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

Let me feel the fibre of your fabric

We are embroiled in the great uniform debate at work. We need one. Some feel that the current one is tired and are pressing for a new tunic to wear over our day clothes. Everyone has a different opinion on style, fabric, cut and colour. As long as we haven't got to iron it and it's not yellow, I don't really care - I am not one of the few people on this planet who can wear yellow well.

We have been sent many fabric swatches in various hues of red, pink, green, grey, blue, and brown. Except they are not called by those names. Reds are chianti, havana, bullseye and ferrari. Pinks and purples range from pout and bouquet to eggplant and nightshade. Fossil, cloud, quill, homespun and mouse are shades of grey and green and all in between (apparently). Blues include splash, horizon and stormtrooper, while browns have a wide variety of hues from marmite and cigar to any number of rodents such as otter, mink and (my favourite) Mr rat.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, my friend and I used to read a lot of magazines when we were kids. From this she envisaged her dream job: inventing the names of cosmetics. I often think of that when I pick up a lipstick or eyeshadow - there is a lot of marketing involved in the name. I once bought a very expensive lipstick because it was called British Red. I love the colour for roses or post boxes but it is a bit bold for me and I have only worn it once, when I went to a Ceroc party. I currently have Porcelain Pink and Mauve Diamonds in my handbag.

You may think that you could just keep things simple by naming the primary colours and extremes of the spectrum. However, there are pitfalls here too. I was once looking at a clothing catalogue and spotted a hooded top advertised - the picture showed one girl wearing a black top and another sporting the grey version. A small caption proudly pronounced, 'also available in shite'. Is that a shade of brown then?