'beauty' magazines
helena (helenak@geocities.com)
Sat, 09 Aug 1997 00:07:36 +0100
i've been on holidays, but i've been listening in on the list. i just
didn't have anything to say. now i do.
1. you missed me! i never thought you people would! i was in donegal and
galway and have been on the piss (read drinking) for the two weeks. (no
ibiza for me, just gray skies, green fields, and weird, freakish, inbred
relations). by the way, galway is *really* cool. i haven't had as much
fun in a long, long time. if i even look at another glass of pernod, i
swear, i'll puke.
2. women's magazines. hmm. mind control, whatever, call it what you
will, but women's magazines are full of tall, thin women because THAT IS
WHAT SELLS. If women to didn't want to read about "how to make him love
you more", or "50 steps to the perfect body" then the magazines wouldn't
be sucessful. i hate to say it, but the consumer, in the long run, is
the person who determines the content of cosmo, mlle, et al, and for the
time being the consumer wants that shit.
it's women who write them, buy them, and read them. you can only
conclude that at least *some* women like those magazines, and they have
the right to do so.
i agree that they are crap (that's why i was so surprised when i found
out salinger had published in cosmo and elle) but people who read them
are still *people*. just because you'd like to be 6', or get a kick out
of glamorous pictures, or like to read about the latest make-up colours,
it doesn't mean you're a lesser person.
> We are never
> allowed to be "ourselves" and the images that we are told we "should" be.
> Its absolutely ridculas.
now you're telling *me* that *i* shouldn't read cosmo. i'm getting
confused here. if i want to look at an average figure of average
prettiness, and average beauty, i'll look in a mirror. if i want to look
at beautiful women wearing stunning clothes that i can never afford,
i'll read a fashion magazine. does that make me an oppressed media
whore? an object of misogyny? a self loathing nervous wreck?
oh please. it's only fashion. it's only light entertainment. people
don't use the articles as bibles . it's just something to flip through
when you're bored. (or in the hair-dresser obeying cosmo's order to get
this season's cut)
<insert tongue in cheek smiley face here to indicate good natured
intentions>
this over-long rant should probably include a discussion on our own
resident mag reading gal, muriel, but i'm tired and i'm falling asleep
at the computer.
anyone else notice that my opinion has turned almost 180 degrees since i
started this post? oh well. these things happen. good night.
--
:helena
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/4801/