The Times Fashion Writer Tries To Master The Art Of Apologizing

By Richard Connelly Fri., Aug. 14 2009 at 12:18 PM

Categories: Whatever

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On Wednesday we wrote about a New York Times review of the new JC Penney store in Manhattan, in which writer Cintra Wilson spent much of the piece articulating the lack of class manifest in the pudgy, butterball-esque people who a) don't live in Manhattan and b) shop at JC Penney.

A lot of other bloggers took notice, too, as did commenters. So Wilson apologized on her blog. It took her three times to get it right.

The first, which apparently was taken down, was preserved by New York magazine: "I don't have any negative feelings at all about extra weight -- I think fat is totally sexy and gorgeous. I saw the light on this way before I interviewed Beth Ditto, even. I'm an unregenerate chubby chaser. I didn't write the piece from an inner place of look-ist elitism or anti-fat condescension."

Gosh, thanks!!!!
That one didn't fly, so she tried this:

Frankly, people, I think this has all gotten a bit ridiculous. You know I didn't mean it that way, so please remove the knot from your panties and when you're ready, join me for a cigarette and several Pucker martinis at the insouciant end of the pool, and I'll tell you all about the time I inadvertently alienated my best friend for a year when I wrote an article about her wedding.

Insensitively yours,
C

Amazingly, that "apology" didn't seem to fly, so she tried again on her blog, headline "Once more, with feeling":

Because of my personal beliefs as a Buddhist, I very much regret that my JC Penney article in the Times caused any wounded feelings whatsoever, particularly to people who already feel they take more than their share of abuse from our very shallow and ridiculous society. I was not sensitive enough to this, and the extent to which my article exacerbated these feelings is a very real failure on my end for which I sincerely apologize.

"Our very shallow and ridiculous society" -- would that be a society that does reviews of department stores? Just asking.

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