A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I worked in the financial services field for a division of an uber bank. What was instilled into me at that firm through its rigorous training programs was to know what you are talking about, to have an opinion and to be able to back it up. As all of you know by now, I have an opinion. In fact I have lots of opinions and that's one of the reasons that I started this blog with a pseudonym.
But now, three years later I realize how careful I have to be about what I write here. Conflicts of interests are always present. There is what I need to do for business and what I really think.
Take for example my love hate relationships with fashion/style magazines. There are some magazines that I enjoy reading, such as ELLE and others that are so syrupy in their celebrity sycophancy that they make me cringe. Yet cringing or not, I still want to see my product displayed in their glossy pages.
Like I said, conflict of interest.
Sometimes I seriously consider starting another blog, with an even more obscure pseudonym where I could voice my opinions more honestly. If I had that blog I would probably write about the September issue of a highly popular fashion/style magazine which included an article about "celebrity designers". The "celebrity designers" in this article were a middle aged pop star, who recently celebrated her 52nd birthday, and her 13 year old daughter with the name a Saint and the nickname of a demimonde. According to the article her gal pal Stella McCartney solicits fashion feedback from her 13 year old child. Really Stella, is this the best that you can do?
Can anyone out there tell me what any 13 year old, precocious, entitled, spoiled, celebrity daughter or not, really has to say about fashion. In the back of my mind I'm thinking STFU about style, get out of your closet and go read a book or twenty.
But in our material world, because we are all material girls,
celebrities now make up our new Pantheon of Gods.
Everything we need to know we can learn from celebrity magazines...our new Oracle of Delphi
Isn't it enough already that we slather over them....and solicit their opinions on everything from environmental policy to international relations to economic strategy to fashion.
Do we have to bow down to their teenage daughters as well?
(Please note that in no way do I blame the child. It's the mother pushing he child into the media spotlight that I find disturbing.)
Showing posts with label fashion magazines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fashion magazines. Show all posts
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Marie Claire - Oh The Inanity
I have kind of a love hate thing going with Marie Claire magazine...which I have always viewed as a wannabe feminist fashion magazine. In addition to Tim Gunn who I adore, and some nicely shot fashion editorials followed by a 'look for less' types of montages, it has the usual articles about books, music, movies, careers and of course sex. As if every empowered young woman needs to read articles like "My Life in a Harem" because being a hooker for the Sultan of Brunei could be a viable career choice or "How I Planned A Menage A Trois" because apparently not all young women learned how to do that in college.
By now I assume that all of you have read about Marie Claire's 'daring' cover shot of Jessica Simpson posed without make-up.
There can be no debate, Jessica Simpson is certainly a very attractive woman. Still I'm betting that there was some photoshop in some of her pictures because really...nothing gets published without it.
And on the topic of publishing, in the article "What I love About Me" where Ms Simpson meets up with "real women" on the streets of Los Angeles and discusses what features they like about themselves. With 31 year old Shalini Patel we get this exchange:
SP: I'm fairly proud of my boobs.
JS: Me too! But I grew up wearing sports bras because I was so embarrassed. Now my breasts are like an accessory.
like an accessory, did she really say that?
God knows she has a great rack. And despite her huge net worth, she's no rocket scientist, so I'm guessing that she really did make that ridiculous remark.
But what I want to know is why Marie Claire would choose to publish something so completely inane?
By now I assume that all of you have read about Marie Claire's 'daring' cover shot of Jessica Simpson posed without make-up.

And on the topic of publishing, in the article "What I love About Me" where Ms Simpson meets up with "real women" on the streets of Los Angeles and discusses what features they like about themselves. With 31 year old Shalini Patel we get this exchange:
SP: I'm fairly proud of my boobs.
JS: Me too! But I grew up wearing sports bras because I was so embarrassed. Now my breasts are like an accessory.
like an accessory, did she really say that?

But what I want to know is why Marie Claire would choose to publish something so completely inane?
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