Of course, I don't read this insane magazine but I always stare at it at the supermarket checkout. The way they see a woman's world is beyond offensive. Look at the cover of magazine A, for example. The central article on how to "melt fat" is accompanied by two articles providing recipes for pasta and mocha fudge cake. Plus an article on Hollywood hairstyles. All this is followed by articles on how to get rid of stress and achieve a good mood. Of course, if you spend your life cooking, dieting, and maintaining a Hollywood hairdo in the process, your mood might become pretty lousy.
Now let's look at the cover of magazine B. Three articles on weight-loss, one on recipes, one on looking younger. And then, of course, an article on destressing and finding more energy. Evidently, you'll need tons of energy for all these diets and efforts to look younger.
And these are just two random magazine covers. Cook, diet, look pretty, destress, re-energize, and start the horrible cycle all over again.
13 comments:
This is a magazine for desperate housewives so who the hell cares anyways?
Being very cynical: the magazines contain information and "information" on the subjects most interesting to their readers. And the feminists are the minority. I hope you do not think these are men who are buying those magazines and doing Hollywood hairdos? :)
I actually periodically have discussions along the same lines with my wife, who believes media should educate the people, and direct them towards something progressive... Not just cater to existing consumption urges or crate new ones... Yeah, right... What will happen to half (or more) of the companies (which advertise in the media and keep it alive), if people stop buying stuff which makes them sick, and then stop investing into multitudes of mutually-exclusive methods of making themselves healthy again...
V.
Who wouldn't be desperate after all these articles on constant dieting?
"the magazines contain information and "information" on the subjects most interesting to their readers"
-Of course. The interesting question is why anybody would buy a magazine that presents them with this limited, sad, and demeaning worldview.
Of course, I also feel offended as a feminist that the magazine is called "woman's world". It feels like they are suggesting that any woman's world can be reduced to this pathetic lifestyle.
I agree with you that for anybody who's worldview is broader than cooking, dieting and hairdo this would be offensive.
But there are many people out there who's worldview is not broader, and who are happy and proud to be what they are (and identify with Palin as one of them :) ), and who sincerely believe somebody like you are just embittered by the lack of male attention and insufficiently frequent gifts of diamonds. :) :).
And of course I do not want to say that it is solely woman's issue. There is large sub-population of men who's worldview is not any broader. I remember an advertisement slogan for something like "Mens' health" - "Magazine for men, easy to read!"... :)
V.
"But there are many people out there who's worldview is not broader, and who are happy and proud "
-Hardly happy. Housewives are the group that suffers the most from depression. :-(
"insufficiently frequent gifts of diamonds"
-The readers of this magazine don't get any diamonds. Especially not frequently. If they did, they wouldn't have to cook. :-)
""Magazine for men, easy to read!"... :)"
-LOL! LOL!
Come on, diamonds are so much a part of the culture that almost everybody has them, including those who have to cook themselves. We recently surrendered to the cultural pressures as well - but the ring is one of a kind, from the yearly fair at Place Bonaventure...
When I wrote the previous post I had in mind something like Mirabel Morgan's "Total Woman" (Must admit - did not read it myself, only the reviews, and only after the book was mentioned in Gail Sheehe's "Passages") because it happened to be my primary association to such kind of journals built on stereotypes.
V.
"diamonds are so much a part of the culture that almost everybody has them, including those who have to cook themselves"
-I'm sure they get an engagement ring but as to "frequent" gifts of diamonds, I really don't think so.
"When I wrote the previous post I had in mind something like Mirabel Morgan's "Total Woman" "
-I never heard of it. Is it somethiing I should check out?
-I never heard of it. Is it somethiing I should check out?
If Douthat hasn't recently written anything worth ranting about... :) :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marabel_Morgan
V.
"If Douthat hasn't recently written anything worth ranting about... :) :)"
-He only seems to write about once a week. :-)
""It's only when a woman surrenders her life to her husband, reveres and worships him and is willing to serve him, that she becomes really beautiful to him," Morgan wrote."
Scary shit...
Morgan is the one who came up with saran-wrapped women, how could I have forgotten?? I think my subconscious just repressed this horror.
She's such a pathetic little fool, it's sad.
It's funny that these women who have to go to such extreme lengths to "become beautiful to their husbands" say that feminists suffer from the lack of male attention. I never had to revere, worship or serve anybody to get them to consider me beautiful.
Post a Comment