I don’t like women’s magazines anymore.
Read a woman’s magazine and you will be told what to do. First, you need lots and lots of advice: You need to wear more stylish clothes, work out more, cook healthier meals. Your house needs redoing in the current décor and most of all, you need to buy more stuff.
I used to devour women’s magazines as a teenager. I read Flare, Vogue, Canadian Living, Chatelaine, whatever was lying around the house. It made sense for me to read about grown up women running houses, working and balancing children with careers. It was like looking into the future.
Now that I’m there, I've had it. Reading women’s magazines feeds into a permanent state of self-criticism. I will never have the perfect, decorator house. I’m too lazy to get the perfect clothes. I like to cook meals that are healthy and fast but I don’t pore over recipies, clip coupons or count calories. According to the women’s magazines, my behaviour is inadequate. How depressing.
I prefer magazines that are fun, magazines that make me laugh. Sometimes this means guy’s magazines like Maxim or The Globe and Mail’s Toro. Cool, funny and a tad sophisticated with a smattering of smut just for fun. If you’re going to waste some time, why not waste it in a way that makes you giggle?
My current favorite is not smutty and not a waste of time. It wins out for humour, incisiveness and sheer originality. I’m talking about The Walrus, Canada’s answer to Harper’s magazine. I still love Harper's but I prefer The Walrus for its perspective. Canada is French and English, East and West, urban and rural and very mulitcultural. We have our own ways of looking at culture, international events and the U.S.A. Also, unlike Harper’s, The Walrus never makes you feel out of it for not living in New York. Instead of me raving on, why not check it out yourself?
http://www.walrusmagazine.com/Labels: Canadian