The world can be a scary place to live. Especially when you spend a few hours flipping through teenage fashion magazines. If a horny little 15-year-old guy is looking for some soft porn, there’s no better place to go than women’s magazines: Cosmo, Mademoiselle, Vogue, Seventeen, YM. And we wonder why girls have self esteem problems and develop disorders like anorexia and bulimia.
What’s even better is when one of these magazines runs an article on eating disorders, pretending not to be a cause of low self esteem and the source for insecurity. Today I even saw an article about breasts that started off talking about how all the images in society can cause young women to feel bad about their boobs. The article didn’t say anything about the breasts splashed across the cover or the previous page of that very issue.
The double standard is pretty ridiculous, but it pales in comparison to everything else. You can’t distinguish the ads from the content, and sometime the content is advertising. It’s materialism at its best (and it’s certainly not limited to fashion mags). Sex is simply all over the place, with tons of articles on how to do it, how to do it better, and how to avoid any risk while doing it. It would shock my mother and grandmother, but it’s to be expected. In a world with no values, why not tell a teenager how to give the best oral sex. Especially if it sells magazines.
It’s the epitome of superficiality. It’s rebellious in a conformist sort of way.
What I find truly frightening is that while the world is modeling this kind of thinking and lifestyle for young women, what is the church doing? Not much. And I work for a publication that caters to teens. The best thing I can think of that comes close to even addressing the issue is Brio magazine, which quite honestly, fails. It’s a Focus on the Family magazine for teenage girls, and they don’t do much to tear down the messed up ideals that girls need boyfriends to be something, that beauty is only skin deep and can be improved with the latest product from L’oreal.
The last time I checked God said that the lilies of the field were decked out better than anyone on People Magazine’s Best Dressed List. Superficial beauty doesn’t last. It’s not the shade of your lip-gloss or the color of your eyeliner that makes you beautiful. It’s not your cup size or the curve of your hips that matters worth anything. Every big-boobed, bathing suit babe will one day be wrinkled and old, and every guy that ogled and fantasized about her will be long gone. She’ll be old and alone and her days in the spotlight will be a distant memory, hardly worth holding on to. Some things are more important. Some things are eternal.
We’re losing a society of young women to the god of vanity. They’re powdering their noses while their souls rot. What are we going to do about it?