Piling on the Styles Section, Yet Again

The New York Times public editor has a complaint: the Styles section is too… something. Too ripe sometimes with “absurdity and overstatement” in identifying and executing “trend stories.” She was not happy with the story about dyeing one’s underarm hair.

It did pretty well on social media though!

Obviously that story credentialed the fact that such a thing exists:

The Internet, it turns out, is up to its armpits with women who dye theirs. Miley Cyrus displayed her newly pink underarms in a photo she posted to Instagram on May 1, drawing more than 396,000 likes and more than 30,000 comments. On Instagram, more than 700 photos of women (and a handful of men) have been posted with the hashtag #dyedpits. And a blog post by Roxie Hunt, a Seattle hairstylist, “How to Dye Your Armpit Hair,” has been shared more than 37,000 times since it was published in October.

That credentialing lends itself to a fundamental misreading from inside the house. It’s an assertion of existence — a necessary statement in, you know, a newspaper. Everyone calls these trend stories. But that’s us, out here. Here’s former Styles editor turned Times fashion critic Alexandra Jacobs.

.@Sulliview would argue Styles covered these topics not as “trends” — now more pejorative than “liberal” — but phenomena. http://t.co/XhKxq2GdiP

— Alexandra Jacobs (@AlexandraJacobs) August 12, 2015

@jayrosen_nyu @Sulliview who’s callin’ them trend pieces?

— Alexandra Jacobs (@AlexandraJacobs) August 12, 2015

@jayrosen_nyu @Sulliview some are hating, some are relating, some are aghast, some are amused. It’s a gorgeous mosaic.

— Alexandra Jacobs (@AlexandraJacobs) August 12, 2015

Everyone wants to kick the Styles section! Obviously, we have very strong feelings about this. Can’t we leave poor Styles alone? It really does have problems of its own to deal with.