Rant.

For as long as I can remember, I have been reading magazines about celebrities or other things that I thought were cool. When I was younger it started with magazines such as Teen Beat and J-14 and then gradually moved up to Seventeen Magazine and Cosmo. The women were always dressed in these amazing outfits and as I moved my way up in magazines they started to become more scantily clad. The pictures become airbrushed and the bodies slightly altered to look a little thinner, to give them that perfect woman look.

Men are just as victimized on these magazine covers as women. On the covers of magazines you see men dressed really sharp, in expensive brands or suits. The men are given the look of being financially successful.  

In our society we allow the media to promote the stereotype of the perfect man or woman. As consumers we become completely used to this, and we allow children to see and read things like this. The next generation is going to have to have problems just like we have now with gender stereotyping, if not worse. 

Growing up, I remember some of the girls in my class idolizing some of the actresses or models that would be on magazine covers. One of the same girls that would always have her Cosmo magazine out pointing out which actress she wished she looked like or what she would do to improve her looks, last year had breast enhancement surgery. She is 21 and had breast enhancement surgery. To me I find that slightly disturbing, to think at that age she felt the need to alter her body. Is that the kind of image that should be portrayed?