The problem that I have is that anything called “women’s” dumbs it down, assuming that’s what the masses of women need and want. Rolling Stone is a music magazine with a mostly male reader base, and it includes political commentary as well as articles on current events and issues. Same with Playboy (and yes, I’ve actually read it). Meanwhile, Vogue scuttled a Hillary Clinton cover because they wanted to dress HRC up like a model in a foofy dress and Hillary wasn’t having it; she wanted her trademark suit.

I’ve written about women in tech before (http://profy.com/2008/03/22/girl-tech/). There’s a madonna/whore pigeonholing in effect that you don’t see with men. Shine is just one more example of it. Why on earth would they leave out current events and politics, yet expect me to use it as a portal complete with blog and email? It’s a glaring omission that is only seen when you get into a gender-themed site.

Quite frankly, I don’t believe there’s any such thing as “woman’s tech coverage” or for that matter “man’s tech coverage”. There is no such thing as a man’s iPod and a woman’s iPod - we both have the same kinds of auditory organs and the software and hardware in our iPods is identical (even if the paint job is different). There’s no such thing as a man’s dual-core processor or a woman’s solar panel either. Tech is about, well, technology, and possibly finance. Chromosomes only come into it if it’s an article about genetic testing.

@Nathania If the argument is that they are only covering what “all” women are interested in, they seriously missed the mark anyway. Horoscopes are more thoughful? The 100 Unsexiest Men is thoughtful? “Is Kate Moss too old to model?” is more thoughtul?

This mentality assumes that women, or the majority of them, have no interest in world news or politics, which everyone SHOULD follow. And this is Yahoo, not some start-up, and the majority of what they are doing is aggregating existing content, not reinventing the wheel. Starting the site out with a category for my horoscope but NOTHING about politics or business or world news is an epic fail in my book. You only have one chance to make a first impression, and Shine missed by a mile. If I wanted fashion and beauty and dieting tips, there are already 100 sites out there doing it with original content. As it launched, I find it demeaning, insipid, and just downright insulting.

They’ve only been going for one day! And though some of us work in industries where we follow tech and business, not all women do.

Let me know what you think.