As I continue to cast about for a focus on this here blog, I have a new idea today. On Fridays, let's remember one thing we've done - recently, in the past, whenever - that was A Good Thing.
As my links on the right show, I love the website Jezebel. It's a Gawker site with my perfect balance of politics, feminism, fashion, gossip, hard news, woman-focused op-ed, and chatter in the comment threads. They are known for a feature called "Photoshop of Horrors" in which they find the original photo of, say, Faith Hill, and compare it to the Photoshopped version that makes the magazine cover.
So today, a Photoshopped Kelly Clarkson on SELF magazine becomes more evidence (as if we need more) for the ongoing woman-hating at commercial healthy/beauty/fashion mags, and I thought, Yes! I know what Good Thing I have for this Friday!
A few years ago, maybe 2003?, I gave up women's magazines. I stopped buying, borrowing or even stopping in the grocery store a few minutes of Cosmo, Self, Shape, etc. And you know what? I feel better. I actually do. I've slipped up here and there, but overall, the promises of "Look Better By Saturday!" and "Sexier Sex: Hellooooo Satisfaction" are silly, hollow, and it turns out, completely unneeded. I do absolutely OK in those departments - and more - on my own.
So if nothing else can be cheered today, at least I can cheer myself for not giving my money to the punishing cycle of fat-shaming, false-imagery-promoting, confidence-smashing monthly magazines. I refuse to participate in their little tiny corner of the world that seeks to make women feel badly about who they Are, and that is a good Friday thing.
Now. The addiction to subscribing to The New Yorker and its attendant guilt is something else entirely.
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If O isn't a woman's magazine then I'm afraid its time for me to head west, young man, head west.
ReplyDeleteI'm basically done with the "fashion" mags. A few years ago I picked up a Women's Health and really liked it. I felt like it focused on actual health instead of celebrity inspired mindsets. Fast forward a few years. At some point they started putting celebrity's on their covers. I feel like the whole thing has run screaming down hill. Now every time I get one in the mail (b/c I'm somewhere in the middle of a 2 year subscription) I get kind of sad. Especially b/c it's like they just rotate the exact same headlines every few months. Blah.
ReplyDeleteAlso, LOVE the idea for Good Things Fridays!
That IS one good thing.
ReplyDeleteI decided to go to Sweet Pea Festival with friends & enjoy myself! What a concept for this self-critical worker bee!