Ginia Bellafante (born March 31, 1965) is an American critic and columnist for The New York Times.[1]

Ginia Bellafante
Born (1965-03-31) March 31, 1965 (age 59)
United States
Occupations
  • Journalist
  • television critic

Career

edit

Bellafante worked as a TV and cultural critic at Time until 1999.[2] She then joined The New York Times as a fashion critic, and later worked as a television critic before joining the Metropolitan section covering New York City. In 2011, she began writing "Big City", "a weekly column dedicated to life, culture, politics and policy in New York City".[1]

Criticism

edit

In 1998, Bellafante wrote a cover story for Time, "Is Feminism Dead?", claiming that young feminists care primarily about "their bodies" and "themselves".[3] The story was critiqued by Erica Jong of The New York Observer, who said, "Time's idiotic cover story on feminism is, in short, a symptom of what's wrong, not an analysis."[4] Janelle Brown of Salon called it "poorly thought-out".[5]

Bellafante's New York Times review in 2011 of Game of Thrones was criticized by some as sexist for suggesting that only sexual content might motivate women to watch a complex fantasy story.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12]

In April 2020, Bellafante came under fire for linking Fox News's and, in particular, Sean Hannity's, coverage of COVID-19 to a New York man's death.[13] The man had contracted the virus while on a cruise, which he had decided to take after consuming media that had downplayed the threat of the virus. Some considered several parts of the story misleading; in particular, remarks by Hannity reported in the article were made after the cruise had already begun.[14] Bellafante herself had also downplayed the virus two months earlier, saying she didn't understand why people weren't traveling to China.[14][15]

Personal

edit

Bellafante is a native of Long Island, and lives in New York City with her husband and their son.

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "Ginia Bellafante". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
  2. ^ Bellafante, Ginia (June 29, 1998). "Feminism: It's All About Me!". Time. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  3. ^ "Is Feminism Dead?". Time. June 29, 1998. cover. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  4. ^ Jong, Erica (July 12, 1998). "Ally McBeal and Time Magazine Can't Keep the Good Women Down". The New York Observer. Retrieved January 10, 2015.
  5. ^ Brown, Janelle (June 25, 1998). "Is Time brain-dead?". Salon.com. Archived from the original on April 24, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  6. ^ Teitelbaum, Ilana (April 16, 2011). "Dear New York Times: A Game of Thrones Is Not Just for Boys". HuffPost. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  7. ^ Griner, David (April 15, 2011). "'Times' irks geek girls with 'Thrones' review". Adweek. Archived from the original on April 18, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  8. ^ Ratcliffe, Amy (April 15, 2011). "A Response to the NY Times Game of Thrones Review". Tor.com. Tor Books. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  9. ^ Seitz, Matt Zoller (April 16, 2011). "Slate, New York Times to fantasy buffs: Grow up". Salon.com. Archived from the original on April 19, 2011. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  10. ^ Barnett, David. "Game of Thrones: Girls want to play, too". The Guardian. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
  11. ^ Bellafante, Ginia (April 19, 2011). "Pull Up a Throne and Let's Talk". The New York Times. Retrieved April 25, 2011.
  12. ^ Rosenberg, Alyssa (May 10, 2011). "Why Women Love Fantasy Literature". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 11, 2011.
  13. ^ Bellafante, Ginia (April 18, 2020). "A Beloved Bar Owner Was Skeptical About the Virus. Then He Took a Cruise". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  14. ^ a b "NYT Story Rebuking Fox for Coronavirus Coverage Written by Reporter Who Tweeted 'Virus is Not Deadly'". Mediaite. April 20, 2020.
  15. ^ @GiniaNYT (February 27, 2020). "Replying to @euanrellie: I fundamentally don't understand the panic: incidence of the disease is declining in China. Virus is not deadly in vast majority of cases. Production and so on will slow down and will obviously rebound. cc: @opinion_joe" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
edit