Finding myself endlessly ambushed via the constant repetition of girly magazines in society lately, I have become accustomed to having to fight my anguish at the mind numbingly boring and superficial advice these magazines aim or rather force upon their female adoring audiences. Being female myself I find it difficult to understand why the majority of the female race are seduced so easily by the media into buying such magazines.
What I find even harder to comprehend is the issue that the women who buy these magazines are aiding the mass slaughter of their race by consuming such jargon on a daily basis, there appetite for such tripe appearing greater then the famished.
Can such females not see that by consuming such magazines they are in fact aiding the constant appearance battle that seems to be monopolizing society at present? Proving us slaves to the media’s advertising world and leading women again back to their olden day state of oppression and ‘the feminine mystique’. ’The Feminine Mystique’ being a phrase coined by the founding mother of modern feminism Betty Friedan who suggested ’women are kept from growing to their full human capacities, deprived of meaning, fulfilment and self discovery by the beguiling mystique that surrounded femininity, motherhood and housewifery. (Friedan quoted in Tooley, 2002, p2) Women it would seem have become the manufactures dream readily under constant pressure via such beauty magazines they seem to be helping propagate the superficiality to other readers rather then fighting against the oppressive media sphere. Seeming unable to see beyond the consumerism they are buying into daily, the female adoring fans of such magazines seem trapped in a vicious circle of materialism and appearance over intellect.
What I fail to understand is how women who have fought so hard and long for equality and the liberation to free ourselves of all our previous ‘domestic drudgery’ (De Beauvoir quoted in Tooley, 2002, p61) can fall so easily back behind the bars of oppression. Though we are now liberated from our once captive housewifery status it now seems we are exploited via different means by the mass media. Becoming sexual exploits of the magazine we are sadly yet again slaves to what Laura Mulvey would call the male gaze. Will there ever be a time when women are championed for their intellect and ideas rather then merely being seen as sexual toys for men to devour and sadly destroy.
Branded the advertisers dream, Certain females these days seem to live, love and abide by the criteria set out by fashion magazines, the cosmopolitan seems to of become the new bible! What ever happened to individualism: believing and following the self rather then the majority? Individualism at present seems to me at an all time low, sadly extinguished via mass corporations who seem to be able to put a price on any thing or anyone.
If only room 101 was a real realm! Alas!
Beauty magazines only make you feel ugly! However such magazines seem to have sadly gained a mass army of ignorance, conquering inner beauty, for the claims that external beauty is the way forward! By airbrushing their models to death, they falsely advertise foundations in order to give off a flawless impression to their mass audience. Who will in turn like true devotee’s fall for this false advertising technique, buying into the product in order to try and embellish their faces like those they idolize in magazines. What they fail to notice is that the models do not really look like this, there imperfections are cleverly concealed and covered up by airbrushing techniques in order to advertise the superficial rather then the real.
Sorry I promise this feminist rant is nearly over!
Not only is it girly magazines which highly seem to offend me but the endless television documentaries which seem to be dominating our screens lately all of which are undeniably aimed at women. Program’s such as ‘How to look good naked’ and Trinny and Suzanne’s ‘What not to wear’ for example are to some females viewed as THE program to watch. WHAT! Are we supposed to look upon these fools with ore, like their some form of higher goddess coming to save us from our fashion nightmares!?
Does it really matter? All they seem to bring to our television screens is yet more supposed consumerist wisdom which will turn females into the ideal, the fantasy rather then the real! Women appear to of become definite targets for media manipulation, viewed in magazines daily they now appear as more of a product then a separate living entity, the ultimate aesthetics product a point adhering to Simone de beauvoir’s famous quote ‘women are not born they are made.’
Many a female in contemporary society seem to have become a type of puppet on a string, driven by their domineering media puppeteers in order to end individualism, through consumerism.
I call for Revolution against the magazine, before females become the new media infected mimes, providing free entertainment without a voice.
Tooley, James, (2002) ‘The Miseducation Of Women’ Continuum, London NewYork
yvonne3 Said:
on December 6, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Calm down! You know my feelings towards these magazines, and Trinny and Susannah, I live my life by them! But you have to know what’s real and what’s not, or they can have the effects you describe upon their impressionable readers. It’d be interesting to see the women who write the magazines since they are apparently the authority on what’s beautiful and what’s not, just to see how much of their own advice they actually take on board themselves.
rachelgibbs Said:
on December 12, 2007 at 2:25 pm
I’m in between you both – I can’t decide how i feel about the magazines! I do think they contradict themselves a lot.. you can never be the right size, you’re either too thin or too fat etc etc. But to be honest, I don’t think we’ll ever escape those magazines because everyone reads them including me on the odd occassion :p
I don’t know if this has anything to do with your feminist theories fran, but i watched a programme on channel 4 last night about this blogger who writes a lot about her sexual experiences but has to hide her identity because she knows it would ruin her professional career. She has also given lectures as a charcter on second life. I thought the topic had some interesting view points.
melkennedy Said:
on January 10, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Wow, what a rant! But an interesting one! One with a convition that I never really seem to be able to match myself, on the face of it I hate magazines that promote ridiculous images of women and beauty but I still read them avidly! I agree with Yvonne, the main thing is to take these magazines with a pinch of salt and simply see them as escapism!
But I must just say a few words to defend Gok, How To Look Good Naked is a lot better than Trinny and Susannah as they are nasty whilst he tries to fill people with confidence in their appearence, whatever it is! He comments on the fact that through the media we often confused by what real bodies look like and so confronts these myths by getting people to see others and place themselves in the correct place so gain an idea of how they truly compare.