Non-Law Rant: Why isn't there an Esquire for Women?

Once upon a time, when I [and Cat!] lived in a house full of men, one of the roommates had a subscription to Esquire. (And Details, but meh.) Since all of our various publications (among them: the Economist, Vanity Fair, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Marie Claire) ended up at the base of the functional-but-never-used fireplace in the front living room, at some point on some "I'm bored" Sunday, I picked up a copy of Esquire, and fell in love.

Not with the man on the cover (I honestly can't even tell you who the cover feature was that month). With the *content.* You see, unlike your garden variety "women's interest" magazine (the aforementioned Esquire's-sister-publication Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Allure, Elle), Esquire actually treats its readers like intelligent human beings. It makes allusions to political goings-on, and expects you to understand the reference, rather than assuming you're so uninformed you need soundbites to seem plugged-in at cocktail parties. Specifically, it asks you to know (and care!) about (gasp!) the economy [and economics, and the fact that Wall Street is in trouble]. The war(s). American foreign policy. Other things that any educated, employed American should hopefully have a clue about.

Esquire also does a pretty good job of featuring good reporting, interesting first-person writing, and the occasional awesome fiction piece. I don't mind skimming the first few men's style pages of each issue to get to the real meat (which isn't hidden under 50+ pages of fashion ads and perfume samples). Plus, the general editorial voice is actually really, genuinely funny...music reviews and pop culture references seem light when appropriate and soulful when they should be. Overall, good stuff on every page.

Sure, Esquire also has some pictures of scantily-clad women in every issue. So what? They're usually interesting, relatively unknown women who are currently starring in funny/entertaining/topical movies that I'd actually like to see, in contrast with, oh, another rehashing of how "Angelina's a really bad person for stealing my husband" with Jennifer Aniston whenever she has another romantic comedy coming out. And Esquire has a page or two devoted to "Women We Love." Not a dozen pages about those women's supposed beauty secrets.

Here's the thing...I actually feel smarter - like I've learned something - after reading Esquire (full disclosure: I recently used some MyCokeRewards points to get a subscription for myself, and if this month's letters to the editor are any indication, women make up a devoted subset of the magazine's circulation numbers). I can't remember the last time I felt the same way after picking up Cosmo.

So the question is: why isn't there a female version of Esquire?? If Marie Claire is the closest there is, somebody in the (yeah, the economy's tanking and publishing's been going down since even before that but still...) magazine world should step in and fill this niche. Educated, intelligent women would, I'd wager, be a pretty good market to corner - they're wealthy and control an awful lot of spending power, compared to the girls that buy supermarket tabloids, etc. You could put in a fair amount of content aimed at getting them to consume luxury goods (after all, we educated/intelligent women like nice things, too), but think Vanity Fair aimed at a slightly more feminine audience, with pieces that are a bit shorter (I LOVE VF, but it's often a plane indulgence, when I have a chunk of time to go cover-to-cover, rather than a casual read). Useful information, interesting things, and just a touch of style...but heavy on the substance.

I'd buy it. And I'd pay real money, too. Not just MyCokeRewards points.

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