What's wrong with this picture.....?

Gents,

There's nothing too deep in this post, but I think it does hold significant sway about how we (meaning mankind) fool ourselves.

Walk with me for a minute...

Nim had a bunch of magazines on the table as she was in the midst of throwing them out.  So I sit down to eat my dinner and pick up a copy of Marie Claire, August 2009 edition. I'm flicking through it, as per usual, there is a plethora of 15 year old girls emaciated and looking like they just had a lobotomy that has removed their personality, along with some articles like "When does Porn become Adultery"  , there are the a-typical pictures of women looking to seduce the male race, a celebrity photo shoot of "older" women (Cindy Crawfed and Sharon Stone) and a naked Canadian model covering up her naughty bits.... and glossy ads, you know the type - 18 year olds selling perfume looking like they are about ride off on a cloud or the starship enterprise...

I come to the Editor's Letter opening remark.

Watch now....

(Jackie Frank)

"I've always admired Therese Rein. Here's a woman who has raised a family, supported husband Kevin Rudd in his high profile career, and founded a recruitment agency that grew into an international company worth millions of dollars. So I was outraged to read the recent rash of stories about her "shock" weight loss. What really upset me (even more that the intrusive shots of her at the gym) was the snide tone in which they were written, and the frankly ridiculous comaprisons that were drawn between Therese and another first lady - and former supermodel - Caria Bruni-Sarkozy. Several intimated that only now could "trim Therese" confidently greet French President's wife when she visted in July. The inference was that her appearance held more value than anything else. 
I've worked with Carla many times, and she's a really engaging woman who's a lot of fun. But Therese is a smart, gutsy lady who has single handedly built a business empire. Why on earth shouldn't she greet Carla - or anyone, for that matter - with her head held high? Unformtunately when I was asked to talk about Therese on Melbourne radio recently, nobody wanted to discuss her achievements - just her weight loss.
[NOTE, here is the good bit]
Now, as the editor of a fashion magazine, I'm aware that I'm going out on a limb talking about this topic. I know what you are thinking - well, who are you to talk about women and weight when you only use skinny models in your magazine? In rely, I'd say fasion is about dreams and aspirations and , on a practical note, clothes photograph better on sample-sized models. But what I am taling about here is the way women are continually judged by the size of their waist, rather than the size of their brain."

I almost fell off my chair and re-read this to Nim with much laughter.

We (mankind) are brilliant at sucking in a lie and mainstreaming it....

Women have a hard enough time trying to be secure in themselves with roughly a 1/3 of families growing up without their father, with the majority of teenagers watching porn and girls having to "act out" their boyfriends sexual adventure, with women constantly talking about being sexy and hot, with "women's sexual revolution" empowering women to have 100,000 abortions in Australia a year, have more sexual partners by Year 12 than boys..... And then we have a women's magazine editor justifying her "weight loss" support of Therese followed 3 pages later with a naked supermodel, I mean "sample-sized models"..... and we normalise it and call it a dream and aspiration.... normalising dysfunction I think is more apt.  Buying the lie....

Women are beautiful, amazing, incredible. Women are beyond description.

Marie Clare, why normalise a lie and call it "sample size"?