I should note that this rant comes from a frustrated place. I am four days late on my TOM, with no positive preg. test in sight. Grrrr. Confusing and frustrating.
Just finished reading through the latest copy of Shape. Well, skimming. I read the recipes (a few yummy ones) and glanced at a few exercises. This magazine was one of the worst I've ever received--definitely the wrong one for them to attach a re-subscription notice to.
I could talk about how ridiculous it is for them to put Hilary Duff on the cover (most 19 year olds don't have to worry too much about their weight). Or the silliness behind the whole "fitness/beauty at any age" theme (they generously cover the twenties, thirties, and forties--remember, we all die at 49*--while assuming that twenty-year-olds are out clubbing every night, thirty-year-olds are all bearing children, and forty-year-olds are working 60 hour weeks, climbing the corporate ladder).
I'll just mention the reader "success stories." These sections have long bothered me, and this month's was no exception. They recount what causes a woman to decide to lose weight (the "wake-up call"), how she did it, what she current eats and how she exercises.
I tend to think most people fudge a little about what they eat. Sure, they "typically have salmon and broccoli for dinner." Okay. A little spartan for my taste, but okay.
But the workouts these women put themselves through always surprise me. One success story this month said that this woman did 60 minutes of cardio six days each week and 60 minutes of weight training six days a week. That is two hours of working out nearly every day. This is what we are supposed to emulate? All to be a size 6 instead of a size 12? Is nearly 10 percent of your day, maybe 12-15 percent of your waking hours, supposed to be devoted to staying thin? (And that's just the exercise, that's not preparing food, menus, shopping, eating, etc.) Do any of her friends say, "You know, two hours is kind of a lot?"
Balance, people, balance.
*I'll concede that they probably do this because of their readership demographic. For some reason, people in their fifties don't want to see pictures of nineteen year olds doing lunges...
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2 comments:
I couldn't agree with you more! They sell a "one size fits all" mentality and most women swallow it without stopping to realise it tastes like shit! Working out for two hours a day six days a week is compulsive in my opinion. They've just replaced an eating addiction with an addiction to working out. Sure, they may look better,(in some peoples opinion) but they haven't solved the problem. This is exactly the case with my beautiful sister-in-law who dreams of being 130lbs at 5'9. It's sick! They equate thinness with health and happiness and in doing so damn all those who buy in. If you are self-citical, neuortic, compulsive, and unhappy had a size 10, you'll be self-critical, neuorotic, compulsive, and unhappy at a size 4. They aren't selling self love. They are selling self hate and packaging it in a pretty "look like this and you'll be happy" box.
I'll tell you what makes a 50 year old mad.. seeing a 20 something in an ad selling wrinkle/anti-aging cream.
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