Magazines

Yesterday I went to the grocery store to grab some food. I decided to go to the magazine stand. I don't usually, I have subscriptions but sometimes I like to see what else is available. But I looked at this stand and (not for the first time) I was horrified.

The first thing I noticed: the men's magazines. I mean, really? I can't go to a magazine stand without inadvertently spotting some basically nude woman posing provocatively on the front of these magazines. And all I wanted was a crafting magazine. These magazines are not covered, they're right there in full view. In smaller stores, they can be very near to kids magazines. Any little child can walk up and see. How is it that stores consider it acceptable to have pornography on full view to everyone? It's disgraceful. I mean no wonder our society has absolutely no sexual morals when things like these magazines are allowed to be on full view in an average store. Having these things out on show like that tells people, "You know what, this is okay. We're going to objectify and degrade women, but that's okay. Remember, if you're not having as much sex as possible with as many people as possible then you're just not living." It makes me sick.

 The women's magazines aren't much better. Almost all the covers show women with barely more clothing than the men's magazine covers. And then they almost all mention sex at least once on the cover. These references aren't even subtle, they're usually in a very large print and obviously designed to stand out on the cover. These are usually accompanied by reminders that you clearly need to lose weight, and here's how you can do it, and how to dress as 'sexy' as possible once you've achieved that size 0 figure. I've read magazines like this before and the message is the same: "Your worth comes from being super skinny and dressing as provocatively as you can. After all, if men don't look at you and see how hot you are then what's the point? Don't forget you exist for giving men sexual gratification!" And again, how is it acceptable that these blatant sexual references are on parade in front of everyone, where young children can see them? It's disgraceful.

I was talking to one of the very elderly sisters at St. Cecilia's who has been there for over 60 years one recreation and she said to me, "I really don't know much about the world nowadays" and I just replied, "You wouldn't want to." I'm truly sad sometimes for our society. It really makes me long to enter and get away from it all.