Cute Band Alert!
July 14, 2007 2:08 PM Subscribe
I wish I still had all my old Sassys. And I will always associate Kim France with Kim France Pants.
posted by pinky at 2:59 PM on July 14, 2007
posted by pinky at 2:59 PM on July 14, 2007
To my shame, I was more of a Seventeen/YM kinda guy. Cool post, lalex, thank y- what, I was a voracious reader and my sister had stacks of them, that's all, I swear!
Quit judging me!!!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 3:03 PM on July 14, 2007
Quit judging me!!!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 3:03 PM on July 14, 2007
I'm a guy too. I flipped through Sassy a couple of times in junior high. lalex's excerpt describes me, one hundred percent. That's really, frighteningly weird.
Thanks a lot, girl who foisted those magazines on me!
posted by Reggie Digest at 3:18 PM on July 14, 2007
Thanks a lot, girl who foisted those magazines on me!
posted by Reggie Digest at 3:18 PM on July 14, 2007
Sassy!
posted by empath at 3:23 PM on July 14, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by empath at 3:23 PM on July 14, 2007 [1 favorite]
Sassy was awesome. Hard to believe it's been gone 10+ years. Honestly, the kids today, they would not be cool enough for it even if it were still around.
posted by brain cloud at 3:27 PM on July 14, 2007
posted by brain cloud at 3:27 PM on July 14, 2007
OH MY GOD. I just had a serious SNL flashback.
Lord, I miss Phil Hartman.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:43 PM on July 14, 2007
Lord, I miss Phil Hartman.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:43 PM on July 14, 2007
Damn you. Now I have it in my head... and I know I'm going to say "That's SASSY!" to someone this weekend & they'll have no freaking idea what I'm talking about.
I feel like I'm in a sassy sandwich!
posted by miss lynnster at 3:46 PM on July 14, 2007
I feel like I'm in a sassy sandwich!
posted by miss lynnster at 3:46 PM on July 14, 2007
There was a great article about the authors and the book in this month's Bitch.
posted by allen.spaulding at 3:54 PM on July 14, 2007
posted by allen.spaulding at 3:54 PM on July 14, 2007
I had every issue of Sassy up to 1994. I think it was early 1995 that they were taken over by YM. I'm kicking myself - I don't have any idea where they went, and I'd love to re-read them now.
posted by peep at 4:21 PM on July 14, 2007
posted by peep at 4:21 PM on July 14, 2007
When I was in high school, my then-girlfriend had a huge backlog of Sassy, and I enjoyed them just as much as she did. I think the fact that it had articles which could be read and enjoyed by a guy was part of its appeal that made it beat the crap out of Seventeen, or Tiger Beat or whatever the hell else passed for teenage girl mags. That, or I'm a big 'ol femme.
posted by Durhey at 4:35 PM on July 14, 2007
posted by Durhey at 4:35 PM on July 14, 2007
I miss Sassy.
I subscribed pretty much from the beginning until they were bought out by Petersen. I have no idea what happened to all my old issues - I think they were lost when the basement flooded several years ago. Recently I bought a bunch of back issues of Sassy on Ebay. It was just as interesting to read now as it was then.
posted by SisterHavana at 6:49 PM on July 14, 2007
I subscribed pretty much from the beginning until they were bought out by Petersen. I have no idea what happened to all my old issues - I think they were lost when the basement flooded several years ago. Recently I bought a bunch of back issues of Sassy on Ebay. It was just as interesting to read now as it was then.
posted by SisterHavana at 6:49 PM on July 14, 2007
Didn't they have an advice column called "Dear Boy" that would have guest columnists like Iggy Pop and Thurston Moore? I remember they had a cover story back in 1991 or so that said "Why The Heck Are We in the Persian Gulf?" Now that's sassy!
posted by jonp72 at 7:18 PM on July 14, 2007
posted by jonp72 at 7:18 PM on July 14, 2007
"What's sassy? CDs. What's sissy? Cee dee guys driving."
posted by stavrogin at 8:20 PM on July 14, 2007
posted by stavrogin at 8:20 PM on July 14, 2007
I think my Sassy's got tossed when I went away to college too. But man, what an eye-opener they were for a fat girl growing up in rural TN. I think they played a big part in motivating me to expand my horizons and take chances. I'll always remember my favorite issue- Hairspray era Ricki Lake on the cover with the headline "Ricki Lake has 2 and Half Boyfriends".
posted by kimdog at 8:27 PM on July 14, 2007
posted by kimdog at 8:27 PM on July 14, 2007
Here's a previous MeFi Sassy post.
And as pointed out in the blog's recent post, but not in the comments here, Jane Magazine, founded by Jane Pratt, editor of Sassy, just announced it is shutting down after 10 years.
posted by girlhacker at 11:42 PM on July 14, 2007
And as pointed out in the blog's recent post, but not in the comments here, Jane Magazine, founded by Jane Pratt, editor of Sassy, just announced it is shutting down after 10 years.
posted by girlhacker at 11:42 PM on July 14, 2007
I was working for a worldwide licensing and marketing property at that time and I remember when Sassy hit the shelves.
I was in my late 20's and male. But the people running the place were quite older and had really not progressed (in terms of popular culture) much beyond the 70's. They were aware of some of the movements in youth culture, but they were quite dismissive of them. Try as I might to expose them to what was going on, they just wouldn't buy-in.
And then Sassy came out.
For some reason, having everything I had been trying to expose them to slickly packaged (complete with adverts from major manufacturers) made it all real and legitimate to them. Go figure.
But, yeah, Sassy ruled.
If you weren't in the marketing/advertising/licensing business at that time, you can't imagine the shockwave it created. Throughout that brief period, there were two periodicals you referenced if you needed to keep in touch with youth culture (from a marketing standpoint) Thrasher and Sassy. It was a fun time. And then it all got assimilated.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:32 AM on July 15, 2007
I was in my late 20's and male. But the people running the place were quite older and had really not progressed (in terms of popular culture) much beyond the 70's. They were aware of some of the movements in youth culture, but they were quite dismissive of them. Try as I might to expose them to what was going on, they just wouldn't buy-in.
And then Sassy came out.
For some reason, having everything I had been trying to expose them to slickly packaged (complete with adverts from major manufacturers) made it all real and legitimate to them. Go figure.
But, yeah, Sassy ruled.
If you weren't in the marketing/advertising/licensing business at that time, you can't imagine the shockwave it created. Throughout that brief period, there were two periodicals you referenced if you needed to keep in touch with youth culture (from a marketing standpoint) Thrasher and Sassy. It was a fun time. And then it all got assimilated.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:32 AM on July 15, 2007
Well, that's... SASSY!
I just had to do that again. Before I start saying it to unsuspecting innocent people in real life.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:39 AM on July 15, 2007
I just had to do that again. Before I start saying it to unsuspecting innocent people in real life.
posted by miss lynnster at 7:39 AM on July 15, 2007
Ha! I had subscriptions to both Thrasher and Sassy! I guess that makes me supersassy!
(say a la Mary Katherine Gallagher "superstar!")
I have some, but not all, of my old issues and it's amazing how relevant they are even today. Sassy wasn't afraid to tackle tough stories, and the wonder that was Dear Boy -- wow. When Thurston Moore is telling you it's ok to be [a normal teenager], or Anthony Kiedis is giving you dating advice...damn. Huge.
Anyone else remember Simple Machines? And how, after a blurb about their Mechanic's Guide made it into Sassy, they ended up sending out about a billion1 copies of it, probably causing about two billion2 new indie bands to form in the next few Riot Grrl-infested years? Yeah. Sassy was awesome.
1) total exaggeration
2) complete and utter exaggeration... or maybe not
In the pre-ubiquitous internet years, ordering the zines and other stuff that made it into Sassy's pages were about the only things keeping me sane here in Ohio.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:56 AM on July 15, 2007
(say a la Mary Katherine Gallagher "superstar!")
I have some, but not all, of my old issues and it's amazing how relevant they are even today. Sassy wasn't afraid to tackle tough stories, and the wonder that was Dear Boy -- wow. When Thurston Moore is telling you it's ok to be [a normal teenager], or Anthony Kiedis is giving you dating advice...damn. Huge.
Anyone else remember Simple Machines? And how, after a blurb about their Mechanic's Guide made it into Sassy, they ended up sending out about a billion1 copies of it, probably causing about two billion2 new indie bands to form in the next few Riot Grrl-infested years? Yeah. Sassy was awesome.
1) total exaggeration
2) complete and utter exaggeration... or maybe not
In the pre-ubiquitous internet years, ordering the zines and other stuff that made it into Sassy's pages were about the only things keeping me sane here in Ohio.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:56 AM on July 15, 2007
Sign me up for the "folks tossed my Sassys when I was at school" club.
Jane never really got me. It never seemed "the magazine for women who grew up on Sassy." It was like, someone's mom who saw your issues of Sassy and then used that to try and get you to be their friend while dropping slang to sound hip.
I think Sassy did change my life. I remember when they first started running a column about sewing. One month would be a skirt made out of ties and a altered shirt by Todd Oldham. Another would be a gothy net skirt.
Until that point I don't think any "teen" media outlets ever even commented that sewing existed as a skill and a hobby, much less praised it as something cool to do.
I really wonder if that DIY attitude helped spark the current generation of women into sewing, knitting, and the like, since Sassy was the first teen outlet to make it seem cool to be crafty.
posted by Kellydamnit at 9:28 AM on July 15, 2007
Jane never really got me. It never seemed "the magazine for women who grew up on Sassy." It was like, someone's mom who saw your issues of Sassy and then used that to try and get you to be their friend while dropping slang to sound hip.
I think Sassy did change my life. I remember when they first started running a column about sewing. One month would be a skirt made out of ties and a altered shirt by Todd Oldham. Another would be a gothy net skirt.
Until that point I don't think any "teen" media outlets ever even commented that sewing existed as a skill and a hobby, much less praised it as something cool to do.
I really wonder if that DIY attitude helped spark the current generation of women into sewing, knitting, and the like, since Sassy was the first teen outlet to make it seem cool to be crafty.
posted by Kellydamnit at 9:28 AM on July 15, 2007
« Older Giant Squid Kinetic Sculpture | Sketchy Evidence Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
Oh, I miss you Sassy. Thanks for the memories.
posted by k8t at 2:39 PM on July 14, 2007