I caved and bought a fashion magazine today, Marie Claire, even though I told myself I would stop. It's another one with Maggie Gyllenhaal on the cover.
I've been trying to cut my consumption of fashion magazines ever since Elle pissed me off a couple months ago. It was the "body" issue, and the subtext throughout the entire issue was that of "of course you want to look like a model, and lament the fact that you never will". Which is pretty much modus operandi for fashion magazines. But. They ran an (actually pretty intelligent) article by a man who explained that he would rather date real, flawed women instead of perfect models. When I read it, I was really grateful that the magazine took the time to acknowledge that the majority of its readership does not, in fact, look perfect. But later, when I had time to think it over, I realized how pathetic it was for me to be lapping up the one article, just two pages, that the magazine provided. In a sea of thinspiration, the magazine threw out one bone of sanity, and I gobbled it up happily. That's bullshit. If a magazine is going to embrace women of all different shapes and sizes, they better spread it allll over the magazine.
I stopped buying Vogue a long time ago. There's too much of a whiff of the old lady who wears ostentatious furs and the attitude "I know you can't afford this, and will never be able to, but this is how you should be living, you plebe."
Marie Claire started off the entertainment section by giving me a "food pyramid" of my August tv shows. Not suggesting. Not promoting. Telling. I don't take well to being told. Especially by a magazine. (Also, given that the tv I'll watch this month runs more along the lines of Buffy, Firefly and the Olympics, I doubt I'll ever turn on Californication and The Wire.)
Nylon is okay sometimes, but gets a little too vapid and consumeristic for my tastes, not to mention thinking that it's way more indie than it really is. And I still really like Teen Vogue, because it really doesn't try to be more than just a "how to" guide for teens with no money.
I really should have just saved my pennies for an Elle UK. Dang.
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Writings by a girl who lives inside her head
(and is trying to climb out).
1 comment:
I have a Vogue subscription right now, but am seriously considering canceling it because of my growing indifference to the magazine. I remember years ago when my sister and I picked up the fall fashion issue at an optometry office, and wowed over all the photoshoots and all-around prettiness. Vogue seems annoyingly bland now, half-heartedly put together and more fit for older women than folks our age.
If a magazine is going to embrace women of all different shapes and sizes, they better spread it allll over the magazine.
I agree. But I don't think the fashion industry is going to change the skinny-is-perfection ideology anytime soon. And as much as I don't like to admit it, clothes these days do look better on slim people.
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