Women's Magazines?

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What do ya’ll think of women’s magazines? (Cosmo, Glamour, etc.) I have a bad habit of reading them…don’t worry I skip over the bad stuff 😉 but I’m wondering if I should be reading them at all. What do you ladies usually read for fun?
 
I thumb through them on occasion. I prefer the “health” magazines and have a few subscriptions to them . Also Mother Earth News is one I enjoy. I am pass the age where Glamour or Cosmo has anything that is of interest to me. Oprah is an enjoyable magazine and have found wonderful articles there.
 
I like Real Simple. They have a good mix of everything that I like, and I haven’t really found anything offensive in it yet.
 
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Almeria:
I like Real Simple. They have a good mix of everything that I like, and I haven’t really found anything offensive in it yet.
I wholeheartedly agree!! a wonderful mixture of everything!
 
I love Good Housekeeping and Better Homes and Gardens. I stopped buying the other women’s magazines like Glamour and Cosmo years ago because they never had a pro-life voice to counter the constant pro-abortion articles they published. Forget Redbook now…it’s all sex, sex, sex. Cooking Light is also good because half of the magazine is devoted now to health and fitness issues geared to women.
 
Sticking my nose in where it may not be welcome (I am after all, a guy), I would submit that magazines such as Cosmo, Glamour, Redbook et al fall under the category of “near occasions of sin”, for both men and women. Men, in that the covers are titillating, resulting in the near occasion of the sin of lust.

For women, the influence is a bit more insidious. They encourage an entirely materialistic lifestyle; “How to look sexier/thrill your husband with sex better” and so on.

Sex is a good thing, but it is not the only thing. These magazines reduce sex to the Pleasure Principle, which is insufficient by itself. Like advertising a car only based on its stereo system. Sounds good, but does it GO anywhere?

Also, in teaching young women in high school, they are quick to note the example these magazines teach in terms of looks; physical (and often nearly unattainable) perfection is the goal. Makes it dangerous in that it encourages its readers to focus on how they LOOK, rather than how they live in Christ.

Did that make sense?
 
I stay away from the Glamour, Cosmo type magazines. In fact I will not spend money on them because they are hard-core pro-abortion, and very unfriendly to the pro-lifers. I will not support that with my money…My sister has always had subscriptions to Glamour, and it drives me CRAZY that she supports them. When I’m at her house, sometimes I look through her magazines but usually end up putting them down angry because they can be sooooo offensive. :mad:

Occasionally I will buy the more toned-down magazines geared towards women with families.
 
It’s been years since I read any of these magazines. They were fun when I was young, single and not practicing my faith.

As a married woman and mother, a lot of the content is offensive. Either they really objectify the human body and try to convince us all to be 5’10 and 110 pounds, or they are all about how to use our bodies as sex objects and let other people use us too. :eek:

Nor do I want any of my $$$$$ going to those companies. Helen Gurly-Brown at Cosmo and Rosie O’Donnel at Redbook do not have my interests at heart when they publish nor when they spend their profits on the immoral causes they champion.
 
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demolitionman65:
Sticking my nose in where it may not be welcome (I am after all, a guy), I would submit that magazines such as Cosmo, Glamour, Redbook et al fall under the category of “near occasions of sin”, for both men and women. Men, in that the covers are titillating, resulting in the near occasion of the sin of lust.

For women, the influence is a bit more insidious. They encourage an entirely materialistic lifestyle; “How to look sexier/thrill your husband with sex better” and so on.

Sex is a good thing, but it is not the only thing. These magazines reduce sex to the Pleasure Principle, which is insufficient by itself. Like advertising a car only based on its stereo system. Sounds good, but does it GO anywhere?

Did that make sense?
yep - for me at least your post made sense. I used to enjoy reading those mags. before I decided to stop being a cafeteria Catholic. I did read them for all those titillating articles.

I am not sure your quote was correct, “How to look sexier/thrill your husband with sex better” . I don’t think I ever saw the word husband used. That would be too committed a word. I think it was either just man or boyfriend.
 
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Celia:
What do ya’ll think of women’s magazines? (Cosmo, Glamour, etc.) I have a bad habit of reading them…don’t worry I skip over the bad stuff 😉 but I’m wondering if I should be reading them at all. What do you ladies usually read for fun?
if you skip over all the bad stuff all you have is recipes, pretty expensive considering what these rags cost. Redbook used to be the premier publisher of short stories, and encouraged new writers, now it is just a how-to sex guide. If I find one of the teens with this stuff it is confiscated.
 
Yeah, see the problem is the more committed I’ve become in my faith the more I’m noticing the bad stuff. I usually just skimmed through the articles on contraception and whatnot but now I don’t know if I should be spending my money on these magazines if they support things like abortion. Like Maire Claire, for instance, one of my old favorites, is extremly liberal and pro-choice. I always thought they were so democratic & fair but they never, ever support the pro-lifers or their cause. I read an article lately on how to avoid centers where (mainly catholic) religious people will try to talk you out of having an abortion, and go right to the “real” pregnancy crisis centers. It was very offensive in their terms to describe the women working there, mostly who were wearing rosary beads. That’s the article that “woke me up” regarding these types of magazines.

On the flip side though they are great as far as fashion/makeup, etc. is concerned. I wish they had a Catholic young women’s magazine.
I can hear my mom’s voice in my head right now telling me to get rid of “that trash” and read a book. 😃
 
Catholic.net has a magazine rack, magazines like Faith & Family or Canticle are for Catholic women.

Those Cosmo and Elle - all the same each month with a different cover, for the past 30 years!

Southern Living, now there is a good magazine 🙂 Also love Taste of Home, National Geographic, Crisis…
 
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snowgarden:
Cooking Light is also good because half of the magazine is devoted now to health and fitness issues geared to women.
Cooking Light is my favorite magazine and the recipes are fantastic!

I’m not much of a “women’s” magazine fan, although Allure is great for news and tips about cosmetics and fashion trends. They also have monthly give-aways of new products, which is really cool. Otherwise I prefer *Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, *and occasionally People. My best friend recently bought me a copy of Mental Floss, which is the perfect magazine for geeks. 😃
 
That Canticle magazine looks good. Thanks. $24.95 for a subscription though, whoa. Most of mine are like $10-$12. Might be worth it though.

My mother-in-law always gives me her copies of Cooking Light when she’s done with them. I like 'em too, some of the recipes we’ve tried are awesome.

I forgot to mention ‘Allure’, I have always found them to be pretty cool and non-offensive for the most part.
 
I think that women read these magazines because they want to identify with other women, but the bad part of it is that most women do not look like the models or movie stars in these magazines & this leads them down a road of low self esteem & depression 9 times out of 10.
I also find it funny that women get advice about men from other women. It’s makes me laugh.
 
Celia,

I think you are seeing a change in yourself and will gradually pull yourself away from the “me” centered reading.

My time is becoming to precious to sit and read things that do not benifit my soul. The same goes for TV. I want to continually grow towards the Lord and so these things have been dropped from my life.

Demolitionman,

Isn’t it amazing that men can see it but women can’t? There’s a reason why magazines are marketed to women. I totally agree with what you said. 👍

Peace,
Jen
 
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demolitionman65:
Sticking my nose in where it may not be welcome (I am after all, a guy), I would submit that magazines such as Cosmo, Glamour, Redbook et al fall under the category of “near occasions of sin”, for both men and women. Men, in that the covers are titillating, resulting in the near occasion of the sin of lust.

For women, the influence is a bit more insidious. They encourage an entirely materialistic lifestyle; “How to look sexier/thrill your husband with sex better” and so on.

Sex is a good thing, but it is not the only thing. These magazines reduce sex to the Pleasure Principle, which is insufficient by itself. Like advertising a car only based on its stereo system. Sounds good, but does it GO anywhere?

Also, in teaching young women in high school, they are quick to note the example these magazines teach in terms of looks; physical (and often nearly unattainable) perfection is the goal. Makes it dangerous in that it encourages its readers to focus on how they LOOK, rather than how they live in Christ.

Did that make sense?
I agree. My little sister is approaching the age where similar teenage versions of these rags will be circulating amongst her peers. I’m going to have to keep a tight watch on her!
 
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Celia:
What do ya’ll think of women’s magazines? (Cosmo, Glamour, etc.)
Porn by any other name is still porn. Just because it’s in prose rather than images doesn’t change the nature of what it really is.
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Celia:
don’t worry I skip over the bad stuff 😉
hehehe. Just like all those guys who buy Playboy just to read the articles! :rotfl:
 
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masondoggy:
I stay away from the Glamour, Cosmo type magazines. In fact I will not spend money on them because they are hard-core pro-abortion, and very unfriendly to the pro-lifers.
👍
I agree. However I occasionally thumb through them if I forget my book when I go to the hair dresser or doctor’s office. They are so offensive and the advice they give to young dating women is horrible. They are the antichristian point of view on almost everything.

I was put in the position of sending magazines to my daughter that was deployed last year for 7 months. I would send a variety of things. When it came to magazines it took me a long time to find reading material that was not objectionable. I usually ended up sending things about exercise and fashion or home decorating. I just could not buy a magazine that was advertising “how to keep you boyfirends happy in bed” or other such trash. The magazine covers are crude. There is nothing subtle about the messages.
 
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Sowndog:
I agree. My little sister is approaching the age where similar teenage versions of these rags will be circulating amongst her peers. I’m going to have to keep a tight watch on her!
I was talking with a couple of my co-workers yesterday (all of us are in our 20s and are female) and we all had similar stories of going through eating disorder and exercise addiction phases when we were teenagers. One of them said she was sure that her problems were at least in part because she read all of those teen magazines and thought she had to look like the girls in the photos for boys to like her. The rest of us all agreed, and then swore to never let our daughters read that ****.

Sadly, in the early 90’s, eating disorders were probably about as far as girls would go under the influence of those mags. Now I can’t believe the articles I’m seeing listed on the covers of some of them! Apparently these “girl power” mags are intent on turning today’s girls into nothing more than nutrition- and sex-starved celebrity-obsessed airheads. Depressing. :mad:
 
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