Let’s Hear It for Aunthood
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/fashion/lets-hear-it-for-aunthood.html?pagewanted=1&ref=fashionI think this nutgraf is well done:
In June, the Pew Research Center reported that nearly 1 in 5 American women in her early 40s has never had a child — compared with 1 in 10 in the 1970s. I suspect the Census Bureau doesn’t have a line tallying the current aunt population. But it stands to reason that as women marry and have children later, if at all, they have more time to enjoy being an aunt. How many of these single, childless women wonder, as I have, if being an aunt beats being a mother?
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The article is two pages long and the nutgraf is in the third paragraph. It really tells you why this article was written and what to expect. I definetely wanted to continue reading... to learn more about that topic.
The nutgraf is an interesting slide from data to "it stands to reason." In my experience that's normally fatal to facts but in this case well serves a fashion section piece. The author essentially "reasons" reality and runs with it. As Gerta points out, it works.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I read such assertions, however, I have an instinctive assignment editor mentality to test them.
Could it be there are less aunts in some segments of society? As women defer childbearing, one child born creates one mother, but can potentially create two or three aunts (depending, of course, on the number of sisters or sister-in-laws)?
How do young mothers feel about sharing childhood with childless sib aunts? Is it a time and care-share blessing, or is there some smoldering resentment of a sibling who wants it all (i.e., a chance be a professional yet participate in the fun parts of being a mom).
In some segments, so aunts do more than just enjoy the fun of raising children? Are they a needed, integral, expected, and economically critical part of communal child raising?
If there are fewer natural birth aunts by birth, what creates and defines an "aunt" -- and what role do they play-- in non-traditional families?
Do other marketers target aunts? How?
I think this is also what a nutgraf does -- by linking the story to context or something larger -- it provides a path for a longer story line.
Cheers,
Lee
Hi Lee,
ReplyDeleteI can see that you do not exactly belong to the fashion+lifestyle fraction (do you say that in English? it's more or less a German expression), don't you? ;-)
To me, the quellazaire and the "I Don't Know How She Does It" fashion did their job perfectly...
still: you made very interesting remarks.
No, I liked it just fine. It made me think. That's why the nutgraf works -- it makes the reader start making connections with serious and not so serious angles of the story.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting it!
While writing on the anthropology of clothing, we made some lifelong friends who work for the Right Bank fashion houses. After my youngest daughter's experience at Le Cordon Bleu taught her that being a chef was very hard work, she is on track to be a cultural/fashion writer. I suspect that I shall be spending some time near a very different type of runway later in life. ;)
...but I know a lot more about beer than fashion!
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