Choose Wisely

It’s nice to have a sit down and a read.  A cuppa and a book for half an hour, or maybe a magazine to enjoy.  You have to choose carefully though, because some reading material might leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

I first noticed it as a teenager, I would buy a magazine, read it, look at the pictures of the amazing models with their endless legs, smooth skin and tiny frames, and then feel bad.   I was a bit spotty, shortish, my hair was frizzy, my legs didn’t go on and on and my boobs still hadn’t grown in (some things never change).  I would read those magazines and feel ugly, but still I bought them. 

   

I did lots of quizzes too.  There was usually one in every magazine. One that sticks out in my mind is; Are you an apple or a pear? This was followed by a helpful section on how to get dressed if you were  shaped like an apple or a pear.  Essential reading huh?   All those years I’d been doing it wrong!

The thing is, we are all susceptible to the influence of these magazines.  Even though I now know that most of those images are airbrushed, they still make me dislike my own body and feel inferior.  And you see I don’t want to dislike my body.  It’s perfectly fine, I have been living in it for 34 years and it has done the job.  It has its quirks, it’s not perfect, but I try and look after it and I am thankful for my health.  

So, back to the magazines, I don’t buy them, I avoid reading them.  Why would I want to pay someone to make me feel like shit?  And over the years I have noticed them become nastier and more obvious in their attacks on women.  Does the Heat Magazine Circle of Shame still exist?  Can you imagine being that person, the one who is paid to find a photograph of someone and point out their perceived faults, their sweat patches, their spots or wrinkles.  How nasty.  What must that do to you as a human being, to be that cruel to others in the name of entertainment?  And of course, how would it feel to be the object of such shame.  I know when I have sweaty armpits, I hope no one notices, so I can only imagine how I would feel to have it broadcast to the nation.   I have also noticed that the magazines that are stocked at the checkout in the supermarket often have  a picture of some celeb or other who is having a ‘crisis’,  the image has been carefully chosen to be as unflattering as possible, a makeup -less unsmiling shot, to emphasise the emotional turmoil that whoever that week’s victim is experiencing.

So my point is this.  When you buy a magazine, ask yourself how you feel after reading it.  If the answer is that you feel good, (or at least no worse) then great, keep reading, but if, like me, you find seeds of doubt nagging away at you, then ditch them.  Read something else, after all, there are plenty of good books out there.