Women's magazines: Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman ...
SISTERS, are we under siege? Assaulted from all sides by those weapons of the fashion/beauty industry (magazines) which tell us who is beautiful, and what is fashionable, and offer to help fix our unappealing ordinariness? An ordinariness that is usually defined by fat, or blotchy skin, or disorderly body hair that stops women from finding and satisfying “Mr Right”, and a fix involving new “must have” products which promise longer glossy hair and perfect skin? When realise that your “glossy mag” leaves you strangely dissatisfied, read The Vagenda, a book born from a blog, and an “indispensable guide to the madness of women’s media”.
Magazines, like mood disorders or income can be placed on a spectrum, ranging from Vogue, Elle, Red, Cosmo, to Gratzia, Company, and VIP before fading into Now! Chat, Closer and Take a Break. Some focus on actresses and singers and some on reality TV stars, but the confusing messages are the same. These fashionable, glamorous women are not safe from being insulted by the same magazines that tell us we must aspire to look and be like them to be happy.
