''Reductress'' is an American

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

website that parodies the style, tone, and perspective of media targeted towards women, especially

women's magazines This is a list of women's magazines from around the world. These are magazines that have been published primarily for a readership of women. Currently published *'' 10 Magazine'' (UK - distributed worldwide) *'' Al Jamila'' (Saudi Arabia) *''All ...

. Founded in 2013 by

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

s Beth Newell and Sarah Pappalardo, the site has received praise from reviewers for its satirical pieces including

advice column An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are w ...

s, news stories, and

listicle In journalism and blogging, a listicle is an article that is structured as a list, which is often fleshed out with additional text relating to each item. A typical listicle will prominently feature a cardinal number in its title, with subsequent su ...

History

Beth Newell began taking classes and performing at the

Upright Citizens Brigade The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Adam McKay, Ri ...

(UCB) in 2005, later teaching at New York's

Magnet Theater The Magnet Theater is an improvisational comedy theatre and improv school in New York City. The Magnet Theater was founded in March 2005 by Armando Diaz, Ed Herbstman and Shannon Manning. Diaz, Manning and Herbstman were friends from Chicago, w ...

. Sarah Pappalardo was a comedy performer and writer while attending college in Chicago and worked as a freelance writer. The two founded ''Reductress'' in April 2013 after a conversation between Newell and Pappalardo about tropes they observed in popular media targeted towards women. By August 2016, the site reached 1.7 million monthly global visits, with a record monthly readership of 2.4 million hits in November 2014. In 2016, in response to a comedian being banned from the UCB after being accused of rape and sexual assault by multiple women, ''Reductress'' dedicated its entire

landing page In online marketing, a landing page, sometimes known as a "lead capture page", "single property page", "static page", "squeeze page" or a "destination page", is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search engine optimized s ...

to stories satirizing the tactics of rapists and

rape culture Rape culture is a setting, studied by several sociological theories, in which rape is pervasive and normalized due to societal attitudes about gender and sexuality. Behaviors commonly associated with rape culture include victim blaming, slut-s ...

. The website has an office in the

Flatiron District The Flatiron District is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, named after the Flatiron Building at 23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Generally, the Flatiron District is bounded by 14th Street, Union Square and Green ...

of Manhattan, New York. In October 2016, ''Reductress'' released a book, ''How To Win At Feminism: The Definitive Guide To Having It All—And Then Some!'' Written by Newell, Pappalardo, and

Anna Drezen Anna Drezen is an American writer, actress, and comedian who has written for television comedies like ''Miracle Workers'', ''Girls5eva'', Murderville, and ''Saturday Night Live'', where she served as Head Writer during seasons 46 and 47. Her next ...

, the book was published by

HarperOne HarperOne is a publishing imprint of HarperCollins, specializing in books that aim to "transform, inspire, change lives, and influence cultural discussions." Under the original name of Harper San Francisco, the imprint was founded in 1977 by 13 em ...

Style and content

''Reductress'' is a feminist

news satire News satire or news comedy is a type of parody presented in a format typical of mainstream journalism, and called a satire because of its content. News satire has been around almost as long as journalism itself, but it is particularly popular on t ...

site. Conceived as a parody of women's magazines and the

clickbait Clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise mis ...

headlines they often employ, the site gradually expanded its focus to satirizing the ways women's media attempt to capitalize on feminism while still espousing values "that make omenfeel inadequate." The site has also parodied aspects of feminism, such as

white feminism White feminism is a term used to describe expressions of feminism which are perceived as focusing on white women while failing to address distinct forms of oppression faced by ethnic minority The term 'minority group' has different usages de ...

or feminism that lacks awareness of privilege. ''Reductress'' publishes satirical

s, news stories, confessionals,

s, and profiles, paired with a

stock photo Stock photography is the supply of photographs which are often licensed for specific uses. The stock photo industry, which began to gain hold in the 1920s, has established models including traditional macrostock photography, midstock photography, ...

. The style of its articles has been compared to that of ''The Onion''. Newell and Pappalardo have expressed interest in creating more video content for the site.

Reception

Gaby Dunn Gabe Dunn (born June 1, 1988) is an American writer, actor, pop journalist, comedian, LGBTQ activist, and podcaster. They were a writer and director for BuzzFeed Video, before leaving to focus on their YouTube comedy show and podcast ''Just Betw ...

of ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown ...

'' described ''Reductress'' as "not only biting, 'goes-there' hilarious, uta fantastic, sad, and much-needed look at the way the media talks down to women". Writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', Morwenna Ferrier said that the site's "headlines are cutting, but the comedy is sometimes subtle enough to dupe readers", citing the headline "We're Piercing My Baby's Tongue" as an example. Brian Raftery opined in ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'' that ''Reductress'' "quickly became one of the funniest and most focused humor outlets on the web" with articles like "Actually, I'm an Intersectional Men's Rights Activist" and "How To Friendzone Ethan While He's Still Inside You". Particular praise was levied for ''Reductress'' August 2016 series of articles regarding rape which were viewed as a powerful reaction to a national pattern of sexual violence and a strong example of the power of humor to "confront even the most seemingly unseemly topics, so long as it's done with honesty, empathy, and a shit-ton of sagacious fury."

References

External links

* {{official website, http://reductress.com/ Mass media in New York City Internet properties established in 2013 Satirical magazines published in the United States Online magazines published in the United States American satirical websites Feminist websites

History

Style and content

Reception

See also

References

External links