Come Back, Susan, Come Back - Essence Needs You!!!
Posted by Nean at 5/20/2008 10:03 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
I know I'm late on this story but at the time, my "friend" at Bitter Vibes (sorry to see you go but KIT) had said all a person could say about the future of women mags, particulary those aimed at an urban audience.
Over the weekend, Susan L.Taylor was featured on BET's Real Life Divas which had been extended to 1 hour. Of course, her story went through the usual outline which was humble beginnings, the rough patches of a career woman and very respected personalities like Bill Clinton (hmm), author/activist Kevin Powell and Terry McMillan (ladies, don't worry - like me she is a Libra who loves hard but comes back on a mission when dogged out by love) who put in their 1-2 words. When I saw Jesse Jackson,Al Sharpton and some other so-called "leaders of the community", I was like 'OK, he has decent intentions-sometimes.'
Then this person was on my TV!
I'm not saying he was responsible for the mag's demise but his 2007 cover story about the babymomma, that he's either with or not (during her pregnancy), his infidelity and how at the end of the day, she gets broken off (gets a nice child support check) - pretty much nailed Essence in the coffin.
If you're not familiar, Essence was at one time, pretty much the Black version of Comsopolitan or Vogue (with lower budget sponsors) with informational articles being somewhat secondary to fashion and beauty. Then somewhere in the late 80/90s there were more articles about women who turned their life around or opened the public's eyes about how Black women are likely to do the time for their boyfriend/husband's crime or overseas issues like genital mutilation and women in politics. Celebrity interviews/articles were never the primary focus until late last year when it was decided that all covers would have a celebrity - male or female.
Not saying that's a bad thing but with the recession and community morale in the toilet, we as women need all the reinforcement possible to let us know that it will be alright. Giving Karrine Stephans (Superhead) publicity for another tell-all featuring 'here today, gone tomorrow because they had no talent to begin with' and other mysogynist male celebrities does not help the cause.
The following people suck - Puffy, Puff Daddy, Piffy, Poofy, Puff,Daddy Puff, Diddy, Piddy, Dipiddy-Do and Sean Combs.
I don't care if he is Susan Taylor's godson, he still blows!
Reply to this