Monday, March 23, 2009

Vogue's Shape Issue: A Lesson in Fail


Once a year, American Vogue presents a charade known as the "Shape Issue." It chronicles different women of various shapes - short, thin, tall, pregnant (I didn't really think that was a shape but whatever), & curvy. They do this by featuring a famous woman (singer, model, actress) and talking about her particular shape, somehow making her body sound like some disease that the person has courageously learned to live with. For example, "Best friends Olivia Thirlby and Zoe Kravitz are New York girls with an answer for everything - especialy, Sally Singer learns, how to be small yet staggeringly stylish." In case you were wondering, Olivia and Zoe are "short" and they have to somehow figure out how to be stylish and look good in clothes because this is clearly impossible for people who aren't 6 feet tall and 120 pounds, right? "Olivia and Zoe are tiny, and the most wackily charming New York double act since Madonna and Rosanna Arquette," Singer writes. I'm sorry, but I don't get it. This is like saying, "they may be tiny, but they're still human - amazing!"

Cue to me rolling my eyes. Oh LORD, Vogue often makes me laugh my ass off. But why am I surprised? This is the same magazine that convinced Laura and Kate Mulleavy to lose weight and actually have the experience chronicled in its pages for all eternity.

There's also a feature on Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon, "two spirited sisters who treat being thin like a birthright," but I'll get to those two sad saps later.

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