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1. “Smile, You’re Speaking Emoji,” Adam Sternbergh’s cover story on the evolution of the wordless language, seemed to delight readers, many of whom offered their own theories on the meanings and origins of this nonverbal communication (November 17–23). “It’s surprising that the article never mentions the emoticon,” the forebear of emoji, wrote perkin.warbeck. New York commenter readymade thought it was a mistake to call the use of emoji an “evolution”: “Emoji are pictograms. They’re as old as human history. Pictograms are the origin of writing. It’s really a devolution.” Grey580 noted that “90% of human communication is non-verbal. So we’re geared for this sort of thing.” Asher2789 wrote: “Emoji adds context to text messages, since text messages lack context clues. There’s no body language, no tone of voice—none of that. Emoji is filling a void in texting, to some extent.” Several commenters were just impressed with the article’s ambition: Dan Gibson at the Tucson Weekly wrote a post titled, simply, “The New York Magazine Article on Emoji Is Spectacular.” “I think the best writing is when you find yourself in the middle of an article fascinated about a subject you wouldn’t otherwise find interesting,” he wrote. “Adam Sternbergh’s cover story on the evolution of emoji falls into that category.” “Deconstructing the Semiotics of Emoji?” wrote Killerbee0925. “… This is a masterpiece of scholarship.”
2. “Neither logic nor common sense seems to apply to the seismic force of female hysteria that follows Cumberbatch wherever he goes,” wrote Jada Yuan in her controversial piece on the British movie star (“Benedict and the Cumberbitches,” November 17–23). Some fans of Benedict Cumberbatch were offended at Yuan’s characterization of their reverence: “This article only represents a minority of the fandom,” wrote Princesse Lapine. “I can’t believe we’re still represented as ‘shrieking’ and ‘talking’ fangirls.” Johnlockhedgehog149 agreed: “Boys can watch porn and look at any of the infinite sexualized pictures of female celebrities and it is them being normal. But if we look at a picture of an actor we like and reblog with a comment about his body, we are crazed, immature, silly little girls who should be openly mocked for it.” The story’s photos—depicting a group of women, their faces pressed up against the windows of his car, chasing him down—became a particular source of online ire. “I know it’s a reference to the Beatles, but again, it’s making us seem like we can’t control ourselves,” wrote one Tumblr user. “In fact, if we see him on the street, we casually go up and ask for a photo or signature, or just to say we like his work.” Blogger Clareiow worried fans would turn on Cumberbatch for the way he seemed to play along with the photo-shoot conceit and stepped in to defend him: “This photo shoot was probably very rushed. He was spotted at the offices during a day when he appeared on countless talk shows and morning programs in the middle of what has, frankly, been a mind-blowing couple of weeks of intensive press and promo.” She also suggested that Cumberbatch wasn’t aware of what the final images would look like: “We know all those women were Photoshopped in.” (In fact, the women were all on set with Cumberbatch.) Others took issue with the phrase Cumberbitch. Wrote Tumblr user “Benedict—Cumberbatch,” in a message addressed to Yuan, “Most of us do not like being called ‘Cumberbitches,’ so can you please stop using that term. You even acknowledged later in the article that some of us don’t prefer the term, so I don’t understand why you would still decide to use it.” Others defended the word, which Cumberbatch himself has dismissed as doing a disservice to women. “I remember the interview in which he said he thinks ‘Cumberbitch’ sets back feminism,” said RoxRow81. “A man telling a fandom of women (who choose that name on their own) what they can and can’t call themselves is actually not all that great for feminism either. It’s called autonomy, Benedict. We Cumberbitches can call ourselves whatever we like.” After a long day of back-and-forths with her critics, Yuan tweeted this: “The takeaway here is that we should all drink more pisco sours.”