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February issue of "Cosmopolitan": central organ of female self-hatred
The British "Cosmopolitan" has chosen a cover picture against the slimming mania for its February issue - the readers cheer.
In order to understand why this is making big waves, one has to go back briefly.
It's January, the month of good intentions.
And we're in a shutdown, causing a lot of people to eat a little more than necessary.
It is the time of year when women's media like to recommend diets and detoxes to their readership.
The logarithms on my mobile device today recommended a text that explains the five possible shapes of a female belly.
Am I carrying a lumpy stomach or a mummy stomach in front of me, is it a hormone stomach, a bloated stomach or even an alcohol stomach?
Regardless of the shape of my stomach, I should get rid of it urgently - that's the impetus.
Anyone who reads women's magazines or browses the Internet as a woman is repeatedly offered hatred of their own body.
Behind this is an industry that has been very powerful for a long time.
She imposes a toxic body image on women - and then recommends consumption to prevent them from feeling bad.
Large editorial offices and self-appointed fitness and nutrition professionals advertise intermittent fasting and slimming teas, diet nonsense, life hacks for the perfect body shape, cosmetics or even operations.
Female self-hatred
There are studies showing that after reading women's media, women become dissatisfied and prone to eating disorders.
The manipulation of female body perception is so ubiquitous that parents actually have to educate their daughters about these mechanisms in elementary school age - because the children then begin to consume misogynous media.
Now the magazine »Cosmopolitan«, which has also been an organ of female self-optimization for generations, has done something unusual: It put three women with different body shapes on the February cover of its British edition, two of them with clear curves, one in a wheelchair.
"That's healthy!" It says below.
The accompanying cover story introduces eleven women who tell how they feel good with their bodies.
There is a woman in size 44 who has run a marathon.
One very overweight woman reports how much satisfaction she has found in yoga.
The woman in a wheelchair was trained to be a fitness trainer.
It's also about how these women were attacked in the gym, how much "fat hatred" they had to endure.
The message, however, is that after a long struggle they have accepted each other as individuals - and that one cannot always tell from a body shape whether someone is physically fit or sickly weak.
One can only congratulate “Cosmopolitan” on choosing this title.
Even if female self-realization and
body positivity
have long been part of the zeitgeist, these topics were mostly covered in women's magazines by booking a plus-size model, which of course looked just as fantastic as the others.
Today diversity and inclusion count
The »Brigitte«, mother of all German women's magazines, worked for three years without models.
That marked a small revolution in the industry.
"We show fashion on insects, and further back in the magazine we say: Stand by yourself," said editor-in-chief Andreas Lebert in 2010. Women's magazines need to become more accessible, everything else is out of date.
But the sight of normal, pretty women in the fashion lines put the readers under even more pressure.
After three years, »Brigitte« booked professional models again.
The cover of "Cosmopolitan" is more than a waiver of hunger pangs.
It propagates the acceptance of differences instead of the one so-you-will-be-happy recipe.
It may not be long before a real rethink occurs.
The up-and-coming generation of female consumers is no longer so easily lured by sales promises, today diversity and inclusion also count.
The fashion brand "Fenty" by pop singer Rihanna therefore advertises its underwear line with photos of models and normal women in all available sizes.
But it also belongs to the truth that the British "Cosmo" readers did not all respond happily to this change of heart.
There are indeed many enthusiastic comments on Instagram in which readers thank you for “showing that we are there in all shapes and sizes”.
But some people are resisting paternalism.
One reader writes: “First you promoted Dünne.
Now shows your overweight person on the cover and writes “healthy” underneath.
What's next, crack as a dietary supplement? "
Hardly likely.
One can hope, however, that the realization that everyone is good and beautiful - just as he or she is - will continue to prevail.
And has a right to stay that way.
Icon: The mirror