Emdashes. Modern Times Between the Lines.
Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
A Web Comic: The Wavy Rule
Before it moved to The New Yorker:
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Features & Columns:
Headline Shooter
On the Spot
Looked Into
Sempé Fi: Cover Art
Als Well That Blogs Well
Filed under: Headline Shooter Tagged: animals, art, Hilton Als, Julian Schnabel, movies, newyorker.com
Als writes in his inaugural post:
Blogs are a matter of trust. The reader reads them hoping not just to pick up some form of retail inspiration—“This is the album I’m listening to; maybe you’d like to listen to it, too!”—but also to learn something about the landscape of the writer’s mind, his way of being.He recently posted a tender reminiscence about Elizabeth Hardwick, and his latest entry is about Julian Schnabel’s film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
I like this blog very much, but I am dismayed to see that Als uses the term “females” in place of “women” in his Schnabel post. I know he’s being complimentary here, but I can’t read or hear “females” without thinking of the study of animals in the wild (“The males are docile, but the females will tear off your eyebrows if you’re not careful”), or possibly a grisly police report (“The disfigured bodies of two females were discovered in the alley following the Gordon Lightfoot concert”).
It’s a common online-dating term, certainly, but I would hope that anyone seeking love would avoid any profile in which a man claims to be seeking a “female” of any description. Don’t you find it a somewhat clinical term? Or am I alone in this?
About us
Hello! We're a small band of media enthusiasts, culture addicts, and journalists based in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Emdashes, formerly a New Yorker fan site, is our collection of conversations—mostly civilized—about magazines, movies, politics, design, punctuation, and other things that stir us.
You'd like to know more about the writers and artists and what our column titles mean? We live to serve!
We welcome tips, questions, comments, and corrections, and are always on the lookout for ardent, obsessive new contributors. Click here to email us.
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Tell me more
Dashes, some say, “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like an em dash itself—provides a thoughtful pause amid the hubbub.
Emdashes, founded in 2004, is written and drawn by Emily Gordon, Martin Schneider, Pollux, Jonathan Taylor, and Benjamin Chambers, as well as occasional guest contributors. All posts before October 2008 are by Emily Gordon.
The site was designed by House of Pretty with illustrations by Jesse R. Ewing.
Additional drawings are by Carolita Johnson and Pollux (author of our web comic, "The Wavy Rule"). The Emdashes pencil logo is by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
Other writing by Emily Gordon
- Writing on theater: reviews (for Time Out Chicago; imperfect but workable search results)
- Profile: Valerie Casey, Designers Accord founder, is spearheading the design of sustainability (for SXSW World)
- Feature: Rea Irvin: visionary art director, bon vivant, New Yorker founding father (for Print)
- Slide show: the Coney Island Mermaid Parade (for NYCgo.com)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands, and an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (for Print)
- Review: King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Homage: Celebrating lindy-hop legend Frankie Manning (for NYCgo.com)
- Inquiry: Does a New Republic redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Interviews: four up-and-coming designers under 30 (for Print)
- Profile: novelist and dance critic Laura Jacobs (for Newsday)
Blogroll highlights
- Box Office Boffo
- World of Pollux
- Jonathan Taylor
- Carolita Johnson
- Songs for blogroll lovers (more links)
- Follow us on Twitter
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- Get a t-shirt at the Emdashes store
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Comments
You’re not alone, but at least he didn’t use “distaff.”
Think of Adelaide quoting the medical manual: “The average unmarried female, basically insecure/Due to some long frustration, may react/With psychosomatic symptoms, difficult to endure,/Affecting the upper respiratory tract…”