Things That Bang

The latest issue of Marie Claire had me in splits this month. Between the serious story of a woman selling her kidney to fund her husband's rickshaw to models sporting Gucci, Chanel and Versace bags my mind couldn't comprehend the kind of women they were trying to reach, initially.

The article about Esha Deol, the Gayatri Mantar on her back and her pseudo strike against the conservative sections of society was a token read for the upwardly mobile career woman, the one on the rickshaw owner's wife for the tear jerking effect but the most offensive one was on a couple of womens perception of their body shapes.

Two babes were fat and others were scrawny and liked being thin whereas the fat babes tried to work around their fat by enhancing other characteristics. The psychiatrist who observed their drawings of themselves had some interesting things to say but the most offensive one was where she said that the ones with weight issues could hide their imperfections with high end accessories.

High end Accessories? I spluttered coffee all over my knock off D&G bag, was she a real psychiatrist or just a tout, a mind predator hired by Marie Claire to brain wash readers?

A few pages down the endorsed designer clothes, shoes, bags, cosmetics had me chuckling. All I could think was of my fat being ignored if I had all the above on me; why, even if Jabba The Hut pranced down Manhattan wearing all that glitzy expensive stuff no one would notice he was a lard of alien flesh.

Fat is fat. Its bad for the body and there is no getting around the issue, heck its bad for your back, knees and feet. But that wasn't the point made by the magazine, instead of saying- hey you are beautiful despite your weight but hit the gym for your heart; they took the other route-you can remain fat just make our sponsors happy- pretty please and that will not only keep our magazine afloat but pay for this female version of Dr Phil we have hired.

Reading feminine magazines is actually good for one's self -esteem. They no longer are subtle in their placements- one has to be skinny and 'Gauri Khan' rich to be 'in' with times. Yeah, nothing wrong with being a housewife but here is the catch even she tours Italy for her designer bags. 

That was Vogue's not so subtle message - one can be a housewife but to gain respect in the working world the housewife has to have super expensive designer tastes.

Another way of looking at magazines such as Marie Claire and Vogue could be that these aren't meant for us middle class women but for socialites, for women who do tour Italy for Versace, Paris for Chanel and not for us who pick up Hideout bags and feel kicked. Its for socialites who are jet setters, women with the world under their feet who run charities for the poor (here comes in the Kidney story) to give their lives 'deeper' meaning.

Women magazines are vomit material. They try to package the same shit - consumerism under the garb of feminism whereas it is nothing more than shameless pimping for products. The way I see it even Playboy, Debonair are better- at least they don't hide what they are trying to sell.