You know, I often think those magazines affect women more than men. We assume it's what men want and judge ourselves by those standards. But those magazines are made for women, read by women, assimilated by women, and we hold ourselves up to those standards. I'm not saying that the patriarchy doesn't have its say. I've read
Holy Anorexia. I know what a damaging patriarchy can accomplish. But I hear more women criticize other women for their apperance than I hear men criticize women. Well, my dad is actually pretty catty, come to think of it.
Consider, for a moment, the hippy, busty, mousey-haired girl walking down the street with the Brad Pitt type. I see this often enough. And it's usually the girls who say, "What's he doing with HER?"
That's not to say there aren't shallow men, but as my friend Melissa used to say, "Most men are just so happy to see crotch hair and boobs, they think you're a goddess." Man, she used to crack me up. "Boobies and hair!" she'd say. "BOOBIES AND HAIR!"
And one of my favorite all-time quotes, which I've probably already posted here, was said to a friend at a party. She was insecure and nervous being around so many models and a guy overheard her and said, "Show me a beautiful woman, and I'll show you a man tired of f#$king her."
Women are often our own worst enemies. "Jealousy kills girls." Saw that on a t-shirt once, with Betty and Veronica fighting. "Vogue and Elle Kill Girls" too, maybe. But I don't know too many men who read Vogue.
Movies and TV may have more of an ill effect on dating culture, expectations, etc. I read an interesting article about single Japanese girls that talked about how strange they found
Friends - because the fixation on relationships and love was so heightened and ridiculous.
As for porn, I'll have to agree with Tim Burton on this. He was recently interviewed at
www.chud.com, and he had some interesting things to say about the contemporary sex industry. At least I think it was Burton.