Do you think Women's mags negatively influence women?

[snkatha]

My SO and i had an interesting discussion yesterday about how magazines influence women's ideals on beauty, sex appeal, motherhood, body image. Example in fashion magazines like glamours body by glamour do you think it's a double message when they talk about loving your curvy figure when on the magazine cover they put s skinny size zero model? Also the recent activity of celebs giving birth and losing the weight very quickly eg nicole kidman do you think it affects you, and your ideal weight and looks during your pregnancy? Also what would or will you do to increase your daughters self esteem?

 

[snkatha]

Well, i'll say i find most female magazines really can affect me. Example how they talk about some celebs they consider curvy. I find they consider anyone above a size 8 uk size curvy. After that they don't really show any other 'curvy' girls. I find it sends a subliminal message of up until this point we'll accept, after this size, you're on your own girl! I think it's sad really. I live in a country (kenya) where thankfully it's more acceptable to have curves. Unfortunately it's slowly changing with more friends of mine being body conscious when it didn't matter before.

 

[Shadowy Lady]

well, magazines don't really affect me that way, I'm sure they affect some women though. I agree with you on the love your body message inside and skinny women on the cover of the magazines. I also find the fashion magazine's idea of curvy woman pretty funny, lol! I remember I was flipping through a magazine (it was probably either Marie Claire or Glamour which are the two I read) and they were talking about how Ali Larter was happy with her "curvy body" and how the society should accept her being curvy. I was thinking "lol, if they think she's curvy, what would they say if they see me?" haha

Anyway, magazines, movies, ppl,...will only influence how you see yourself and how comfortable you are in your body if you already have self esteem issues. Otherwise non of that will matter. I was raised to believe that women with boobs and hips were highly desirable so now no matter how many skinny women I see on magazines, I still love my body for what it is

 

[slowdownbaby]

I'm really glad you brought this issue up. This morning I was reading a magazine from my country (Portugal) and they were interviewing some young Portuguese actresses, and I was shocked! They were all saying that they were forced to lose weight or they wouldn't get the roll. I'm talking about girls who are 16 to 18 years old. And even the girls were all saying to be an actress you have to be skinny and beautiful. These girls were working morning to night, then starving them selfs and going to the gym... it is crazy! They seemed so proud of doing that, it made me sad, because many young girls look up to them. My 6 year old goddaughter has a role model who used to do children's music and tv shows, and now this woman is putting silicone and posing for men's magazine...
Everytime I open a magazine, there's a skinny girl who talks about the extrem messures she goes through to be skinny and beautiful, I pitty those girls, and I'm sad for the little girls who look up to them.

 

[slowdownbaby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadowy Lady Anyway, magazines, movies, ppl,...will only influence how you see yourself and how comfortable you are in your body if you already have self esteem issues. Otherwise non of that will matter. I was raised to believe that women with boobs and hips were highly desirable so now no matter how many skinny women I see on magazines, I still love my body for what it is

I totally agree with you. These magazines are targeting young teenage girls with self esteem issues, and I have been in their shoos... I'm Proud of not thinking that way anymore and loving my curvy and not so skinny body, but I know many women who can't get out of that skinny madness.

 

[snkatha]

Yes it's true about what kind of state your self esteem is before the magazines bombard you with their message. I find it really sad how slowly there's only one standard of beauty being pushed by fashion mags: tall, tanned skin, skinny. What happened to variety and difference in beauty? Pale, curvy, freckles, women of color, hair color that's not blonde is also beautiful. Sometimes i think the beauty 'ideal' is shrinking way too much!

 

[LMD84]

womens mags like cosmopolitan and company (the two that i buy each month and have done for the past 8 years or so!) don't affect the way i feel if i'm honest. obviously there has been airbrushing, colours altered and such to make people look different. however in the fashion section of cosmo for example they always have a section where they suggest clothes for different sizes. and i'm always pleased to see that they always have a 16-18 size group. mags like elle and vogue seem to ignore us larger ladies! i also think it was cosmo who did a plus size shoot with clothing from a uk store called evans. company magazine is alot like cosmo - it always mentions bigger sizes and such.

however i do get slightly irked when they interview people who say they are curvy when they're a size 10 or smaller. honey you're not curvy just because you have something bigger than an a cup! you're still tiny! i have no issue with petite ladies - it just annoys me when they try and make out that they're curvy. to me a curvy girl is a size 14+ (this is uk sizes btw). myself being a size 18-20 is on the bigger side of curvy!

 

[ClaireAvril]

They don't affect the way I feel.. except for the fact that I shop more because of them.
My problem with the fashion industry today is the lack of models of colour... from fashion shows, to spreads in magazine.. I always see the same thing. White models. So what does that tell young girls of colour.. that they are not beautiful too? That they should make themselves look a certain way to be considered pretty? This subject really bothers me.

Then getting into things like plus sizes etc.. There is just a big lack of diversity all around.

 

[MsCera]

I can honestly say I've never flipped through pages of a magazine and felt poorly about myself. I've never thought "I wish I look like her" I'm not really sure why, because I definitely do not have the best self-esteem around.

One thing that really does bother me is the celebrities who pose on the cover a few weeks after having their baby and somehow lost all the weight. It seems like the accompanying article never points out the fact that they had a few nannies to look after their child, a cook to only prepare healthy meals and a personal trainer with their own gym at home. Realistically most women don't have that, and the articles make it seem as though there is a crash after-baby diet and exercise program that will work miracles. It's frustrating, to say the least.

 

[User27]

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[LMD84]

i think that is the issue really. i knew that people in real life don't actually look like what they do in magazines. but alot of my freinds would try and model themselves on kate moss, britney (think baby one more time) and it just wasn't realistic.

it sucks that people get airburshed but i can totally understand why they do it and why people let it happen. who wouldn't want to look their best in a picture? and just because i think that some celebs looks too thin, they probably think they look stunning.

i guess in my own way i was sort of influenced but not by magazines. i'd watch tv shows and think about how glamourous certain characters would be. and i'd get my hair cut like a certain celeb. or i'd buy an outfit because i'd seen one wearing something similar. i'm just lucky that i realised there was a limit on how much alike i could be.

 

[gildedangel]

I don't feel like I have flipped thorugh a magazine and felt badly about myself, but then again I know that all of those pictures are airbrushed and photoshopped until the models almost don't look real, they kind of look like plastic lol.

This was an issue that I was concerned about when the new Girl Scout books (yes, I was a Girl Scout!) were released. All of the pictures were photoshopped, there was no diversity and they were ALL as skinny as I am! WTF? It also depicted pictures of girls with Ipods and cell phones, which not everyone can afford. If feel like some magazines do that too, where they show things that many cannot afford, making you feel bad because you can't afford it. That can make young girls feel bad about themselves too. These books are for girls ages 11-17, the age group that can be the most vulnerable to these images and messages. I actually quit being a Girl Scout over this issue, because I did not want to be a part of a program that subconciously taught what IMO are some poor values.

 

[crystalclear]

I think a lot of the magazines do have a lot to answer for. I only ever buy Instyle every month, since despite having the skinny models it isn't too bad but to be honest if I could buy a magazine dedicated to makeup (a bit like the dozens of hair magazines) I'd get that. I remember reading recently that the editor of (UK) Vogue was complaining about the sizes they're are sent by the designers, the sizes are are now so small they cannot get them to fit anyone but the very thinnest ( and I mean like size 2 or 0 UK, so really really tiny)models and they have to airbrush them to look less emaciated ( but still ill looking). But unless the entire fashion magazine industry refuses to feature them the sizes and the models will continue to decrease. I really don't get it when you hear about 19/20 of the actresses/models etc talk about their "curves", unless they're refering to their elbows, they haven't any. Another alarming thing for me is when you hear teenage and sometimes younger girls talking about "size 0" they usually don't realise that that is the America "0" i.e. a size 4 here, and to heal these girls go on about how they are a "huge" size 6 and "nowhere near their target" is quite sick. Some consider a size 14 "disgusting and obese"
The only way I can keep perspective sometime is "Would Marilyn Monroe have got very far if she had been as skinny as actresses usually are now?" I doubt it.

 

[kaliraksha]

I'm really realistic and I know that these people in magazines were lucky enough to be blessed with great genes and part of their job is to look a certain way. I see beauty the way I see art... I appreciate how attractive it is... how hard someone worked to be there or what nature was up to when it put something together that is so attractive.

I think part of that comes from being secure with myself... I know I can't be Charlize Theron and there is no sense in comparing myself with her. I've really never had the urge to compare myself to others or to compete with them. I see a beautiful woman on the street and I can say to my boyfriend "man, she's gorgeous" and that's it. It's just a comment about the physical world.

I do wish though that the message we were sending out as a society is that there is versatility in beauty.

 

[snkatha]

I don't know why but sometimes when i flip through cosmo almost never now, i feel like magazines make you feel like you lack something. Like the fashion pages hint that if you have this 'must have' item you'll be happy. Also while cosmo does make add clothes for larger sizes i stopped reading it because the hair and makeup tips were all for caucasians little or nothing for women of color. I always was like what? Aren't i in need of the latest trend in makeup? Will that color on that fair skin girl even show up on me? I felt really under represented. So now i've stopped reading fashion magazines. I tried those magazines aiming at women of color like essence and ebony. I hate ebony magazine no offence to those who like it. I felt it was too narrow. Too focussed on brother this and sista that. Maybe it talks about cultural and social experiences a WOC in america experiences? I don't know, it didn't connect with me somehow. Essence was ok, wish it had more makeup though! Wouldn't be cool though if there was a magazine dedicated to makeup only kinda like those hair magazines esp if it had the whole spectrum of skin tones. Boy would i eat that right up!

 

[Lauren1981]

personally i believe it depends on the woman reading it. i know for myself i want to lose weight and there are times i get lazy with it and i see a pic of brit-brit or kim k. and i'm like "okay, i need to get back on it" but i'm not striving for a size 0, i'm striving for what i know will look good on me and how comfortable i'll be.
however, although i believe it soley depends on the woman reading it, i do feel like the standard has changed somewhat. you look at beyonce, kim k., and other curvy, BEAUTIFUL celebs and they're actually making curvy look good now, whereas before, curvy was considered somewhat overweight. BUT even though the standard has changed to an extent there are still some mag's that do believe if you're famous and not a size 0 then you're fat. like, kelly clarkson. they keep talking about how fat she is and she weighs 160 pounds.... okay, i'm 5'2 and weigh 155 pounds. i don't feel i'm overweight or anything. i mean, these double d's alone weigh about 6-7 pounds. lol! but i'm like damn!!! when did 160 become OVERWEIGHT you know?

i just think it'll always be a contradiction with mags so that's why i feel that the woman needs to be confident within herself because this stuff that mags put out there will never change. someone will always get slammed for gaining a few pounds here and there, or for having cellulite, or older celebs and how they "look like crap" because they're 50 something and don't look like how they looked when they were 20. but then they'll pick and choose you know? i get In Touch in the mail. one issue came out slamming kim k. left and right for her cellulite and then a few weeks later they put her on their best beach body list and talking about how sexy her legs and her curves were. wtf?! lol! it's like, which is it?? she looks the same. do you think she's fat because she has cellulite or you think her body looks great??

fucking media

 

[staceb1990]

I think those magazines can sometimes screw with your head, but only if you let them. I love freckles, forehead and laugh lines, and those are the first things that are airbrushed out.

When I was a little bit younger I used to take what these magazine were selling to heart. I think when I was 14 or 15 I didn't quite understand that it was all fake; The skin, hair, cellulite, arm flab, and even eye ball colors can be easily changed and improved upon. Sometimes you can barely recognize the person. But I think I realized soon that it was fake, and I went on with my life. I think I feel similar to what kaliraksha said, and that if you look at it as art it won't get to you.


[PS] Speaking of the curvy thing, I remember one time Camilla Belle claimed to have a curvy body. That gave me quite a good chuckle.

 

[Girl about town]

it really annoys me when the mags say an actress is
"a curvy size 8" (uk size 8 us 4) and i think if a size 8 is curvy what the hell am i , i would consider that skinny.
Magazines have a lot to answer for, they just scrutinize celebrities weight and make normal people feel rubbish!!

 

[snkatha]

How about the recent headlines with celebrities losing the 'baby fat'. I don't kno which mag it was but they showed trista of the bachelorette fame on the cover of some magazine talking about losing the weight. I usually feel like pregnant women are getting more scrutiny during their pregnancies. Like kate hudson being slammed by the media for weight gain during pregnancy. Or Heidi klum in a bikini walking down the catwalk two months after giving birth. I'm not yet pregnant but i imagine the pressure to lose the weight or not gain too much will be crazy! It seems the media has started scrutinising pregnancy and even childbirth. To breastfeed or not, to have meds or all natural, to have a c-section or not? It's all about what's in fashion or not.

 

[cupcake_x]

In a way. I know if I see a picture of Kim Kardashian it makes me want to stay the way I am, but when I see someone like Megan Fox (who claims to have a 21 inch waist) or the gorgeous Sabina Kelley, I want to lose a little weight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by staceb1990 [PS] Speaking of the curvy thing, I remember one time Camilla Belle claimed to have a curvy body. That gave me quite a good chuckle.

Oh yes, and so is Miley Cyrus.
I once read somewhere that Miley was talking about how she had such a curvy body.

SO voluptuous..