Shocking bodies? Shocking lack of thought, more like. This is the front cover of NOW Magazine (owned by IPC) who hopefully by now are feeling rather ashamed of themselves. I’ve been watching Twitter this morning and this picture keeps on popping up – obviously it’s provoked a reaction and none of it’s good.
Whether you think these bodies are shocking or not, I don’t think it’s okay by any measure for a magazine that is predominantly aimed at women to be using what they deem as ‘less than perfect’ bodies as a front cover (or any page for that matter) for us to pore over in revulsion. This issue is huge – it’s way bigger than I can cover here – but the bottom line of this is that it is a horrific example of why women suffer more than ever from body confidence issues. Do these make me feel normal? Do they make any of us feel normal? What even is normal when it comes to body shape anyway? Normal is an awful word when it comes to describing people – and especially when it comes to body shape. What NOW have done is make a mockery of women who are either ‘fat’ or ‘skinny’ and asked us to become judge and jury of them, too. My feelings on body size are totally my own… I neither want to be over or under-weight personally, but that’s pretty much irrelevant..what counts here is that this picture just heaps misery on those who perceive themselves to be less than ideal and at a guess, that’s just about all of us.
The thing that strikes me is that all of these women look happy – they’re all smiling, all caught unawares on the camera so they aren’t smiling for the (no doubt hidden) camera. They’re all on holiday enjoying the beach just like millions of us do. Now, that’s normal. So, who are we to judge what size they should or shouldn’t be? NOW magazine have done the women’s magazine industry the most enormous disservice here – I know many magazines are trying to move away from the size 0 model images and bring a dose of reality into their pages and something like this is beyond unhelpful to an industry that’s desperately trying to stay alive. It’s also beyond unhelpful to anyone with a body.
The NOW editor is responsible for allowing this hateful page to go to press. If, as an editor, you make a judgement that filling your front cover with ‘abnormal’ women for readers to mock and revile, and you feel that’s okay, then your judgement has to be totally questioned. This picture says so much more about the editor’s attitude to women, celebrities or not, than it does about the women themselves. It also screams ‘desperate for readers’, which most magazines are, but bad call NOW, really, really bad call.
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33 comments
I love how you’re writing about this difficult subject. Kudos to you because you’re one of the few beauty bloggers that actually dares to talk about this. We all want to be the “ideal” of perfect, which is in fact unrealistic.
Indeed, this magazine is really “desperate for readers”. I wonder what the editor(s)/writers look like. They probably don’t have the perfect body either. And you’re also right about “normal”. It’s such a vague word. I think woman should learn to accept their own bodies. We’re all different anyway and it’s like people that start a diet “because they want a body like this person or that person”, but they have to face that their body will never look like that person. Imagine if we’d all look alike, what boring world this would be…
Great post!
I wish you a great end of the year and best wishes for 2014! 🙂
Valérie | scribblesofvalerie.com
Saw this the other day and was absolutely repulsed – NOW magazine should be ashamed of themselves!
Eve & Faye x
Sugar Spun Sisters – A blog about cosmetics, clothes & coeliac disease
I find stuff like this disgusting, if it’s an attempt to make women feel ‘normal’ then it’s failed miserably, adding the headline ‘shocking bodies’ really isn’t going to make anyone feel normal!!
Sadly, this is what sells… You probably know this better than me 🙁
I find these kinds of covers offensive and think they should be on the top shelf covered with black bands. I’ve recently heard lots of very young girls talking about their bodies in such a negative way. It broke my hearing recently hearing a 7 year old said she had thunder thighs. I don’t recall having the slightest consciousness at that age. And it is things like hearing adults talk and magazine covers like this that are so damaging and contribute to that. As readers we have the power to vote with our purses and not buy as ultimately money talks.
I couldn’t have said it better myself! Body shaming is just disgusting! All of these ladies look happy and that’s all that matters!
This is shocking!!! I cannot beleive Now magazing would even consider doing this, absolutely disgusting!
Em
Em’s Mixed Bag
thoughtful post, very nice
http://chelsealeighbeauty.blogspot.com/
Very well said Jane!
Disgusting. I am not a reader but even so I find it very disturbing.
I think its so ridiculous that people get joy from making people feel bad. Also, most of these women have great bodies, it’s just a bad photo! Bastards! x
http://lifebyemmy.blogspot.co.uk/
Oh no no no!
I don’t read mags like this anyway, but if I did I would be one very angry reader. as it is I am just one very angry person… no no no no no!
As always well said BBB!!!!
It’s a hidious magazine, with nothing better to do then slag of stars bodies. Magazines like this cause normal girls to have body confidence issues.
What makes matters worse is that these images all look to have been altered- most likely to make them appear more “shocking”.
I have to say that I find this pretty abhorrant. Whether the idea is to make us feel ‘normal’ by trying to say ‘well, stars have fat/thin/wobbly bits too’ is not the point, and I do not believe this is what the magazine is aiming at. The headline may as well be ‘come and gawp as celebs who are happy and have made peace with their body with both it’s assets and so called inperfections – and make them feel gross and indecent for doing so’. It’s car crash media at it’s worst and it needs to stop. Just my opinion.
Love Vicky
http://aroundandaroundandupsidedown.blogspot.co.uk/
Really, really well said!
I love your point that they are all smiling, that’s really what it comes down to!
Anyone can be caught at a bad camera angle. What this does is also make the poor Women that have been photographed unknowingly, feel absolutely rubbish and no doubt very self conscious. Celebrity or not, they are just women at the end of the day, like you or I and they shouldn’t have to suffer being splashed on the front cover of a magazine with such a title for the whole world to judge them. Who defines what is perfect?? Healthy and happy is the way forward……..I have to agree completely, this was a really bad call on NOW’s part.
It doesn’t make me feel normal – rather, it confirms in my head that my body, especially my tummy with all its stretch marks and crinkly bits is just prime for mockery and shaming. “How dare you look like all these ugly people! Don’t you know you should be skinny and as flat as possible and completely flawless?!”
What a disgusting cover. As you said they all seem happy so what business is it of Now to try and sell issues of the back of calling them ‘abnormal’? I’d be interested to know how ‘perfect’ the editor looks. Utter rubbish, very glad that people are standing up to this sort of thing.
I can’t believe after all the controversy on the portrayal of womens bodies and the big issue around photo shopping that someone at NOW headquarters has sat in an office, pulled all of these pictures together and someone else has come along and say, ‘yes, brilliant idea’. A front cover like that is not going to make me pick up your magazine!
You’re right, they’re all smiling, and that’s what I wish people could focus on. As if women don’t have it hard enough already when it comes to body confidence!
Sarah 🙂
Saloca in Wonderland
I don’t buy this magazine and wasn’t aware of its existence until viewing this post. I am against press censorship by law or “Twitter Mob” and would not want to see editors/magazines diciplined or regulated. Keep the press free.
It’s not asking for discipling or regulating.. it’s expressing the view that it was a bad call to promote images of women that contribute to the wider issue of poor self image. If you want to keep press free, that’s all well and good, but free speech on Twitter is equally important so that views can be expressed and heard. If the press can be free, so can Twitter.
Well said. It’s time for women to embrace what makes us unique and beautiful, and glorify that in ourselves and each other. We need to shun these suffocating, ludicrous ideas of body image and the jealousy that comes with, and celebrate and appreciate each other for what makes us special and beautiful.
Reminds me of a picture of Scarlett Johansson in a bikini that someone commented “looked like hell” because *gasp* she had cellulite. To make things worse, the same article implied that her partner must be a sociopath for not dumping her for not having airbrushed thighs in person.
No wonder body dysmorphia is so common nowadays.
U know, they want attention and they got it, but we can boycott the editor and not buy it…serves them right
Well said, Jane – it’s great that you bring this kind of thing to people’s attention. I believe in freedom of the press, which means editors are free to publish this kind of dross (if they can live with their conscience) but I also believe in freedom of the reader. Hopefully 2014 will be the year people stop buying this kind of rubbish and we can all move on and start celebrating the amazing things women do instead of what their thighs look like at a certain angle.
You’ve brought to light such an important issue, it’s essential we take a stand against such vile magazines, pedalling this abhorrent portrayal of women. I’ve added to the debate over on my blog: http://fashionbite.co.uk/2013/12/31/body-shaming-debate/ Thanks so much for bringing this topic to the forefront.
Emily x
I was so angry when I saw this picture floating around twitter. It’s the way it says ‘that will make you feel normal’, as we should all be sharing these women as a collective! I felt so sick reading that!
I will never read these magazines, as they are clearly desperate for reader and don’t care about content at all!
Joelle
xx
FebruaryGirl.
Thank you for your comment on this horrendous cover, it’s important to adress this issue, and you do so very well. It is beyond bad taste to brand anyone as less worth because of something like weight.
I think the best thing that’s come out of it, is the backlash it has created. Hopefully it’s a sign that there’s a higher degree of acceptance of different bodyshapes, one can hope that it’ll continue to grow in 2014 🙂
If they really wanted us to feel “normal,” they could stop airbrushing the normal out of every flipping photograph they publish. I flatly refuse to participate in shaming women for how their bodies look, whether on line or in person.
Perfect is in the eye of the beholder and although we all have confidence issues, our loved ones can make us happy. People are different – shapes, sizes, colours… so what?
It’s just awful that people are forced to be influenced by these sorts of magazines. The owners, editors and writers should think about what they’re doing to people’s wellbeing.