The Los Angeles Times Magazine has been in decline at least since 1986.
They have tried to recast themselves as the New York Times Magazine, as a Southern California Lifestyle Thing like Sunset Magazine, as maybe four other things. Nothing works.
This week they managed to hit a new low with a feature article on a young woman named Cory Kennedy.
Cory has been internet famous since she was 15, which was in 2005. Someone took pictures of her and posted them, and the phenomenon grew as those things can. She is a pretty girl, and her prettiness is of the gamine waif variety. She will look 15 until she’s 25.
The Times Magazine article is the typical deploring/promoting titillation piece. They at once portray her as the “grew up too fast” pop culture victim and as a high-flying teen hottie. They play this game very well. They also made sure to post forty-four pictures of her to accompany the article on the Net.
Ephebophilic disasters like this aren’t new. The current crop probably started with the Guess? ads in the 1980s. The “new” men’s magazines are all over it. It’s creepy. The way this article presented it was particularly damaging, though. She’s presented as someone who did this of her own initiative and was in charge all along. It started when she was 15. This appears to confirm predators’ belief that their young victims are behaving as adults and not being manipulated.
Edie Sedgwick died in her 20s. I wonder how long Cory will make it?
Be My Blog 
Erg. Don’t forget American
teen sex gearApparel.Yeah, that doesn’t look like it’s going to go anywhere good, really. She’s keeping all the right company to make sure she spends a whole lot of time and money in the finest rehab centers.
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I still remember how completely pissed off I was when they premiered the new design and changed “View” to “Life and Style”
in fact I am still pissed off about it
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Before “View” it was “Women,” too.
Circa 1986-7 the “New Faster-Format L.A. Times” was a punchline, also.
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She’s internet famous? Really? Why haven’t I previously heard of her?
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Neither have I, but this is like how kids become “famous” in New York despite the fact thst no one outside of Mars or Washington Square park has ever heard of them.
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Every time I see photos of her I want to bring her to my house and chain her up until she’s 25, just to be safe. 😦
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That is so _____________ on so many levels.
a. protective
b. illegal
c. dom
d. what she wants to hear
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d.!! We have fruit snacks here!!
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Except unlike Edie Sedgwick, this one at least appears to have a relatively decent and loving family. If a bit slow on the uptake. But then, I can’t imagine being the parent of a teenager.
Anyway, that somehow makes it both more and less tragic to me.
I want to write more but holy shit should I be working.
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I hesitate to say that I don’t see what makes her so interesting since, sadly, it makes me feel old and/or out of touch
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I wanted to say that too, but I felt the same way.
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She is incredibly unfortunate looking, in a way only teenage hipsters can be.
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I hate this article on so many levels. I cant handle people that are famous for absolutely nothing. Does she have like a flexible asshole or a raging high IQ? Give me something here.
Living in LA, I see literally hundreds of girls with this look. They do hair, bartend, go to school. Just normal…people.
Cobrasnake is a douche with customized luggage, horrible political views (google his take on the war on Iraq “everyone should be happy, this isn’t vietnam, la dee da”) and even worse ironic facial hair that has gone from homely to campy ironic to leather bar gay and back to homely about 300 times.
The general public needs to surrender the fantasy- and the 16 year-old. This isn’t interesting, its sad.
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A flexible IQ and raging asshole.
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that’s a start!
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I used to like Shawn Hubler as a writer.
I also used to like the Times Magazine.
Now, neither.
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Kind of makes me glad I spent my own adolescence reading algorithms textbooks and masturbating.
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