Thoughts Please

I am being very eff-ing lazy right now. I have once again installed a "guest editor" without asking their permission. NY mag, of which I am a happy chuffed little-piglet subscriber (I got it during the GFC - poor NYC got hit bad... I swooped!) so I feel a minor degree of entitlement to do this. This month, as generally happens here in Oz, we face the post-Christmas detox season head on: after all, we still have a few more months of bikini wearing, so the misbehaviour and gorging over the Christmas period are far more obvious to the naked eye, and make us cringe as our shorty-shorts require several minutes of heaving to get into. It's the perfect opportunity, so the magazines pounce, telling us both to love our bodies and ourselves, and on the next page extolling the latest Lara Bingle/Jen Hawkins/insert other hottie super-diet. I actually have no problem with this. I love reading the weird shit people will (or will not) eat - remember Gwyneth's insane detox which involved a handful of almonds and some water? - and I also love reading about how important it is to love yourself. A very important concept, and one I've only really just learnt to come to terms with. Wouldn't have minded liking myself a little more in my early 20s!

One of the trends in mag-land is of course to show "real women" without airbrushing or supermodels without make up and so on, so that we continue to love ourselves to the max. The pictures are designed to show up flaws, so that we feel less guilty about our own physical imperfections. I mean whatevs people! Can we start talking about personality flaws for a change? I would love for a celebrity or supermodel or Prime Minister or Kofi Annan etc to sit down and say they as human beings are deeply imperfect - like all of us - but they have learnt how to deal with that, and they have also learned to love themselves and achieve great things despite imperfections which required work to surmount. And work that doesn't involve a bloody stairmaster! Y'know? I mean how much time do you spend obsessing over your thighs vs where your career is going? Bing bing bing to career!

Maybe I should be reading other magazines...

But the mag in question here, and which has come to the attention (strangely, I believe because this happens in Oz all the bloody time!) of the good folk at NY mag, is Marie Claire! The fashionable yet thinking woman's digest! Please can we talk about character flaws and insecurity etc? I am bored with thigh talk.

Ummm... anyway. That was a huge divergence. As always. Here is what NY has to say about the cover.


The campaign against photo retouching continues in Australia this decade, where Marie Claire has put supermodel Jennifer Hawkins naked and unretouched (groundbreaking!) on the cover of the February issue. The issue supports the Butterfly Foundation, an organization that provides support to Australians struggling with eating disorders and body-image issues. You may be thinking, Since when do eating-disorder groups use essentially fatless 26-year-old supermodels to help average women feel better about their own bodies? But the foundation's general manager, Julie Parker, notes that the photo shows Hawkins's flaws, such as a crease in her waist and dimples on her thighs. (Squint if you can't see them.)

When asked why the foundation did not put forward a more average Australian woman, Ms Parker said magazines had tried that tactic in the past, to no avail.

"The thing is unfortunately it doesn't make the same point, because Jennifer sells magazines and she creates awareness. If Marie Claire had chosen to put on their cover an ordinary women, say myself or a friend of yours, it would not have created the awareness it does."

Parker added that the cover is intended to bring awareness to the issue of photo retouching, "one small part of the much wider spectrum of body image, self esteem and eating disorder issues." So the magazine intentionally sidesteps those other factors contributing to the pandemic of body-image issues in young women around the world, such as the obsession with super-skinny supermodel figures. We appreciate the efforts here, but when we look at this cover we don't think, Hey! She MIGHT have cellulite! I feel so much better about myself! We think, Damn, she's got a flat stomach. Why did I drink so much over the holidays?

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Do you guys agree? Are we really that dumbass that we aren't aware that models in magazines aren't airbrushed? Why must this be pointed out to us? And to what level do you believe magazines contribute to eating disorders. A very touch subject, I am well aware... I have another great article I want to share with you about the rise of the 30-something eating disorder - sparked by supposed allergies or stomach ulcers etc which really just justify a woman's eating neuroses.... Stay tuned!