox article, the accessories piece, the interview with the starlet on the front, various spreads about very expensive shit, and little that is wearable or accessible to the reader.
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funnyface
12/07/09

In reply to Legendary Magazine Designer Has Righteous Rage At Today's Glossies
I wish we could go back to the days of an arresting image not drowning under tons of teaser text (though I know that would make the maghag posts significantly less fun).
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likepenguins
12/07/09

@funnyface: Agreed. I don't actually need to know that, by opening the cover, I'll learn 313 things I previously did not know about Natalie Portman, or read about which jeans work for my figure for the 800th time.

Just give me a photo that makes me want to buy the magazine, people. It cannot possibly be that difficult.
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Mary McCarthyite
12/07/09

@likepenguins: Here!
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Pizza!Pizza!Pizza!
12/07/09

@funnyface: If I told you there were 47 commenters interested in 63 ways to improve 99 percent of magazine covers, would you be interested? No? Maybe it needs more Photoshop.
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HannahBethD
12/07/09

@funnyface: The version of Elle that subscribers get is often very very beautiful. Just a great photo and very sparse text.

Here's the one with Drew Barrymore

[2.bp.blogspot.com]
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likepenguins
12/07/09

@Mary McCarthyite: See! how cute is that? And the minimal text about the inside story is worked into the actual artwork!
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Mary McCarthyite
12/07/09

@funnyface: Agreed, and see above to minniebaninnie's comment. I think the yours and hers are related.
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Lymed
12/07/09

@Mary McCarthyite: I love the red in that cover. Illustrated Vogue covers were incredible.
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TheFormerJuneBronson
12/07/09

@Mary McCarthyite: See? That is so fun.
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PrairieGirl
12/07/09

@funnyface: Yeah, exactly. The cover shouldn't include the table of contents. If Vogue wants me to see what's inside I should have to actually pick it up.

Of course, I would immediately put it down again once I discovered the absolute dreck that's inside. So a concomitant improvement between the covers would have to happen to get me re-interested in anything Vogue has to say.
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Diziet_Sma
12/07/09

@HannahBethD: British Elle has done some nice covers lately.
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BytheSea
11/25/09

In reply to Taylor Lautner Breaks Down Three Types Of Twihards
You're not at Beatlemania-level hysteria until you've got a Pee-er.

That's what some guy whowas With the Band said Beatlemania smelled like to him. Rivers of urine in the Sullivan theater...
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Alohamaid
11/24/09

In reply to Taylor Lautner Breaks Down Three Types Of Twihards
I know its sort of the nature of the beast (no pun) that the young girls like their heart throbs pretty and nonthreatening but man these guys are just so nonsexual and clean. Seeing his "sexy" poses just makes his lack of sexiness to me that more apparent. I need an antidote awww that's better
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sara-without-an-h
11/24/09

@Alohamaid: Goodness what a difference. And raw and sexy and amazing was Marlon in his T-shirt.
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lollapulizer
11/24/09

In reply to Taylor Lautner Breaks Down Three Types Of Twihards
Why is this cover okay when pretty much with Miley Cyrus is inappropriate? I'm not even thinking of the Vogue shoot specifically. I remember there was one where she was wearing a leatherish top and it was like OH NOEZ THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
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la.donna.pietra
11/24/09

@lollapulizer: For a detailed analysis:

[jezebel.com]
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lollapulizer
11/24/09

@la.donna.pietra: I read that article. It's what made me think of it in the first place. It just bugs me because I feel like most people don't recognize that this takes place. The uproar over Miley's photos was not only on the internet, it was in print and on the news too. But I don't think anyone will cause a stir over this image at all.

#tips
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la.donna.pietra
11/24/09

@lollapulizer: Quite the contrary. I've never seen a reference to Taylor Lautner here or anywhere else that didn't include at least one commenter worrying about how wrong it was to find him attractive. The stir seems to be part and parcel of the situation.
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sayah
11/24/09

In reply to Taylor Lautner Breaks Down Three Types Of Twihards
I found a themesong for this!
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
11/24/09

@sayah: Hehe. My favorite thing about Glee is that all their teenagers are in their 20s, so when I feel the uncontrollable urge to do naughty things to Puck during Sweet Caroline, I'm actually being tempted by a 27 year old.
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sayah
11/24/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: It's a wonderful wor.. show. Can't wait for the next episode.

Btw: team Puck or Finn?
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
11/24/09

@sayah: Finn's my "marry" and Puck's my "fuck." I don't have a "dump."
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eclare09
11/24/09

@sayah: There's a team Finn? Not in my world.
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lollapulizer
11/24/09

@sayah: Did I miss the episode when they sang this song?
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sayah
11/24/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: well put! I wouldn't knock Will either.
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sayah
11/24/09

@eclare09: hah, why the hate?
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
11/24/09

@lollapulizer: It's next episode.
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sayah
11/24/09

@lollapulizer: no idea, just found it on Youtube.
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cirocco
11/24/09

@Zombie Ms. Skittles: Back when Party of Five was on (this dates me, I know) I felt vaguely guilty about my attraction to Bailey. I found out that he was actually 26, which was sort of a mixed blessing, because it was then okay to find him sexy... but then I had to face the fact that I was the same age and there was no way in hell I could pass for a teenager.
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NerD: Blattella
11/24/09

In reply to Taylor Lautner Breaks Down Three Types Of Twihards
This is one of those articles whose comments remind me how we are all the same.

Hypocrites.
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KatyLou
11/24/09

@NerD: Blattella: Can you elaborate? I'm not sure I understand your comment.
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NerD: Blattella
11/24/09

@KatyLou: This site has a fine tradition of posting articles on how horrible it is to objectify women then posts images and articles that do exactly the same thing to men.

Here are a couple of examples:
[jezebel.com]

[jezebel.com]

The gist being sexualizing:

17 year old girl = BAD!!!
19 year old girl = bad

17 year old boy = just expressing ourselves.

Honestly I don't mind the older women getting hot and bothered over some shirtless himbo. It's natural to be attracted, no matter who it is.

I just wish there was a little more introspection when it comes to this. It makes it easy to ignore positions on these things when you have obvious examples of hypocricy.
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Andalucía
11/25/09

@NerD: Blattella: You do realize all other things aren't equal, right? In other words, you're not dehumanizing the male gender by sexualizing a representative of that group. That's because sexuality hasn't been used to dehumanize them on the basis of gender the way it has with women and girls (Mind you, men and boys of color have been dehumanized but it's mostly based on race).

For example, look at race: you can see all sorts of white males being arrested on Cops and that won't cause you to dehumanize them as a group the way it would to see a string of black men being arrested on those same charges.

I know it's way late, but still it's off to think that they're the same thing.
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NerD: Blattella
11/25/09

@Andalucía: Yeah, that is the basic explanation that is always used when this happens (we are sexualizing ALL 17 year old boys, just this one).

Except the examples I listed were talking about two specific girls (Miley Cyrus and Emma Watson), and then generalizing to suit their argument.

If you are going to have a double standard, know you have a double standard. Don't parse.
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