Friday, August 7, 2009

Good Thing Friday.

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.

3 comments:

  1. If O isn't a woman's magazine then I'm afraid its time for me to head west, young man, head west.

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  2. I'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.

    Also, LOVE the idea for Good Things Fridays!

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  3. That IS one good thing.
    I decided to go to Sweet Pea Festival with friends & enjoy myself! What a concept for this self-critical worker bee!

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