I'm a tad embarrassed to admit to buying them, even. I tend to pass myself off as "one of the guys", so that should, in theory, wipe those off of the slate. I also like to pretend I'm some sort of intellectual, so the vapid "look at the pretty colours" text should also, in theory, make me want to burn the damn things.
Yet I have purchased every single issue of Lou Lou since it came out. I'm also partial to Lucky. I'm not terribly loyal to anything else, but I always manage to have piles of them taking up space in my room.
Why do I do this? I mostly don't even read them! I'm paying $5 to have a book of advertisements to flip through. And even then, I skip through the last half of the magazine, which is usually devoted to makeup. (I don't get the appeal of reading about cream or eyeshadow or any of that crap. It's a coloured powder. It is slightly different from this other coloured powder! Yay?)
There's also the whole feminist/ body issues thing. I most certainly do not look like the women in these magazines. In fact, most of the stores and clothing depicted wouldn't even fit me (apparently I am "plus-sized", according to most retail sizing, I disagree and am of the opinion that I am average). These women are genetically "blessed", heavily Photoshopped, and caked in makeup. But they are what society considers beautiful, and while I know logically how ridiculous that is, I have been conditioned to agree. Only recently, and I mean VERY recently, have these magazines been devoting A SINGLE (yes, one) page to "plus sized" women. These magazines in no way represent me, physically.
And in no way do they represent me intellectually, either. The articles tend to be extremely brief, filled with bad puns and exclamations (!!!), telling me that I absolutely have to own a cheetah print this month or be completely and totally shunned by my peers. Or how I need to where 6-inch heels so that I can appear slightly thinner (I'm not fooling anybody). Don't even get me started on the "How To Please Your Man" articles (which give terrible "generic" advice, by the way).
And yet here I sit, staring at a pile of magazines that take up space on my bedroom floor. If I have so many reasons to deplore them, why the hell do I keep buying these things?
The reason is art.
I appreciate the "art" of fashion. I love that each individual piece of clothing can be a work of art on its own (and no, it does NOT need to be expensive). I love that combining it with another item creates a completely different work of art. I love the endless combinations can create endless different works of art, that you get to inhabit each and every day. My closet can attest to this.
I buy fashion magazines to see what combinations others come up with. I get ideas for my own "art". I might decide that I need a motorcycle jacket, because I don't have one yet and I can really do a lot with that, all because of what I saw in a magazine. They inspire my own art.
Now, I don't really look at the "high-end" fashion magazines (any appreciation I have for these beautiful pieces is immediately stymied by the $4000 price tag next to them). I look for things that are attainable. I'd rather see an example of a great $30 dress which I could actually buy than a $300 one. It's all beautiful, but only one is practical enough to get me inspired.
This also, by no means, implies that I am fashionable. I am far too practical for that and will choose comfort over style 95% of the time. I endeavor to make that comfort as funky looking as I can, however. The "fashion is art" attitude is why most people can very easily peg me as an arts student.
What I'm saying is, I really shouldn't be so embarrassed by this habit I've developed. In their way, they help me create tiny works of art every day. That can't be so bad, can it?
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