I don't know if I can completely agree with you. If it's the woman's choice and not the man's, then men's magazines would have a completely different look. But since men's magazines are mostly edited and photographed by men, and they are the ones who choose the look and the clothes, then the message being sent is that it's what men want.
Yes, they are
largely (but not exclusively by any means) male driven, and maybe they would be different, though how different is hard to say. I suspect there is likely little money in presenting women as they actually are. Until men (and women) in general are willing to accept women as they
really are, as opposed to how they think they should be I don't see that changing, nor women relinquishing that position of power.
In this respect, I often think women are their own worst enemy. Being co-conspirators in the perpetuation of this fallacy that such an unattainable ideal does in fact exist they must bear some responsibility. Increasingly I think that
is happening but it's still too seldom reflected in the media and the pages of the fashion/girlie press. The cult of celebrity still has legs. That's fine, we all need to pay the bills but it's harder then for us all to be taken seriously when we* complain about being 'exploited' while willingly participating in such 'exploitation'.
* we in a collective sense - those who swallow the media images are also being exploited, imo.
The reasons behind that are worthy of exploration, I think that deserves a thread of it's own but I know from discussions with people, male and female in the industry that it's a situation that is far from a resolution. There is no real blame attached, while women continue to pander to the superficial desires of men to appear a certain way, men will continue to demand they do so and vice versa. The real danger comes when people confuse such abstractions with reality. We can read about the consequences of that in the tabloids every day.
....when you go to a bar, it's generally going to be the one who has the makeup perfect, the hair done, the sexy clothes that is getting the attention.
In general terms, I agree, but I'm unconvinced that is always because that's what men actually want, it's just what they think (or have been conditioned to think) they want.
It's a mixed message. Men want you to look like a model, but they want it to be "natural". Even models don't look like a model when they wake up in the morning.
Clothes, makeup, hair....it's all dictated by society and the response one gets from others.
Yes, of course but in fairness mixed messages are a two way street, women are no less 'guilty' of duplicity and having often irreconcilable conflicts in what
they demand from men. Again I think that is often driven by expectations imposed on them by society, of which they are members. As I said earlier what men say they want is not always, or even seldom what they
really want; men may want to date Naomi Campbell but they want to marry the girl next door. Naturally each of those women needs to have the characterics of each other, depending on the situation.
Again, I will go to the grocery store and out to lunch without makeup. I'll even wear my glasses and throw my hair up and feel just fine. But I can guarantee that if I was standing there casual vs. dressed up to go out, I'm going to get the most response to the dressed up me from the very same guys who state they love the "all natural" look.
In that respect, I'm more likely to 'jump' the other way when I see a woman who has
apparently constructed such an image - the intention of which is, or is perceived to be the garnering of such attention, simply
because it's false - even though, in reality it may not be.
Put another way, if one is uncomfortable in one's own skin, it matters little how pretty that skin is. Unfortunately, many men will
settle for the skin, a bigger injustice being that too many women are willing to let them.
Personally, I find a genuinely attractive woman (of course attractiveness has many levels - but here I'm meaning the visual sense) in everyday clothes - jeans and an old jumper for example far far more appealing than the same (or even a
more attractive) woman dressed up to the nines. Once I know her, naturally my perception changes because there is a context within which to place the way she looks.
I'd like to think that more men these days are able to look behind the wrapping, after all, it's what's
inside that we actually want, isn't it?? Of course most men here will voice those opinions that are 'expected' of them, many
will mean them, but out in there 'in the field' I suspect they would still raise a few eyebrows. That's the tricky part of course, because while we may say we hate the superficial, at first glance it's all we see.
Therein lies the underlying issue behind this thread.
I'm seldom at my most introspective on a Sunday morning so I'll park the rest for now but would say, In essence, I believe true beauty requires no enhancement, but then I'm strangely freakish in some respects, or so I've been told.
