Inspired by Amanda Hess’s look at New York Times trend pieces — pieces that are usually about such pressing topics as “women are too successful to get married” and “women go to Ivy League schools in order to get married” and “some women have chicken coops” and “some hipsters are fat because they are no longer threatened by women in the work place” and “there are men who own cats” — I think we should give the Times a hand. Clearly, most of their contributors are just writing about their own friends in small-ish New York media circles that revolve around the Upper West Side, the Village and Brownstone Brooklyn, where chicken coops and pet choices are breaking news.
So we should help them out. What stupid, insular things do you observe within your social group that should grace the pages of the New York Times? Here are my suggestions:
-Women: Some of them make “your mom” jokes, while some go with the clearly inferior “that’s what she said.” Conflicts abound.
-Young singles widely entertained by watching YouTube clips of cats attacking babies
-Twentysomethings: Still quoting Adam Sandler movies like it’s the 90s
-Ladies Love Flea Markets
-Brunch the new “it” meal (Lead: As more women enter the workforce, brunch has become the most important meal of the week, and women who perform highly in their jobs dedicate the same diligence to their search for the perfect bloody mary. But in “brunching,” as it is commonly called, are women forsaking the traditional dinner date — and possibly marriage?).
-Gross-out humor revolving around farts and menstruation, as well as wry commentary about touching yourself and then crying and falling asleep alone, all the rage among young single female professionals.
-Antique shops thrive as young women seek to imitate the pages of Domino
-The new sign of responsible adulthood for urban women: Houseplants that you manage to not kill
-Move over, chocolate; cheese is the new female indulgence.
In other news, I have discovered that my peer group has the interests of 13-year-old boys and 85-year-old women.
Leave your ideas for Incisive New York Times Trend Stories in the comments.