Elle Editor Goes on the Offensive, Gets "Real"

Fight! Elle’s Roberta Meyers kicks off June’s “Editor’s Letter” by picking a bone with the women of The View.

…the girls got going about the tabloids’ recent photos depicting an “overweight” Tyra Banks, a conversation that somehow led Joy Behar to refer to the editors of Elle and other women’s magazines as “war criminals” who wage a “war against women.”  The implication was that we’ve all punished Tyra by refusing to use her as a model once she was no longer a waif; that we’re downright hostile to showing the curves of so-called real women.

We all know where this is going, right?  Cue the “magazines have nothing to do with eating disorders”  disclaimers, please.

Clearly Ms. Behar doesn’t read fashion magazines…

Actually, we suspect she does.   But don’t worry, Joy:  apparently, mags can’t transmit eating disorders!

([Anorexia] is largely heritable and negligibly influenced by media, according to all the good research)

Ah, the obligatory “it’s not our fault” justification.  Bring on a parade of protruding sternums, in that case!

And, in March, Elle ran a lengthy interview with a longtime sufferer of anorexia about the devastating effects of the disease.

So citing one article about the deleterious effects of anorexia completely counteracts the gazillion pictures of women so thin they probably don’t menstruate.

The truth is, of course, that the much bigger crisis facing young women these days is obesity…

By her own logic, then, Elle could feature size-12 models without encouraging obesity and maybe, somehow, propagate a teensy bit of body acceptance. Sounds like a win-win situation to us.  What do you think, Roberta?

And as for Elle’s complicity in trying to starve poor Tyra off the runway, I give you exhibit A: the last shoot we did with Ms. Banks, in which her banging curves are on full, enviable display.

As if Banks’ shoot had absolutely nothing to do with the magazine’s (now expired) partnership with America’s Next Top Model.  Also, did she really use the word “banging”?

Our unwaiflike cover star Jessica Biel…

We’ll give her this one.  Sure, Biel’s physique may be unattainable by us mortals, but at least she has discernible muscle tone (even if they did cover her sculpted thighs with those abominable shorts).

…as I write this from the competitive-bikini-wearing capital of the U.S., Los Angeles…

…and we will once again take it upon ourselves to ensure the rest of the country that we do actually wear clothes here in L.A.  In fact, sometimes we even wear closed-toe shoes!

Meyers wraps up by saying

…yes, there’s something for everyone to love, even us real women.

Riiiight, because Meyers is just like you and me!  Yes, there’s something for everyone to learn, namely that Meyers’ definition of a “real woman” must be completely different from ours.

Comments

[String Bean Jen]

As "unwaiflike" as Jessica Biel supposedly is, she's posing in a classic fashion pose: pull ones' shoulders and arms back as far as possible so as to appear to be the shape of a cigarette.

(New commenter to the site! Saw the link from Feministing. LOVE this site so far.)

[Glossed Over]

Welcome, Jen! You're right--it's off-putting, isn't it, how they commend themselves for putting an athletic body on the cover, but then dress and pose her to hide those very attributes. And that cover outfit? Biel's probably shown less cleavage on the cover of Maxim.

[Jason]

What do you mean now expired partnership with Elle Magazine? The next next next next next next next next next top model no longer gets any fashion spread as part of her prize?

(Sorry, I don't follow the events of ANTM.)

[Jessica]

No, they're in Seventeen now.

[JJ]

When I was in high school (80s) I lived and breathed these magazines. I'm currently slender and in shape. Back then? Thin, weak and starving while running 3 miles a day. Those images DID have an impact on me, though I didn't see it at the time. And in that time, we weren't as aware of 'airbrushing'. People would say, 'these aren't real women', but hello? I was looking at them! To me they were very real and I always came up short (at 5'3" you might say literally). I'm teaching my daughter about power and muscle and learning as I go along. I no longer camp out on my scale but do tend towards running a calorie count in my head and I still stare at the flat abs of the models wishing those were mine. But after having three kids and getting back into shape, I see what my body can actually do. But how much do you read about the power of our bodies in those magazines? They still call normal women 'plus size' and typically save them for a 'very special edition' of their 'look at us embrace all weights' self-congratulatory issue. Shouldn't a women being happy with her body just be a given due to her confidence, not something to be pointed out and gawked at simply because they might not be a size zero? Thanks, GO, for focusing on this item. For the editor of Elle, et al, to act as if they contribute nothing to the maniacal quest for perfection is insane. As long as our bony, shaking hands can hand over the dollars, it's all good to them. Might I also add that the articles of battles of anorexia, if not carefully done, can end up being a how-to? A how-to followed by pages of women with the opposite effect. Whew. Can we say hot button issue? Thanks for the space.

[Jason]

Seventeen, eh?
How off-tangent.
Anyway, thanks Jessica!