A magazine inspired by the iconic teen magazines of the ’90s, their young female audiences, and their stereotypically “girly” content: makeup, boys, pop stars, fashion, and horoscopes. Frivolous topics, treated frivolously, for a frivolous audience.
But who are the grown-up readers who once devoured those magazines?
We’ve decided to shift our gaze away from what the spotlight chooses to show, searching instead in the shadows for new realities, (sub)cultures, perspectives, and voices.
The leftovers.
Our aim is to break the expectations of cultural communication by adopting irony as a constant and intelligent filter, without trivializing the complexity of the issues we address.
Ours is a statement of intent: we are smarter than we appear—or rather, smarter than we were made to believe we are.
—-
We’re literally a magazine.
We talk about makeup, pop stars, fashion, music, horoscopes, gossip, love and sex… basically: frivolous topics handled in a frivolous way by frivolous people, for a frivolous audience.
Frivolous, light, shallow, silly, childish, inconsistent, and on and on and on.
Even more: stupid, narrow-minded, idiots, women.
Poor you.
Believe it or not, we’re smarter than we let on.
Or rather, we’re smarter than you think we are.
Literally.
#01 SO SMART
MANIFESTO
INDEX (this magazine is available exclusively in Italian)
- Intelligenza Erotica
Essere attrattə dall’intelligenza sembra rivoluzionario, finchè non rischia di diventare elogio dell’élite mascherato da sensibilità culturale - Quanto 6 Sapiosexxxx?
Scoprilo con il nostro Test - Francamente, Veronica
Raccontino - Titoli che non vedrai l’ora di consigliare a chi non te l’ha chiesto
Reading is Fundamental Visual Pleasure - GAM3
Letteralmente dei giochini da fare con lə amə - Mangia mema ama
Contenuti apparentemente semplici e divertenti dietro cui si celano complessi meccanismi socio-culturali (peso) - Corso di Recupero PxP
Cantare canzoni con testi discutibili è male, ma non sapere cosa si canta, in qualunque caso, è peggio - L’ultima avanguardia estetica
Il brutto è tutto ciò che ci è rimasto - ASTROPORN
Scopri il tuo sex toy zodiacale
CURATOR’S NOTE
On Inclusive Language
In recent years, a broad debate has emerged in Italy concerning possible ways to make our language more inclusive.
At present, no definitive solution has yet been identified to overcome gender binarism and the use of the masculine as a default.
LETTERALMENTE has chosen to use the schwa /ə/ in its publications. It is a neutral vowel sound that is widely used in English and in several Italian dialects. While we are aware that this is not the only possible alternative, this is the approach we have chosen to adopt.
Language evolves as the needs of its speakers evolve, and we are all part of this change.
LETTERALMENTE is produced by the M-Cube Foundation.
Curated by Grita
Graphic design by Simona Rapisarda
Copy by Grita, Elena Maria Casella, Emanuela Zilio
Coordination by Emanuela Zilio, Fabrizio Modina