Double X is Done!

My new favorite site is folding back into Slate. Tears:

After some deliberation, we have decided to fold DoubleX back into Slate. The site will now become its own section, with our XX Factor blog, articles, and special projects already in the works. Our aim is to create a more intimate version of the community we have built, with many of the same voices and passions.

For many of you, this won't much change your experience of reading us. We will have many of the same bloggers and writers, and Hanna and Emily will continue to run the project. The decision is being made for business reasons rather than as an editorial judgment. In fact, it's the editorial quality of the site, and the way in which it so perfectly embodies the Slate DNA, that makes this a natural next step. This is a new phase, not an ending—since we came out of Slate, where we started XX Factor, it's a return to our roots.

While I have been lax in keeping up with the original XX Factor blog since I've made an effort to check the site regularly, I do really enjoy the core group of writers, and I love their focus on friendship--from the advice column to "Your Comeback" to their takes on everything from the health care bill to their own personal projects. Occasionally I wondered if they would ever have days where they would seem to run out of content, but on greater thought, that's silly--there is always news to decipher, situations to parse. And men's sites recycle far more than Double X will ever.

Double X wasn't a "feminist" site, as the editors of Bitch lamented this week on their podcast, but it was a woman's space--and not harsh, or overly cutesy, or any other affected attitude. They were real, but not in the "in your face real" that real usually means. They were friends, they were fun, they were smart, they were critical, and they were awesome.

I want to be Hanna Rosin or Emily Bazelon when I grow up.

P.S. Their Gabfest is also by far the best Slate podcast out there.