Me again.

I'm a writer. As a published romance writer I got stung more than once by journalists who interviewed me and either twisted my words/story to fit their preconception about that they wanted a story about "romance writers" to be, or who took things I said out of context and ran with them. (This was not difficult to do the first couple of times, because I tend to be either a smartass, or to use self-deprecating humor.)

A journalist friend told me, every good journalist goes into an interview knowing the story they want to write, and interviews accordingly, but if they're good, they drop that idea as soon as you give them a better one.
So what am I saying? The temptation to chat easily with a writer/reporter/journalist is natural, but you never know what will come back and bite you in your wide bum, kick you with your wide feet, or clip you with your cheaters.

Bottom line, that was never meant to be an article of profiles; it was always meant to be advertising masquerading as a "makeover" article for which they needed real women. They knew what they wanted when they interviewed you, even though you didn't. I'm not sure it's really that awful a thing, considering what the press can and does do to celebrities, political figures, etc.

I suggest that the three TE women write a joint letter to the editor where they briefly list their accomplishments (that were left out of the profiles) and voice their disgust with how their images were used.

But I really think a personal article in Salon or elsewhere could be interesting and entertaining and infuriating while it makes a number of valid points about how women are viewed, but from the magazine's point of view they probably didn't do anything wrong.

I think the real issues where I believe the magazine really hurt us are:

A) They only put this section in some of the magazines.

B) Their "makeover" was totally superficial and expensive -- and had nothing to do with training and serious cycling.

Bite me, Buycycling.

And what other mags are out there instead?

(By the way, I got the issue with the women's section; my subscription is in my name, obviously female. What about the others of you? Female name, female section?)