I’m beginning to think that magazines intentionally choose articles to make their readers feel insecure, buy their magazine, and eat up the products advertised in the current issue. (I’m sure some blogs do the same thing)
A few days ago, I mentioned the Details magazine article which theorized that man’s happiness is directly related to the size of his member. Of course, since most of us never reach that nine inch status, we need to compensate by buying Axe cologne or a sports car.
It’s all pretty ridiculous. First of all, most men keep their private parts hidden in their pants until the third date, so no women really knows what’s up (other than in the Middle Ages – Renaissance when men tried to fool everyone with codpieces). In modern times, men use this “dating” process for their own purposes, suckering the always emotional woman into overlooking any other issues with the male body, as they “fall” for you.
Joking, uh… ha ha.
Women have it tougher than men. Men do judge women by how they look. But — I’m not sure they do as much as you think. Different men like all different types of women.  Some like all women! Despite what men talk about when they are drinking beer in Hooters, a woman with a good sense of humor is much sexier than a pair of fake boobs. Not that men don’t like boobs. That is a given. I just think that women’s magazines go overboard in setting up a feminine “ideal” that is not essential to being attractive to men.  Perhaps women are forced into all this more from peer pressure of other women! And unlike men’s magazines, women’s magazines don’t give a woman an out– our culture doesn’t say that a woman owning a sportscar can ever compensate for a woman’s physical “faults.”  Instead women have to buy, buy, buy beauty supplies and diet, diet, diet.Â
I’m pretty insecure about myself, but I’m surprised how confident I sound when I IM with some of my female blogging friends! I’m about as dorky as they come, but even I don’t think it impossible for me to be with any woman I wanted to — if the situation was right. When I was watching the Grammy Awards last week, I was thinking about this exact thing when Beyonce was singing. Now that is one beautiful, talented successful woman! And I was sitting there thinking — “You know what. If circumstances were different, and we were in the same social circle, and I had a little more money, and if we had something to talk about, I bet you I could woo Beyonce.” Do you find that crazy? I think most men wouldn’t. This is why some men come off as cocky — because even I — the most insecure person you’ll meet — have this insane, unrealistic male ego. Do I think I will ever date Beyonce? Of course not. But in my mind… it is possible.
Do women think they could be dating Brad Pitt if things were different? I think it is harder for women to have these crazy thoughts, because the media is harder on your psyche. Our culture makes you feel that you aren’t worthy of being considered attractive if your body shape isn’t a certain type. This is not a new discussion, either on blogs or on Citizen of the Month.Â
I can hear the thoughts already. “Brad Pitt would never want me because I’m a size 12! Maybe if I lost weight. I really should go to the gym… today.”Â
You would think that women’s magazines would be “with the times,” advocating the sexiness of real women, like in those Dove ads.  You can be sexy being thin and athletic. You can be sexy being full-figured with a squeezeable ass. So, I was surprised to hear about this article in March’s Elle magazine, written by Amanda Fortini, which touts the idea that “men prefer anorexic women.” Huh? Is that really true? Is this the same research company that came up with the results that Hung = Happiness? Or is this written in the magazine solely to make women feel insecure and renew their subscription to Elle?
From the article (via Jezebel):
“Many men, I quickly learned, really do like frighteningly lean women, whatever they may claim to the controversy. As an average, medium-size young woman, I was unremarkable, innocuous. As a skinny slip of a thing, I was something of a sensation. In restaurants and at parties, men flirted at me extravagantly.” Men in media and literary circles hit on her frequently and audaciously, (one of them with the awesome line, “You remind me of a heroine from a Joan Didion novel.” (You know, “all bones and big eyes.”) “As a male friend once put it to me, semifacetiously,” she writes, ‘A little anorexia is hot.'”Â
P.S. — Let’s keep an anorexia count on for tonight’s Oscars! At least it will make the always boring show interesting…
