Look, here’s the deal:
Nobody is denying that Rookie does pretty good stuff. They encourage girl friendships and try to get rid of the cliche that being a teenage girl is stupid or essentially vapid. They incorporate feminism into their stuff and make it easier for girls to get into, better than Bitch and Bust are doing (because they’re target group is 18+). Rookie does great on those fronts.
The problem is that’s as far as feminism goes there. Feminism is this thing about “girls being just as capable as boys,” being affirmed in femininity, and liking things that have a “feminist” edge. Beyond that, there’s no incorporation of intersectionality - which is the foundation of third-wave feminism. People are not mad at the Rookie staff because they secretly hate them or whatever, it’s because all of them proclaim to be feminists of this day and age and still suck at intersectionality. There is no excuse for not knowing that putting bindis on white bodies is cultural appropriation. There is no excuse for not knowing that there are starving people right over the fence in your own neighborhood. There is no excuse not to put darker girls of color in your photoshoots. There is no excuse not to know about trans* issues and support trans* folk. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR NOT CRITICALLY THINKING, PERIOD.
Do you want people to leave you alone? Do you want the criticisms to stop? Then fucking act on what people are telling you and change! Don’t fucking leave and run away, thinking that people will forget about it. Just take their words to heart and work on it. The reason why I’m mad is because I don’t want to see girls like this raising the flag of Rookie if that’s not what y’all stand for, but say nothing when it happens. It’s an indication that your feminism isn’t really feminism, and its a disgrace in this day and age that you can call yourself a feminist and get away with being racist.
