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Sara Conrad

Editor, skirt! Jacksonville

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. I love thinking and talking about feminism and writing for skirt!. I went to the University of Iowa and I'll put up a good fight about spelling. ...

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Confessions of a fashion mag junkie

I don’t think fashion mags are the devil...they exist because we buy them--not because the media has some evil agenda to shove beauty down our throats, although, sometimes it does come across that way. Lots of women (and many men, actually) really like them. I like them. I read them, and I’m not that ashamed to say it.

I grew up on fashion mags and read them with the same amount of passion in which I consumed pasta (which I actually think damaged me more, truthfully---or is that the fashion mags talking? Crap.) and I think I turned out with fairly healthy self-esteem. Plus, I don’t think I’d have my dream job right now if I didn’t grow up positively addicted to reading magazines after school while my friends were watching TV. I remember getting my fashion mags in the mail and taking them upstairs with a diet coke and having the best night of my life reading them cover-to-cover. I’m serious. I read (and still do) read magazines cover-to-cover. Maybe I’m a freak, but it’s even more fun for me than eating chips and salsa, and if you know me, that’s saying a lot.

But in response to Thatcoolbroad’s (and she is really cool, so you better check her out) awesome post: Are fashion mags the devil?

I have to say nay. I say we’re all playing this game together.

I took those (beloved!) women’s studies courses in college and I saw the pictures of the anorexic (or highly metabolizing) models. It was necessary for me to come to terms with the fact that pretty much all fashion mags airbrush every fashion photo and cover shot.

I read The Body Project. (Which is awesome, btw.)

Women’s studies made me feel a lot better. I felt like, wow, this whole time I’ve been trying to live up to these people in skin color, shoe style, hair cut, skin clarity, and thigh size, and I’ve been shooting way too high. Moreso, I realized I was shooting to look like people who were chosen by size in order to fit into sample sized clothing (at least that’s their defense) and so that model would not overpower the clothing because she would be so slight. We saw images of naked women next to snakes and apples (gee, I wonder what that alludes to?) and the same props wrapped around hairy old guys (a freaky moment of a-ha and disgust for damn sure). The whole experience was like stepping outside of the Matrix--and I don’t exaggerate. (Ever!) I also dropped my diet that week and decided life is very short, eat what you want. (I’m on South Beach now because I’d really like to wear a bikini next month, but I choose when I eat and what I eat--and when winter rolls around, I’ll probably quit it. I just want to feel the sun on my half naked body. It’s my American right.)

It’s not uncommon for seven-year-olds to imitate Britney Spears’s moves and breathy voice, to try on make-up, be on diets and wonder if the boy next to them in second grade thinks they’re hot. It’s that bad. Worse, a lot of times guys blame us for it....when all of us are perpetuating it.

But the point that I’m getting to is (get to it, hurry!): I just don’t think fashion magazines are the culprit. If we didn’t like fashion mags, we wouldn’t buy them. If America didn’t love gossip, US Weekly would not be in biz. Also, we ladies wouldn’t go shopping quite as often and our economy wouldn’t be quite as, (uh, think four years ago!) successful.

Also, I believe that people will consume the media that interests them. Most sports bore me to tears (maybe I’d be more involved with football if the NFL had some women out there on the field “allowed” to interact with the guys) so I don’t watch it. When my boyfriend watches it (and often :) I focus on chicken wings or a book. But I do watch TMZ--and no one forces my hand with the remote. I feel terrible about it afterward, though, it’s true.

I don’t think I’m a shallow person, but maybe I am. I love to read and write, but I also like to play with eyeshadow. I love to shoe shop (it’s like artwork I can wear on my feet!) I also like to argue about politics with anyone who’s game, think women are great leaders and I can hit a baseball really far. I’m a human being, yo, and I like consuming media. I like seeing what other people are up to, and I have enough (too much?) ego to want to show others what I’m up to. The media makes that possible and I love it.

Fashion mags are only showing us what we buy into, and since they are put together by people living in our society, the content is influenced by readers just as we are influenced by them. We should be taking as much blame as them--they’re simply the mirror, the messenger.

That said, I think it’s terrible to evaluate yourself on whether or not men desire you. And a lot of imagry (and articles) in fashion magazines suggest that women should do that. (”Wear this and attract your crush..” or “say this/do this/be this way/look this way and attract him..”) That’s toxic.

But fashion mags are setting out to show us clothing. The models that many women are attempting to emulate many times are not even attractive to men. We women are devouring them. They are considered influential because some of us let them influence us. But we have choices--and I don’t think we’re stupid. We don’t have to diet or shop a lot. I do shop and I am on a diet, but I know it’s a luxury, and I treat it that way. I decided to do those things. I’m not a zombie and you aren’t either. I don’t think it’s responsible for me to blame the media, because we have minds. We don’t always do what the media tells us we could do. We’re complex and we want different things.

Just as consumers run the economy ship, readers run the magazines. : ) Take the power and talk back!