uch - evil early & i am already pissed ... i bleeding HATE "women's magazines".
for some bizarre reason i thought subscribing to a "fitness" magazine would be a good idea. last year i was just getting into weightlifting, and being rather slimmish, and accident prone, i wanted to build up properly. go to the experts, right?
GAH _ WRONG!
each month i am insulted by a barrage of what to throw out, give up, wear/not wear...ridiculous affirmations and restatements of the oh so biologically obvious...dire warnings about restaurant portions and relatives waiting to sabatoge... tiny, vacuous articles (cuz we all have the attention span of a gnat) ... and these bizzarly overt heteronormative mind meld "tips" on scoring and bearing young ... oh, and by all means be peppy and clever, but do NOT be smart or aggressive ...whew, wouldn't wantcha to chip a nail
so, why keep reading these horrendous rags when i end up actually screaming at the daffy (NOT SG material) chicas with the unfocused eyes and non-sweaty togs? well, for the same reason that i occaisionally tune in to conservative pundits or icky advice persons - the excellent principle of KNOW THINE ENEMY.
see, i have a neice that i love vv much ... a nephew too, for that matter. i don't want my babies to grow up believing in this weak version of healthy woman. i know that this seems hopelessly naive, but i thought MAYBE magazines directed toward the general population had improved. i know that there are alternative presses that put out groovy stuff, but i (foolishly) hoped that perhaps the mainstream was at least running a distant third. ummmm, no.
so, these are just one more thing to add to my list of cutural/ideological land mines waiting to erupt on my tiny precious(es). and everyone else in the world for that matter.
harumph - don't know why this bubbled up today in particular ... next entry will be more cheerful, i promise!
*stepping down off soapbox*
oh - btw - my spelling rather sucks. hopefully this is coherent.
for some bizarre reason i thought subscribing to a "fitness" magazine would be a good idea. last year i was just getting into weightlifting, and being rather slimmish, and accident prone, i wanted to build up properly. go to the experts, right?
GAH _ WRONG!
each month i am insulted by a barrage of what to throw out, give up, wear/not wear...ridiculous affirmations and restatements of the oh so biologically obvious...dire warnings about restaurant portions and relatives waiting to sabatoge... tiny, vacuous articles (cuz we all have the attention span of a gnat) ... and these bizzarly overt heteronormative mind meld "tips" on scoring and bearing young ... oh, and by all means be peppy and clever, but do NOT be smart or aggressive ...whew, wouldn't wantcha to chip a nail
so, why keep reading these horrendous rags when i end up actually screaming at the daffy (NOT SG material) chicas with the unfocused eyes and non-sweaty togs? well, for the same reason that i occaisionally tune in to conservative pundits or icky advice persons - the excellent principle of KNOW THINE ENEMY.
see, i have a neice that i love vv much ... a nephew too, for that matter. i don't want my babies to grow up believing in this weak version of healthy woman. i know that this seems hopelessly naive, but i thought MAYBE magazines directed toward the general population had improved. i know that there are alternative presses that put out groovy stuff, but i (foolishly) hoped that perhaps the mainstream was at least running a distant third. ummmm, no.
so, these are just one more thing to add to my list of cutural/ideological land mines waiting to erupt on my tiny precious(es). and everyone else in the world for that matter.
harumph - don't know why this bubbled up today in particular ... next entry will be more cheerful, i promise!
*stepping down off soapbox*
oh - btw - my spelling rather sucks. hopefully this is coherent.
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
anyway. I notices that when I started getting in shape self and shape were actually not the worst offerings out there, since they actually had some content about excercize, and not 100% diet, what to wear, etc.
I wish there was a magazine that had pictures of non professional model type women- I mean even if they just varied the body types a little. at least in self some of the models look physically capeable of doing the excercizes....
But why should it take us until our late 20's thirties to come to even a shallow peace with the actuality of our bodies. I'm 27 and I get more comfortable with the fact that I will never be a little person every year. I know my weight is just right for my height and my build, but it's damn hard to remember that looking at people my height or taller who weight like 125lbs to 135 lbs.
I think the best message is to be happy with whatever your body is. It can eb really, really hard, but the happier you are with your physical reality, the happier you'll be.
Working in a nursing home has helped my perspective a lot. My body is whole and (comparatively) healthy, and it gets me around pretty well.
It's so sad to me that teenagers and tweens spend the healthies 2 decades of their lives hating their bodies.
THis is part of why I think sports are really helpful for women. I didn't do sports until I was in college, but I wish I had when I was younger, they have been integral in coming to an apreciation of my body.
sorry,my spelling sucks too.
it's interesting to me that sites like this actually have some of the best representation of different womens body types out there.
but I guess you'd get in trouble for steering the neices to porn.... hehehehe.
incedently, ap, yr height is the coolest thing (always wanted to be 6') and yr right - at 135 you would be grossly underweight. bleh. at 5'7" and 135# i need a few more pounds myself.
as for the anglicization (woo, new word) of all women, what IS up with that? there are so many beautiful skin tones, shapes, kinds of hair ...one of my brothers is asian and he used to BEG my mom to bathe him in bleach so he would come out blond and blue eyed. when she asked him why (because we are all darkish - italian blood), he said that blond/blue is the most american/powerful. also, since he was brown for so long, he had to make up for it by going to the other extreme. is that not the saddest thing youhave ever heard? he is just a gorgeous kid, too. after 28 years he is still coming to terms with race because of IMAGE as much as anything.
actually, i love this site because pple look normal. a real body is way sexier than a starved, airbrushed body. i mean, naturally occuring waifs can be way sexy too. however, if you look like a lollipop b/c yr head is 3x the size of yr body, there is a problem. and ya know, four is too young for porn, but when she hits those teenage years and rebels (my sis is way WAY middle america) she is MINE. and i WILL show her whatever images work the mental etch as sketch such that she can be who ever she is and love herself.
kos, you SO know what matters in raising yr wee one. i am HORRIFIED that she even knows what being fat is! how deranged is that mom? disturbingness. i growl in her general direction - grrrrrrrrrr.
now, the thing i DO love is when people so own themselves that they take on their own stylized identity. that rocks out loud.
ok, you guys are awesome. btw, i noticed you are all CTers. i used to live in meriden! my italian family is up there in meridan and middletown.
i am off to FINALLY turn in my last paper - YAAAAAAAAAY! still have tons of students to grade, but that is cake.