... issues and tissues with a touch of the spicy from the spirit hag ...
... of which i qualify for none ;)
Published on August 11, 2004 By mignuna In Personal Relationships


my mother recently left behind after a visit a 'women’s' magazine containing an article entitled "15 good reasons why YOU are a modern woman".

ok, i thought. this is a women’s' magazine. i am a woman. how bad can it be ?.

(how did i forget how ceaselessly patronising and awful these publications are ?. they have the pro-women titles like 'your world' and 'womens' way', yet they are jam packed with 'advice' that basically all amounts to the same thing: look good, catch man, trap man, do not pass go and absolutely do not think along the way).

it would appear that i am not deserving of such a high accolade, having failed to have achieved even one single item on the award list. not even one !. not only am i not a 'modern woman', it would appear that i am not even a bloody woman at all !.

i'm not even sure yet what made me so angry about the whole deal. the fact that i again failed miserably to conform to the worlds ideal of woman, or the fact that such tripe can be published and allowed to circulate to make women feel even shittier about themselves.

although i prefer to consider myself 'above' all that 'how to look better naked' palaver, it still sometimes gets under my skin to read this type of stuff. please feel free to scan the following reasons why (supposedly) "YOU are a modern woman":

(and remember, they are serious here. they actually mean it).


15 REASONS WHY YOU ARE 'A MODERN WOMAN'

1/ you are an expert in recognising a jerk as soon as you meet one

2/ your handbag always matches your shoes - men just don't know how difficult this really is !

3/ you can walk in your prada heels without spilling a drop of latte

4/ you dream man is orlando bloom and you know exactly what you'd say to him if you met

5/ you always manage to charge any raunchy calls to your mans' bill

6/ no matter what else happens in your day, you always have time for your girlfriends

7/ regardless of how bad everything else gets, you always have matching underwear

8/ even if you had to retreat inside for a year, you wouldn't run out of moisturiser

9/ if you had to take 5 things to a desert island, you'd make sure you had some nail enamel, just for you !

10/ you can fit a wax and blow-dry into your lunch hour and still have time left over to do a spot of shopping

11/ you can't get through the day without resisting the temptation to email a girlfriend with your latest gossip

12/ you cry every time you watch "the stepmom"

13/ you know the words to every 'friends' episode and love to watch them with your very own 'friends'

14/ you manage to treat yourself to a luxurious indulgence, such as a pedicure or facial, at least once a month

15/ and, above all, you're always yourself, no matter what anybody thinks !


irony, anybody ?

can they not be charged with something here ?. how about 'gross misuse of your power via manipulating your readers into feeling shitting enough to buy the next issue that tells them how to fix it' ?. we could condense that to 'triggering mass tail-chasing amongst vulnerable women' perhaps.

well, that's a big fat zero for me on the quiz. so tell me, are YOU a modern woman ?


Comments (Page 1)
3 Pages1 2 3 
on Aug 11, 2004
I'd give you a score of 1, mig, I think you probably succeed on #15.

If I were a woman, I would shoot myself if I scored more than a 3. Except I probably wouldn't realize I needed to be shot if I scored that high.
Congratulations on not being a shallow, self-centered, image-fixated, gossipy, judgmental, sappy moron.
on Aug 11, 2004
3/ you can walk in your prada heels without spilling a drop of latte
I don't have Prada heels but I can walk and run in heels without spilling coffee or falling

12/ you cry every time you watch "the stepmom"
True - I cry at everything even remotely sad -- Man you should have seen me in Raising Helen

13/ you know the words to every 'friends' episode and love to watch them with your very own 'friends'
True with the first part - I can (and do) quote alot of Friends episodes - and I once had a sleepover on the Queens birthday weekend and Optusvison was having a 3day Friends Marathon

I try to make time for everyone
I couldn't care less about facials, nail enamel or Orlando Bloom

I think this makes me 1/4 woman...
on Aug 11, 2004
I wonder who makes up these stupid lists?

Orlando Bloom is a modern woman's dream man? And how is unable to resist a day without gossiping 'modern' in any way???? *laughs out loud* I guess I'm 1/15 modern because only the last one seems to describe me.

I haven't read a woman's magazine in ages. Most of them seem to give stupid kinds of advice on men, relationships, sex and career matters. Nothing left of much substance for an old fashion, backdated woman like myself I guess.


on Aug 11, 2004
Oh shit.. I'm a man and I make 2 of them!!! #6 and #15....

I'm scared.... really scared....
on Aug 11, 2004
I just re-read that and my response who am I kidding -- I USED to be able to walk in high heels --- These days I only ever wear my black lace up school type shoes (you know those clarks/mathers school shoes you HAD to wear - the black leather ones) with my jeans so I can push Elana in her pram cross country

I live for days when I don't have to push the pram so I can wear my sandals -- I loved that night when Nick and I went to dinner like a month and a half ago - I wore my Alyssa's (they're black 3inch heels)

I don't even watch Friends that much anymore - I haven't seen many movies lately and I TRY to make time for everyone but I haven't seen some people in 3 months

I'm not a woman at all

Oh and as for the facials nail stuff - please I can't even be motivated to get out of my pjamas today let alone any of that other stuff
on Aug 12, 2004
Wow, this is insane.

OK, so I cry at sappy movies (but not always!),

I wear slippers (Hawaiian slang for flip-flops) with my dresses

I cut my nails short and don't paint them because I don't have the time or inclination to deal with that crap,

I don't have "girlfriends" that I get together with for pillow fights, but I do have two cute little boys that I always have time for,

I think its neat if my bra and panties happen to match, but since my husband is gone, the satisfaction is mine and mine alone

I don't have time to watch Friends . . . are you kidding? I now spend all my free time at JU!

I guess I'm not fit to be female.

on Aug 12, 2004
I extend my previous congratulations to all of you.
on Aug 12, 2004
I spill my coffee from the kitchen to the TV or computer all the time--and I'm usually barefoot.
on Aug 12, 2004
can't wait to read all of this hehe ...

mig XX
on Aug 12, 2004
hehe I got a zero too!! Okay you got me...I'm a guy!!

Dyl xx
on Aug 12, 2004
Oh my god! I don't know if I should admit to this....but.....

2/ your handbag always matches your shoes - men just don't know how difficult this really is !


Guilty...I have an obsession with bags and shoes....

6/ no matter what else happens in your day, you always have time for your girlfriends


My friends are very important to me....

7/ regardless of how bad everything else gets, you always have matching underwear


One of my pet hates...none matching underwear!

11/ you can't get through the day without resisting the temptation to email a girlfriend with your latest gossip


Oh so guilty!

12/ you cry every time you watch "the stepmom"


I cry at most films, whether they are sad or not!

14/ you manage to treat yourself to a luxurious indulgence, such as a pedicure or facial, at least once a month


...I just think that's a womans right!

15/ and, above all, you're always yourself, no matter what anybody thinks !


This is also true!

I am ashamed folks! I am guilty of being a girly girl though! Though in other ways I'm so not, I love my sports, and can put blokes to shame when it comes to football. Heels are a concept I should of embraceed since I'm only a shorty, but I'm so dizzy that it's only a matter of time before I break my neck in them! If only I could spot a jerk, that is a talent I would quite like!
on Aug 12, 2004
Mig,

It's tempting to join the chorus and rant about how silly women's magazines are. But modern men's magazine's may be just as bad. Let's take a look at www.maximonline.com and see what they're talking about:

Win Her Mind Games!
Wish you could get your own way without your girl throwing a fit? We divulge the necessary tactics.

Double Play!
See our two-for-one hardball honeys towel off in video now playing on the Maxim Fallacy Jumbotron.

MAXIM IN PRINT
August: Couch potato Olympic guide, deadly golf, pro barbecuers, and more…

Here is an excerpt from a good analysis of the the new Sex, Sports, Beer, and Gadgets magazines, by Rob Howard:
Link

Hard-bodied men once dominated newsstands and graced the cover of men's magazines. But six years ago, Maxim magazine started a revolution - a red-hot, bikini-clad, beer-drenched revolution.

"Sex, sports, beer, gadgets and fashion," said Mike Hammer, Maxim's former executive editor. "These are, of course, the great pillars of the human endeavor."

Today, the magazine publishes editions in 23 countries and has a higher circulation than any other men's magazine. Stuff, which Dennis established in the wake of Maxim's success, has grown to a circulation of more than 1.1 million.

"The market was a lot bigger than one magazine," said Colvin on the creation of Stuff. "We were bringing beer to the desert."

The designers create the cover and graphics based on their "four-second rule," a design technique that aims to pull the reader in with voluptuous women and intriguing headlines.

Though Maxim's revealing cover photos and sometimes scandalous pictorals draw frequent accusations of chauvinism and objectivization of women, the magazine's creators maintain that their publication is intended as a tongue-in-cheek, self-deprecating parody of masculinity. In fact, women account for about a quarter of the magazine's readership.

"Men know that women are the better sex," Hammer said. "We know that we're all just big kids inside."







on Aug 12, 2004
# 15 is it for me... although Orlando Bloom is attractive as all hell, I don't know if building up a great conversation with him in my mind is the object of my fantasy. hehehe.
on Aug 12, 2004
So you're telling me that in order to become the ultimate modern woman, I have to become a facile, vacuous bimbo who cares mainly for all things superficial, whilst throwing in a little bit of time for her friends??? (Who I'm sure are every bit as vapid as herself)

NO THANK YOU!

I can run in heels and wear them all the time. I'd like to have matching underwear - if only I had the time and money! As for the never ending beauty treatments and making sure my 'man' pays for expensive raunchy calls? I actually have a life to live rather than worrying about that. Hmph. These articles make me so cranky!

I read one the other day about 'How to tell if she's really your best friend' One of the highlights was 'She'll lend you her new hair straightener for two weeks because she is SO ecstatic at how fab you look with slick locks (or something to that effect)' They didn't have a lot to say about the whole 'Love, care and support' side of friendships. But hey - that ain't going to sell products, is it?

If this is the ultimate modern woman, I am more than happy being substandard! (Especially if it means I'm dwelling in the same class as you mig!)

Suz xxx
on Aug 12, 2004
i dont even know who Orlando Bloom is. Who the hell is he?


Probably best known as Legolas in Lord of the Rings; also played William Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean, or as Priam (I think--didn't see the movie) in Troy.
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