Mixed Messages

About a week ago I walked into the grocery store and saw that my favorite magazine, Seventeen, had just come in. Later that night I decided to read some before I went to bed. Now, usually I don't find anything wrong with whats in the magazine, but this time I couldn't help but notice that they were sending all sorts of mixed messages about one particular subject, body image. When you open up this months issue, there are tons of things like " eat heathier food at parties so you don't pack on the pounds" and " Get Flat Abs in 4 FUN Steps". Now, I think it's great that they are trying to help girls become healthier and more happy with themselves, but then they throw in an article called Skinny Scandal that's all about how the fashion industry is sending the wrong messaages to girls and that they should be happy with whatever body type they have. Then I went back to look at the other issues that I had and I noticed the same thing. In the April issue they had a section called Just Flaunt It where they showed you how to flaunt your best features no matter what size you were and on the cover of the March issue, they had a quote from Mandy Moore saying " I'm not Nicole Richie. I'm not a toothpick and I never will be.", and a story line Cute Clothes For YOUR Body. Then along side all of these things that are telling us girls that we should all be happy with our bodies they put things like Sexy Legs Workout, Get Your Best Butt, New Body-New You, Is The School Food Making You Fat?, and so on. It kind of leaves you wondering what it is you're supposed to do. I think that it's fine that they are trying to have a happy balance, but it seems to be one extreme against another. They bash the fashion industry for not sending good messages to young girls and then 4 pages later they're telling you 8 easy ways to slim down just in time for summer.