I’m not sure who the bigger hypocrite is on this one, Shape magazine or Katharine McPhee.
On the one hand, you’ve got a “health” magazine slapping an airbrushed, bikini-clad ex-bulimic on the cover alongside headlines “Drop Ten Pounds — Start Today!” and “BLAST 300+ Calories at Lunch!”
On the other hand, you’ve got a newly-bleached-blonde “American Idol” runner-up flaunting her “best shape ever” (i.e., skinny, but not “puking my guts out seven times a day“ skinny) posing for that very same magazine.
Either way, the mixed message is pretty clear. As one Jezebel blogger put it: “thin=healthy … weight loss=fitness.”
I can see why McPhee would want to tell the world all about her new, vomit-free lifestyle, but her publicist’s choice of media outlets (and outfits) is just a little iffy. Here’s Katie Drummond of True/Slant:
[A]fter purging as often as seven times a day, for five years, you’d think McPhee would know better than to perpetuate the very same unrealistic physical ideal she admits to struggling with … As anyone who has recovered from an eating disorder knows, the last thing – the very last thing – one should focus on is their bikini body, and, by extension, their weight or their size. Focus on strength, nourishment, how it feels to wake up energetic and vibrant. Not, as the McPhee cover teaser states, on “The Six Moves That Changed My Body!
But McPhee is just a small, reality-star fish (starfish?) in Hollywood’s big pond. Is it really fair to ask her to turn down a magazine cover aimed straight at her teen audience? Maybe.
But what about Shape and all the other “pseudo-fitness” magazines? Surely they know about all the gazillion studies on the relationship between magazine reading and adolescent body image which have concluded that
Ironically, it is the magazines that claim to be “for your health” that may induce adolescents to do the most damage to their bodies. Reading health/fitness magazines was an important predictor of body image and eating disturbances for adolescents….For girls, health/fitness magazine reading was linked to a stronger drive to be thin and to increased anorexic and bulimic intentions and behaviors such as vomiting, abusing laxatives, and fasting.
Huh. Well I guess Shape finally found a cover model their audience can really identify with! I wonder who they have on tap for next month. Can I nominate Rachel Zoe?
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I hate all these so-called health magazines. They’re not health magazines at all. All they talk about are losing weight, dropping sizes, tips on eating N calories, and all that BS. None of those things really constitute health. It’s all superficial and it promotes unhealthy an unhealthy body image to the readers. Weight loss is not necessarily fitness. Thin is definitely not always healthy.
Like the caption “cake jumping out of a girl.”
Yeah, I don’t recall EVER perusing “Shape” or “Self” or “Self Shape” or “Barbie Monthly” and seeing anything about cancer prevention, or osteoporosis, or the 7 signs you may be a shallow heifer. Because as long as you’re SKINNY, who cares?
You’re catching on, SJS. Well done. Magazines are evil, I refuse to buy any magazine that doesn’t have a picture of a chocolate cake on the cover.
SJS for Prez
I saw this on a cover of Cosmo:
“New Spring Wardrobe! Change your look for under $200
Pick the hair color that’s right for you!
Lose 15 lbs for bikini season!
Love yourself the way you are!”
Jolly, that is the best purchasing standard ever!!! I’m going to tell my checkout girl that the next time I’m in the market.
And props to SJS, the biggest hypocrites on the planet are magazine publishers. It’s time we start calling them on it… except for the cake magazines because those are just awesome.
Just went to McPhee’s official site and whose banner ad did I see at the top? McDonalds. Specifically, the ad was for that standard-bearer of healthy eating, the Dollar Menu.
true. when i was struggling with bulimia, i would buy those types of “health” magazines and obsess about the amazing toned bodies inside. i would exercise religiously and even at my lowest i couldn’t understand why didn’t i look as good as the (airbrushed) models. you see, back in the day, i didn’t even know (nobody, except insiders, knew) about photoshop and all that crap. it’s truly a shame to see someone who probably struggled with the same things i did (and still do) perpetuate this.
As far as who’s next, I really want to see Heidi Montag on the cover of SELF or Shape or whatever to promote http://theheidimontagworkout.com, which she can no longer do because her body is too fragile from all the plastic surgery.
I am sorta curious about the $5 TOOL THAT ZAPS JIGGLE
Because zapping oneself with a dollar store taser sounds like so much fun.
Holly–ever see that movie “Death Becomes Her”? Because I kind of want to send Heidi a big case of Bondo.
Anyone see the caption on the bottom of the cover? “How I Learned To Love My Body!” Yes, learned to love it after you zapped away the jiggle, eaten the stuff that fights fat, did the 10-minute yoga routine, did the 2-minute move that beats ab flab, blasted 300 calories at lunch, did the 28-day plan to drop 10 pounds, learned those 6 secret moves that changed Katharine McPhee’s body forever, and ate a big ol’ piece of chocolate cake.
Why don’t these mags just drop the pretense and call themselves, “Golly, You’re Fat,” “Bulimic Digest,” and “Pro-Ana Today.”
Barfing up to six times a day isn’t so bad if the food is cheap in the first place.