Spin Sisters : How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness --- and Liberalism --- to the Women of...

Spin Sisters : How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness --- and Liberalism --- to the Women of America | Myrna Blyth | Very Interesting

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Spin Sisters : How...

	Spin Sisters : How the Women of the Media Sell Unhappiness --- and Liberalism --- to the Women of America Myrna Blyth St Martins Press, 2004 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 55 reviews view larger image
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Blowing the whistle on a job she herself did for over ten years at Ladies Home Journal as editor-in-chief, Blyth reveals the almost institutionalized selling of a liberal/do-gooders message to women through chararacterizing women themselves as victims. Playing on women's compassion and ability to be hooked into "uplifting" stories with a moral or happy ending, American media has convinced the most well-educated, rich and healthy audience in history that they are miserable. She dissects why:

--liberal celebrities' messages aren't scrutinized and in fact presented with a halo of approval
--middle class American women have been sold stress as the new scourge of modern life
--media paints a negative picture of women's lives today, at exactly the moment when women have more money, privlege and choices than ever before
--the club of liberal women who run magazines and television shows have an outsize and lock-step affect on what we "know" about the major issues of the day
--the incestuous relationship between celebrities and media has corrupted journalism
--magazines rarely tell stories about the majority of women whose conservative views don't mesh with their own

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Spin Sisters is a great read! Informative, Authoritative

Spin Sisters is delightful reading. This book is important for all women to read as most do not know how much they are being played by the media. Men, such as myself, also benefit from reading this because it helps us understand women better. Ever wonder what makes some women act the way they do? They could be under the spell of the Spin Sisters who are creating problems for women that they never even knew they had. Happiness is out and guilt, victims and misery are fashionably in. Myrna tells it like it is from one who was in the middle of it for over 20 years. She really lets them have it from Katie to Rosie. This is great reading and very illuminating. Myrna has done extensive research for this book and has a fully footnoted index of her references. Very scholarly and fun to read. A must!!

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Very Interesting

This book is quite insightful...although it's not telling me too much of what I didn't already suspect. Sometimes it sounds like she's "getting back" at some of the women she writes about and her writing style, although an easy and fun read, sounds like an article from one of the girly magazines she talks about. But that's to be expected since she was editor for many years.

But even taking into account the things I mentioned above, it's pretty fascinating and I've enjoyed reading it.

The Underside of Women's Magazines/Media

Blyth has a true inside scoop as 1) she was the editor of Ladies Home Journal for twenty years, 2) she was founding editor of MORE, and 3) she used to be a "spin sister" i.e., a liberal woman working in the media. As she got older, she gradually became more and more conservative. Her descriptions of major editors, journalists and PR girls are fascinating. Those women are competitive with a capital C. Most of the book is very interesting and very readable. I liked the chapters on diets, beauty, pandering to celebs, pet liberal causes, and casual media bias.

Only one real quibble: the middle two or three chapters dragged on. They were the chapters about how modern media constantly portrays women as victims or potential victims. After thirty pages, I was like, "Ok! I get it! No more!" But too bad for me, sixty more pages on the subject.

Highly recommended to anyone interested in media, politics, current American culture, and gender issues.

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Sounds a little bitter to me...

While Mrs. Blyth is indeed telling us the truth about women's magazines, she certainly is not telling us anything new here. Most of us thinking women already knew that most of the 7 sisters magazines is nothing but a bunch of garbage that insult one's intelligence. We knew that a long time ago, or at least figured it out by the time we hit our 40th birthdays...

Those magazine editors have long ignored the vast majority of American women and focused only on their coteries...yes, those YUPPIE women who are part of their little clique...and now that's she's no longer part of the so-called "spin sister" gaggle, she's unsheathed her claws and is scratching at them while allegedly enlightening the rest of us. MEOW. The slams against people go on in this book infinitum ad naseum. She tries to write to be humorous, but it's about as humorous as Ann Coulter is compassionate.

Ok, so she says Rosie O' Donnell isn't so "nice" and Katie Couric is dubbed as "her cuteness" by an aging and jealous fashion maven. Who cares? Good grief, what a sorority mentality. This tirade in print has nothing to do with being liberal or conservative, she's upset because these women cannot or will not be her BFF. It's like something straight out of junior high school, and is pretty pitiful coming from a 60-something year old woman who really should be past all that by now.

Get over it, Ms. Blyth, this is called Karma coming back to bite you in the butt! You snubbed, now you're getting snubbed. FACT: Not everyone gets picked first for basketball. Not every woman who pledges a sorority gets selected, but then those of us who don't have to "buy" our friends don't really care...and we don't waste our money on the once a month brainwash as we have better things to do with our money and time.

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