Friday 28 June 2013

Friday Five: Lack of Empowerment


A friend drew my attention to this cartoon by Jackie Flemming. As an indictment of lads' mags, it's a good one, I must admit. But, as I pointed out to her, women's magazines are just as bad. Sadly, most of them are also degrading to women: buy this; wear this; act like this; raise your chilren like this; don't wear this; don't do this; don't leave the house unless you're under 25 and thin... And let's all gawp at a picture of a real woman who dares to have cellulite and wear no make-up.

A few years ago I made a New Year's resolution not to buy women's magazines and I don't. Apart from the year I resolved not to iron any more clothes, it has been my favourite resolution.When we were at Bondi Beach the other weekend however (yes, I did just place drop shamelessly), a girl from the Cosmo Combi was handing out free copies of the latest issue of Cosmopolitan so I took one.

Out of interest, some of the articles which are meant to be empowering young women of today are listed below. I think I made the right decision but I still despair for those who are influenced by this patronising sexist consumerism whch preaches that women are simply not good enough, and probably never wll be, but if they can keep on striving to be physically and sexually alluring, (and buying beauty and fashion products) perhaps they might please a man. 

Five Cosmopolitan Articles:
  1. The best way to find a guy
  2. Thinking of a threesome?
  3. 20 sexy ideas for when you're not up for sex
  4. Five hair products you need
  5. Cool stuff you didn't know you needed

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