I suppose this post goes along with my prior one regarding love songs, but to me it’s important. I saw the cover of US Weekly and in huge letters the caption read: “Why They Can’t Find Love: Beautiful, Rich and Alone.” Now, I’m not ashamed to admit that I do enjoy celebrity gossip, but it’s always upsetting to see that the media weighs a woman’s success based on her personal relationships. If she’s in a romantic relationship then she has it all, but if she’s single (especially over the age of 25) then she’s doomed. I think not!
Jennifer Aniston, Jessica Simpson and Cameron Diaz (the three women featured on this recent cover) are all three thriving young women. Why should they need a man to complete them? The answer is they shouldn’t and I’m hoping that they know they don’t. I’m hoping all women realize that a man does not equal success. If you fall in love and get married, that is wonderful. If you fall in love, break up and are live on your own; that is wonderful also! We are all different and have different desire. Let’s not have the media decide what is acceptable.
I realize that US Weekly is not the epitome of a reputable magazine, but many many many people (women) read it. Their “message” is getting out there.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Jamia // Jul 21, 2007 at 9:16 am
There are SO many things wrong with this. Look at the women they defined as “beautiful, rich, an alone”… All blonde and fitting into a white supremacist ideal of beauty and body image standards. In the African-American community there are so many women who are educated and beautiful without partners who are surviving and thriving alone… It is as if US Weekly is saying that for women who fit the ideal they find appealing it is so incredible that they could be beautiful, blonde, wealthy… and alone… Perhaps these women want personal agency… Perhaps they want to rise above societal expectations and define themselves on their own terms… They didn’t put Oprah on this cover and she’s been fierce, alone, and rockin out for quite some time.
US Weekly is worth less than the cheap grade of paper they print it on.
2 Jamia // Jul 21, 2007 at 9:17 am
ps. Gloria S. said, “a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.”
A-woman!
3 Kate // Jul 21, 2007 at 12:14 pm
As an avid reader of celebrity trashazines like US, I find this very disturbing for girls who really do look deeper into the message. On the one hand, yes of course I may be 22 and know enough not to pay attention to the cover as much, but a 12, 13-year-old? It’s atrocious.
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