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“A GIRL’S LINK TO FASHION, BEAUTY AND SEX”
As part of my keeping fit routine I try to visit the gym to get a work out. Last week the weather in the early AM was very cold and I decided to have a run on the treadmill.
The “mill” has a tendency to be a little tedious, you try to keep up but the scenery can be a touch boring.
I cast my eyes to the periodical stand and glanced at the reading material. The recycled magazines on the rack caught my attention, Mademoiselle’s cover was intriguing- “Look Great Naked, 5 Moves to a Sexier Body”- at my age that seems somewhat impossible/laughable.
The next bit of advice was titled, “Love Trends, The pleasures and perils of practically living together”.
As I glanced over the glossy covers of “Flare,”, and“Seventeen” the models were very young women. The articles in Seventeen told of “The Secret Languages of Guys and Smooch, How to Read His Lips.” All these years I have been encouraging my clients to read a book to develop their literary skills.
A look inside the magazines displays oodles of advertisements with cosmetics, lingerie, skin care and tantalizing pictures and aromas of expensive colognes and perfumes. The models chosen to display the merchandise are maybe 90 pounds with lustrous hair and lots of make up to enhance their images.
Strange not one girl with glasses, full figured or with a touch of acne was displayed in the photos? The magazines and their contents are a magnet for the average teenaged girl, hey this is supposed to be way they are to look.
With the role models displayed as the haute couture what is a young girl to do? Some teens sadly deprive themselves of proper nutrition by feeling guilty for eating a full nutritious meal, smoking, dieting vomiting and laxatives can become part of the daily routine.
One of the magazines had a milk advertisement with a very thin bikini adorned young women with a white mustache extolling the virtues of drinking a daily glass of milk.
What does a skimpy bathing swim suit have to do with drinking milk I asked Bonnie who was stretching out besides me? She responded that sex sells and to-day sexy means thin, young and attractive. I am angry that young women are portrayed in such a fashion to the detriment of their health.
The editors of the magazines are surely mean spirited , dirty old men who exploit our young women for profit. Wrong. Check it out for yourself the Editors-in Chief are all women. The policies and direction that the magazines follows are female directed.
We trust the publishers to show leadership and positive directions for our young daughters. Sadly they do not.
Parents take a few minutes out of your busy schedule and peruse your daughter’s favourite fashion magazine. and discuss the reality of a shallow lifestyle emphasising glitter and fashion. I know that the majority of the young women I counsel are not swayed by the glossy pictures: they have a mind of their own and have good self concepts. My concern is for the small minority that buy into the charade at the expense of their health and well being.
Len Lesser