By M. Stephanie Murray
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 9, 1997

Welcome to the Girl Wide Web

Images from www.bust.com Arizona Daily Wildcat

Technology, it is said, has no gender. But a number of women are taking over the Web and carving out a girl-centric corner of the Internet.

This does not mean that you male readers are excused. We've all seen you flipping through our Cosmos and Mademoiselles; yeah, you think you're looking for bare breasts illustrating health stories, but we know you wind up reading the advice columns and taking the quizzes. Trust me, you'll do the same thing with these two sites.

First up, Maxi (www.maximag.com). This online zine claims to be "a place where we can read intelligent thoughts on the issues and objects that have meaning in our lives, whether it's lipstick or politics or sex."

The highlight of Maxi is the Raw Nerve section, which keeps an eye on pop culture, constantly looking for the annoying, the condescending and the just plain stupid. Some recent rants include the insipid interview questions at the Miss Teen USA pageant ("How old do you plan to be when you have children?") and NBC's entirely patronizing promotion of its Monday block of "women's" sitcoms.

Since this is a woman-targeted zine, there are also the requisite body and fashion/makeup sections. But they, too, are given a spin.

These aren't articles so much as personal essays with a smattering of facts and quotes, making for a refreshing change from the average magazine offering. "Consume" (the section dedicated to "What we buy and why we buy it") contains a meditation on the whys of nail polish and an ode to M.A.C. cosmetics.

In a slightly snottier vein, there's Bust (www.bust.com). Pitching itself as "the voice of the New Girl Order," the web site offers access to the hard copy of the zine. Past themes include "The Sex Issue," "The Men We Love Issue" and "The Bad Girls Issue." Courtney Love has guest columned (for the "Bad Girls Issue," natch), Iggy Pop has been interviewed and sex tips for boys have been offered. It's been a while since the last online update, but what's there is plenty for now.

One of Bust's most helpful features is their list of links to what they call the "Girl Wide Web." Under the "Girly Sites" section there are more sites than you can shake a curling iron at. The "Shopping" heading features plenty of bust-approved boutiques for the online retail binger. And, of course, there's "Sex."

Bust and Maxi are both taking the Riot Grrrl image and running with it. As far as these chicks are concerned, there's nothing anti-feminist about lipstick and pretty undies. And there's nothing anti-feminine about surfing the web.