Sunday, January 28, 2007

The Nation Stats

Picking up where we were last edition, we have two issues of The Nation to note this edition.

January 29, 2007 issue

Editorial & Comment
"No To Esclation" (unsigned)
"Media Reform's Movement" (ibid)
William Grider's "A Globalization Offensive"
Mark Hertsgaard's "Green Times"

2 pieces credited to writers -- both pieces by males.

Columns
Calvin Trillin's "Bush Explains His Signing Statements . . ."
Patricia J. Williams' "Zero and Infinity"
AlterPunk's "Iraq and the Sin of Good Judgment"
3 pieces -- 2 males, 1 woman.

Articles
John Nichols' "Newspapers . . . And After?"
Lakshmi Chaudhry's "Mirror, Mirror On The Web"

On the latter, no it's not about people copying other people's pieces. That happens to us, we get mirrored at other sites. They always credit. It would be wrong not to credit, wouldn't it?
2 pieces -- 1 by a male, 1 by a female a.f.a.w.k.

Critics
George Scialabba's "Eight Books on American Democracy After The 2006 Midterms"
Marin Duberman's "Herewitz: Bohemian Los Angeles and the Making of Modern Politics"
Aruther C. Danto's "Brice Marden and Edouard Manet."

3 critiques and, yet again, women aren't even qualified to critique the arts. Take that, memory of Pauline Kael!

Total Score for Issue -- Male: 8 credits; Female: 2 females.

Year to date stats: 43 men have authored (or co-authered) pieces since the first 2007 issue. How many women? 11 women. We're still seeing that nearly four men for every woman figure.

But wait, we have two issues this edition. (Thank the mail delivery for that.)

February 5, 2007 issue

Editorials & Comment
John Nichols' "Obama's Challenge"
David Corn's "Scootergate: The Trial"
William Greider's "EPI's Agenda For Change"

3 pieces, all credited to males

Columns
Calvin Trillin's "A Question and a Follow-up for George W. Bush's Next Press Conference"
Alexander Cockburn's "Get Carter! Iran, Too!"
Katha Pollitt's "Ayatollah D'Souza"
Gary Younge's "The Illogic of Empire."

4 pieces -- 3 males, 1 female

Articles
Scott Sherman's "ACLU v. ACLU"
Jeff Madrick's "Goodbye, Horatio Alger"

2 pieces -- both by males

Critics
Daniel Lazare's "Stuart: The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism From 1600 to Modern Times"
Eric Foner's "Oakes: The Radical and the Republicans [. . .]"
Ruth Scurr's "Bell: The First Total War [. . .]"
Rae Armantrout's "Framing (poem)"

What do you know, the magazine finally decided to let a woman have a go at a critique (a very rare thing these days) and they even found a poet who is female.

4 pieces -- 2 males, 2 females

Total Score for Issue: 10 males; 3 females.

Year to Date Stats: 53 males; 14 females. We're still left with nearly 4 males for every woman.

It passes for equality to some . . . we guess. If, as of the February 5, 2007 issue, they wanted to play catch up, they'd have to print 39 pieces, all by women, just to do that. (They don't do that, but we'll wait to note the next issue until it arrives in the mail.)