Delphi, No worries… thank you for your comments.

And what makes them so horrible in particular (aside from the consumer-driven ones – I’m focusing on the Cosmo and Glamour articles here), is what they recommend for relationships! It’s all so contrived…as if “tricking” your mate by feigning weakness (asking for help, wearing soft clothes, etc) is the way to “make him fall in love” – Oh…I’m sorry…I thought falling in love was a VOLUNTARY action…I didn’t know you could MAKE someone do it. How lovely…

Don’t people see how f*cked up this is? They are describing, IN DETAIL, explicit manipulation tactics to play on a man to get him to DO THINGS for you (”unlock his instincts to take care of you”). It’s wrong on so many levels!!!

A) It’s wrong because it’s insidiously manipulative to PRETEND one is a certain way or to consciously do things all with the aim of GETTING someone to feel a certain way a.k.a. “love” you (which is intensely EGO-driven btw and pretty much the exact opposite of what real love encompasses), and B) The title of the article alone “What Makes Men Fall in Love,” along with its lay-out as a veritable “how-to” guide suggests that “making” a man fall in love with them is a woman’s goal in life; because why else include TIPS on HOW to do something if they didn’t think women would follow it?

I take offense.

It’s very nice to “meet” you! Thank you for your comment and yes – needless to say, I agree.

Vered

But back to your article…I loathe these magazines…additionally I loathe ads and commercials in general (especially pharmaceutical ads (don’t get me started) that prey upon women (especially the pscyho-pharmaceutical industry…)) but I digress…anyway, as a result I ditched my TV years ago and don’t miss it AT ALL. Nor do I miss these cr*ppy “women’s magazines.” A woman’s mag? Seriously? How are they “pro-woman” I ask you!?!??!

I remember I’d read Cosmo or Elle, or the aptly named narcissistic “Self,” and note how they always tried to present themselves as if they were promoting women’ self-esteem (when that became the “in” thing to do) by including fluff pieces often titled something like “How to love your body” or “Love the skin you’re in” etc. What really got my ire up however, was seeing these articles right alongside another on “How to please your man” or “Sex tips you can’t live without” – not to mention the images!!!! Oh the images!!! Who was on the cover? Was there any variety? Did we see different sized women? No!…only one size fits all…one FACE fits all!…maybe with the occasional change in skin-tone or hair color. And usually in this same mag (just to add insult to injury), there’d be an article on weight-loss or the most “figure flattering” dresses…ugh, such hypocrisy. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I actually started to buy Lucky mag. ’cause even though it’s basically a giant AD for clothes, it didn’t pretend to be something it wasn’t…and there weren’t any of the stupid articles to contend with. Thankfully I’m now done with all “women’s mags” en total.

Anyway, I feel your pain. They really make me want to vomit too.

For more in depth and humourous discussion of the crappiness of women’s magazines cf http://www.jezebel.com where they analyse the covers of popular women’s mags every week from a very sarky feminist perspective. Hilarious.

We can’t avoid the nastiness of media images of women completely but we don’t have to pay for it on subscription!