Nelson - Airbrushed Nation

AIRBRUSHED NATION

AIRBRUSHED NATION

The Lure & Loathing of Womens Magazines

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Nelson

Published by

Seal Press

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

1700 Fourth Street

Berkeley, California 94710

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection with a review.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nelson, Jennifer, 1965-

Airbrushed nation : the lure and loathing of women's magazines / by Jennifer Nelson.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-5800-5463-8

1. Women's periodicals, American. 2. Women--Press coverage--United States. 3. Women's periodicals, American--Illustrations--Themes, motives. 4. Women in mass media. 5. Body image in women--Social aspects--United States. I. Title.

PN4879.N47 2012

051.082--dc23

2012012417

987654321

Cover design by Erin Seaward-Hiatt

Interior design by Tabitha Lahr

Distributed by Publishers Group West

For Ashley and all the beautiful women
reading a magazine everywhere

Contents

O ften, aspiring magazine writers cut their professional teeth writing for smaller newspapers and magazines before transitioning to the big leagues of national magazines. Not me. I knew what I wanted. Id grown up with my girly nose buried in the glossy pages of everything from Tiger Beat and Young Miss to Cosmo, Shape, and Self. I was enthralled and occasionally appalled, but still I was totally smitten.

At the time, it didnt occur to me that these womens magazines, which had imparted a lifetimes worth of seemingly friendly advice to me on everything from dating and sex to fashion and health, approached its readers as if they needed fixing, nor did I think my self-esteem and self-worth had been diminished simply by reading their shiny pages. In fact, like millions of other women readers, I craved their content and made no connection that any of my insecurities could be traced back to womens magazines.

So when it came time to launch my career, I went straight to the source of the lovethe perfumed pages of the chick slicks. One of the very first pitch letters I sent went to Womans Day, one of the nations oldest and most widely read womens magazines. I had what I believed was a solid story idea about smoking cessation, and a lot of hope. About all I had going for me was my tenacity in sending an article idea to them, along with my crossed fingers; after all, I was green and WD had been around so long, it sat on my mothers coffee table when I was a kid. So when the health editor called me three days later, I was ecstatic.

Though my pitch didnt pan out, the editor did assign me another story, and for the next thirteen years I crafted the very articles I used to love to read, for magazines including Ladies Home Journal, Self, Fitness, Oprah, Cosmo, Glamour, Redbook, and the rest. While most of my writing centered around health, fitness, and nutritionwork I was proud ofIm guilty of having crafted stories that were less transparent, ones written to fit the editors agenda, not what my reporting had sussed out. Whether it was getting real women or expert sources to say exactly what my editor wanted them to say in a quote, or being selective about the women who were profiled in real women stories, Ive jumped through my share of editorial hoops. Ive also written my share of the drop five, ten, or fifteen pounds articles that plaster those perfumed pages. In other words, Im guilty of giving you, women readers, the same type of magazine content I take to task in the following pages as being misleading, undermining, fear-mongering, or fluffy.

However, between the dredge and the dreck, and the airbrushed ideal, value can still be found between the glossy covers: whether its informative health stories or an expos on social issues, solid advice on parenting, or helpful information on fitness, I have had the privilege of writing good stuff that doesnt demean, hype, or undermine. Ive worked with smart editors with integrityboth male and femalewho valued transparency in the womens glossies.

Unfortunately, this is the exception to the rule. The more deeply entrenched I became in the perfumed pages of the chick slicks, the more deeply troubled I was by the loss of womens magazines the way I remembered them: as a girls best friend, a funk-lifting pick-me-up, an inspirational forum for advice on how to look and feel your best, get the job you want, and have better sexwith a few celebrity interviews and fashion spreads thrown in for fluffy measure. With each decade, it seemed, the once fairly innocuous content found in womens glossies had gotten increasingly more destructive, dumbed down, and airbrushed to surreal perfection. When I became more conscious that these magazines were continually trying to make readers over, often implying that women needed to constantly improve themselveseither directly or through inferenceI began to scrutinize them more critically.

Suddenly, I wanted every woman to take a closer look at what they were actually reading, especially now that I had a daughter who was reading these very glossies herself. Now each image that my daughter and her peers viewed had me wondering if the image was airbrushed or retouched, and if the dieting and weight loss, dating and sex advice, and information on health, well-being, and beauty should be challenged rather than accepted at face value.

Was some of the content derogatory, demeaning, or sexist, and if so, was my daughter buying into it? Was the airbrushed imagery affecting the self-worth of young women her age, or hell, even women my age? Was being a regular reader of the chick slicks a tutorial on an airbrushed ideal that drove women to self-destructive behaviors like eating disorders, needless cosmetic surgery, and an obsession with appearance over substance? I wanted to know the truth. And I wanted other women to know it, too.

So why do we buy these magazines, if theyre so destructive? Because despite the things we might loathe about them, were drawn even more by what they promise to provide: an escapist read in between loads of laundry or during our coffee break, poolside on a chaise lounge, or waiting for a doctors appointment. There is no work required here. Its all about the desire to be entertained, inspired, moved, maybe snag a new chicken recipe or hairstyling tip, or indulge our fascination with celebrity lifestyles. Bottom line is that wed like to believe these scented pages were put together specifically with our interests, lifestyles, and well-being in mind.

But the further we get into the pages of these magazines, the experience often feels less like an easy escape and more like a passport to slow-creeping angst. The too-thin models taunt our self-esteem with their impossible perfection, the fashion spreads of expensive clothes and accessories depress us with their ridiculous price tags, the articles insult our intelligence with their patronizing tone, the real women who are surveyed, interviewed, or quoted smack of phoniness, while still other editorial content unsettles us with its fear-mongering.

Lets get real, ladies, because the magazines certainly arent! Not only do they make promises they cant keep; they also create false expectations about what our lives should look like. Its an airbrushed ideal, one where readers are left wondering, Wow, can I really save my marriage with this simple move in bed? Can I truly turn back the hands of time by ten years in one week? Um, the reality is no.