Wait, Wait! Don't Tell Me...No, Really, Don't.

On my favorite NPR quiz show this morning, I learned about the German magazine, Brigitte, and the end of the magazine's three-year -- what I will call here "project" -- to feature "real women" as opposed to models who were so thin that they actually had to airbrush fat ONTO them rather than OFF of them.  I am so disgusted by this for a number of reasons.  Three of these reasons I will outline here.

Problem # 1: Using "Real Women" 

You can either be a professional model or a "real woman," not both, according to the paradigm that Brigitte set forth.  After reading this article, it becomes clear that their effort to use "real women" meant that they were not employing people who actually knew how to model, which is no surprise since a "real woman" cannot likely make a living as a model and thus, does not have training or experience in modeling.  Thus, she is being used by the magazine for this trial.  This whole "experiment" of using "real women" uses women to re-instantiate their/our own self-hatred.  No, I don't think the magazine did this overtly and consciously (because after all, I am an optimist), but rather because this is how deeply ingrained hatred of women's "real bodies" are in our culture.  I am horrified that they were not more critical about the project, which leads me to problem #2.

Problem #2: Objectifying the Problem

Why not revolutionize your magazine and do the hard work of actually making the project of "real women" a full project about the depth of femininity rather than simply about images of femininity?  There is convincing scientific evidence published this summer that proves the deep level of objectification of women in mass culture.  And yes, THIS IS SO EXTREMELY OBVIOUS!  But again, I appreciate having a study about this.  My problem with Brigitte's "project" of employing "real women" as models is precisely the fact that is was a "project".  A predictable failure, in my opinion.  In fact, I'm surprised it lasted three whole years!  You trade objectified models for "real women" who will then become objectified in the pages of the magazine.  Um, what was your plan exactly?  By suggesting that the whole problem of "unattainable beauty standards"...a term I despise because it purports that we are seeing that ideal, but no one else can achieve it except the person pictured who supposedly embodies this ideal, its a total mind f*ck!...is that they are using new images to replace old ones in the hopes that our psyches can replace the objectified images of women with NEW objectified images of women, which leads me to problem #3.

Problem #3: It's the Content, Stupid.

Seriously, IT'S THE CONTENT!  How in the world do you expect a magazine, which is funded by food advertisements and beauty products (i.e. the same products that were funding the magazine when they were using models), to change ideals about female beauty when they continue to write stories all about how we can get shinier hair, smaller waists, and better orgasms (this last one is sadly a joke referring to MALE orgasm since the content is far more likely tells us women how we can give better hand or blow jobs)?!  You have to REVOLUTIONIZE content if you are going to change your image.  You cannot be singing the same old song about beauty and how to get it while simply putting a new face on it.  This objectification of female beauty shit runs way deeper than that.

And excuse my language, but yes, I am pissed off about this.  I do not buy women's magazines for precisely this reason.  I loathe the things that I "connect" with when I read those magazines...the desire to be thinner, the desire to have less frizzy hair, etc.  And trying to get some inspiration on clothing or hairstyle?  PUH-LEASE!  There is not one woman in those magazines who offers something that would suit my full-figured, five foot frame OR curly hair. 

Most of all, I am angry that these magazines do not take women's lives more seriously and instead choose to put themselves out there with such hoaxes as simply exchanging models for "real women" and finding new ways to objectify women in the process.  I am done...for now.