Real Women

"Real women, sizes 6-16 NAKED. No retouching, just brave readers, nude and honest..." So reads the cover of this month's Cosmopolitan Magazine. This is in keeping with the publication's 'Body Love Policy'. Editor Sarah Wilson explains the philosophy:

"It can do a girl's head in seeing image after image of size 8 women with their clothing slipping off bony hips and shoulders, right? You begin to think it's standard — and desirable — and you compare your own body to this "normalised" image..."

"But skinny women sell magazines, don't they? There's certainly that argument out there. The thing is though, they sell mags because they create angst. Many women's mags are sold using angst — telling readers that they are too fat or too single or too lonely or too unfashionable. But I prefer not to treat readers like victims. It's unempowering..."

This is in keeping with present moves to ban annorexic models from catwalks and encourage a more natural and realistic self image for (in particular young) women. All very politically correct. But Sarah Wilson is not being particularly honest. Skinny women don't necessarily sell magazines, but naked women certainly do.

This presentation of women further focusses on the idea that a woman's appearance is of prime importance. In pretending to promote more healthy attitudes to body image, the magazine does nothing more than continue to objectify women.

Judging by the messages on this forum: Proanorexia, World's Largest Pro Anorexia Site, the trend among young women towards a negative and obsessive body image is of great cause for concern. To really make a difference publications like Cosmo need to do more than simply present a range of different body shapes in the buff. The idea that the degree to which a woman is attractive to men is of tantamount importance needs to be substantially changed. Of course, this wouldn't be as profitable, would it?

Cosmo's new policy certainly seems to be working. This month's issue was sold out at my local newsagent's. Obviously I managed to pick up a copy elsewhere.