Mag Monday: Cleo November 2012

Cleo, November 2012

• Hello, are we in 1995? Also: I can't stand Lara Bingle. Surprisingly I actually kinda like the cover.
• I love the six-page feature on body image and Photoshop. It's a hot-button issue and magazines cop a lot of flak about it - in some cases, it's justified, but in many it's not. There's a lot of misunderstanding about what Photoshop is used for, especially here in Australia, where body shapes and sizes are very rarely altered, unlike some overseas magazines (where a lot of the buzz about the issue generates from). This leads to well-meaning people sending negative emails, Facebook posts, or in this case, starting/signing a petition, which can be incredibly frustrating when they don't have the facts and don't bother to check them. This is what happened when Jessica Barlow, a 20-year-old student, started "The Brainwash Project" and decided, seemingly arbitrarily, to target Cleo. When Cleo responded by saying they didn't in fact alter women's body shapes and did include "real" women every month, Jessica didn't change her stance. So the editor decided to do this feature, revealing what exactly Photoshop is used for (colour correction, contrast, shadows, non-permanent marks like bruises etc) and what goes into all the images in the magazine (it's a lot more complicated than most people think). Media intelligence can only ever be a good thing.
• I liked seeing the article on Pussy Riot, even if it felt a bit late to the party (one of the drawbacks of monthly magazines, unfortunately).
• It's the swimwear special,  and Cleo breaks the up-front styles down into destination inspiration, which is fun: Morocco (lots of prints), Tahiti (tropical florals), Rio De Janeiro (bold block colours), Sydney (apparently we're stuck in the '90s), California (Sunset Strip-inspired prints), Amalfi Coast (bold florals) and Saint Tropez ('50s-inspired). I liked that the first main fashion is a poolside shoot featuring the gorgeous, curvy ex-Top Model star Tahnee (I even spotted some cellulite and thought take that, Photoshop-bashers!), but the following two shoots feature blonde, skinny models, which is a little bland if not disheartening.
• 'New-gen nails' jumps on to the nail art bandwagon, which I won't complain about. Love!
• The story of three young women who each got melanoma, and another two who lost loved ones to the disease, is a timely reminder to be sun smart.
• 'Meet the new superheroes' is a fun feature on kick-butt women in pop culture, and what we can learn from them.
• I groaned at the title 'The simple secret to feeling happier', but actually found the advice about not comparing yourself to others to be quite helpful.
• 'The never-ending work day' covers an issue that is probably quite prominent these days, and offers fantastic advice on leaving work at work.
• 'Why every body is a bikini body' is an awesome headline (what is a bikini body anyway?!) accompanied by a great feature about learning to feel comfortable - and even confident - while you're wearing a bikini in public. I've gotten better as I've gotten older - mainly on holidays, where I won't know anyone - but I definitely don't feel comfortable with my "bikini body" these days. Going to the beach is not so fun when you don't feel good.
• 'Resident evil' is a serious feature about child abuse which includes two case studies. It's an issue that's not often covered in women's magazines, so it's good to see it here.
• It's fab to see a feature like 'Ditch the deadline diet' in Cleo - coz we all know they never work and are so not healthy for your body or mind.
• 'Why all boobs are great' by Guy Mosel seems dubious on the surface but is actually a lovely opinion piece on not judging your own body by what others think - or what you think they think.
• I love pretty things - whether it be clothes, accessories or objects for the home - so the 'Home improvement' spread really appealed to me. And I'm pretty sure I need this teapot.
• Other features include 'Beach confidential' (Bondi lifeguard confessions); 'The Robsten effect' (Why are we so invested in celebrity relationships? Spoiler: Coz we feel like they're our friends);  'Ready to rumble' (the lives of female pro wrestlers - grrrl power!); 'The summer of safe love' (you can never have too much contraception talk); 'My family's fitness trick'; 'Get an A+ in dating' (one writer actually attends "dating" school); 'Open relationships: One couple reveals all'; 'Jump over your sex hurdles' and 'Find your new career here'.

Rating: 3.5/5

Mag Monday: Cosmo and Frankie

Cosmopolitan, November 2012

• I'm not a massive fan of Kim Kardashian, but I love this cover. Her face looks a bit weird but her body looks beautiful and I adore the swimsuit she's wearing. I also love the colour combination, it's fresh and fun. 
• There's a timely, in-depth and sensitive feature on rape that reinforces the important truth that it's never the victim's fault, even though we as a society tend to lean that way. It also offers practical advice, underlining the importance of talking to someone - anyone - if you've been assualted - even if it's a helpline like 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).
• Changing gears completely, it always astounds me when people are willing to go in a national magazine to talk about their sex lives. Seriously, who wants their parents or co-workers to see a photo of them next to a headline like "we have sex up to five times a day!" or "we love skype sex!" Talk about TMI.
• 'What does $50 buy you around the world?' is a really interesting feature, and quite unique - I haven't seen it done before, which is always a plus. I was amazed that the Pill only costs $15 a year in Sweden (!), but strangely less surprised that you can buy an apple the size of a child's head in Japan for $26. Meanwhile, one cocktail costs $50 in Dubai - the same price of 10 months' worth of rice in China, or a goat in Africa that that can provide up to five litres of milk a day for a family. Kinda puts things into perspective, doesn't it?
• 'The blended orgasm' has possibly the most off-putting sell ever: "They did it with smoothies, they've done it with soup... now they're doing it with orgasms." Anyhoo, the actual feature is about "The Holy Grail" of orgasms: a combined "C-spot" and "G-spot" climax. Moving on...
• A great career feature about loving your work profiles author Jessica Shirvington (she says the key to getting published is finding the right agent - she had a three-book deal within two weeks of signing with her agent), designer Belinda Macphereson (she used a credit card to fund her start-up period - eek!) and entrepreneur Aimee Marls (founder of TOM Organic pads and tampons - she got the idea from a school project!).
• The 'Cosmo clicks' mini-mag inside claims to be "your ultimate online edit". It's broken down into fashion sites, celeb Twitters, Cosmo staffer bookmarks, international blogs, travel sites, fitness sites and lol-worthy pages. I got excited when I saw this inside, because I obviously love the interwebz, and I especially love finding new stuff to waste my time with do online, but I was really disappointed with the execution. Most of the sites included were, like, so 2009. I'm talking Buzzfeed, Reddit, Someecards, Texts From Last Night, Cute Overload and I Can Haz Cheeseburger. This is like internet 101 for people who have never been past the Google homepage.
• 'You'd never eat one of these would you?' (with pictures of chocolates, labelled as various STIs) is a clever execution of a feature about the risks of unsafe oral sex. A lot of teens (and, I'm guessing, adults) don't really consider the need for protection when it comes to oral, so it's good to see awareness being raised here.
• There's plenty of pretty bikini candy in their swimmer special - broken down to the best cut for your shape.
• Being totally obsessed with nail art at the moment (like the rest of the female population), I loved the beauty feature on different DIY trends.
• Other features include 'Is it time to kill the hashtag?' (#never); 'Put the O in phone' (how your phone can help your sex life - no, it doesn't involve the vibration setting); 'There are more people addicted to love than to alcohol and drugs'; 'Find your happy place in a fortnight' and 'Kink is the new black' (obligatory 50 Shades-related feature).
• Overall, this was a more enjoyable than average Cosmo for me, but it didn't blow me away.

Frankie, November/December 2012

 

• This is my favourite magazine cover OF ALL TIME. The photo doesn't do it justice - it's embossed so it looks and feels like it's actually been hand-stitched. It's so pretty and tactile. The cover is to celebrate Frankie's 50th issue, and the magazine is mega-sized to boot. Love, love, love.
• Now Frankie is a magazine I can always rely on to inform me of awesome new websites (especially those I can spend cashola on). Like Little Shop, Hello Polly, Able and Game and Hug Me Harry.
• 'Hey boy, hey girl' is a short but interesting feature on Sweden's introduction of the gender-neutral pronoun "hen", and the pros and cons of the policy.
• 'Goodbye, friend' is a personal essay about how friendship break-ups can be just as hard as relationship break-ups. I really connected with this piece coz I'm still kinda devo about a friendship that fell apart last year.
• As someone with hoarderish tendencies, I also loved the feature 'Stuff does matter', specifically: "It's OK to love something just because it makes you feel good... on a very basic level we need very little, but on an emotional level we need things to enrich our life. We need things to make us feel good. We need stuff that gives us tactile experiences. We need things that are beautiful. Beauty is important in the world... You should think about how things are going to fit into your world and if they're going to make you happy. 'Do I need this?' isn't as good a question as, 'Am I going to enjoy having this?'" I could go on but then I'd be quoting pretty much the whole article. Instead, I'm just going to link to the writer, Megan Auman's blog. Eff yeah, stuff!
• 'The science of crying' is a fascinating piece on what happens to your body and brain when you cry. It makes crying sound so awesome I feel like watching Beaches right now.
• 'Misery chicks' is a delightful ode to the sarcastic '90s girls like Daria and Darlene (and the women who played them).
• 'High-flying flunks' profiles famous people who failed before they succeeded - including Thomas Edison, Agatha Christie and Walt Disney. Interesting info and gorgeous illustrations.
• 'You look relatively stylish' is a lovely pictorial in which five designers share photos of the style icons in their own families.
• 'Let's make cake' is a really awesome section featuring six classic "almost-never-fail" cake recipes (with pretty pictures and all): sponge cake, chocolate cake, orange madeira, carrot cake, coffee banana cake and fruit cake.
• 'The Meryl Streep fan club', accompanied by a breautiful illustration of the actress, immediately made me smile. I luuuurve Ms Streep, so I really enjoyed this list of her greatest hits. 
• 'Young adult' highlights some classic YA books, which obviously aligns very well with my interests. Authors included are Robin Klein, S.E. Hinton, Judy Blume, Maya Angelou, Ruth Park and John Marsden (three out of six made up a big part of my tweendom).
• 'Mamma's choice' hands the decision of the topic for the article over to Frankie's contributor's mothers, leading to Benjamin Law writing about his mum's perfume collection (which hilariously turns into a discussion of how smelly his family is), David Evans rather touchingly chronicling the lack of stylish clothing available for women over 50, Marieke Hardy giving some insight into her rather exposed relationship with her mum, and Rowena Grant-Frost's heartwarming account of her memories of the Australia she experienced as a child, made unique by the fact that, although born here, she mostly grew up in Germany. It's a really sweet feature all round.
• I may have done an inner fist pump when I read 'The cheese platter', which features six steps to the perfect - you guessed it - cheese platter. I'm a bit obsessed with cheese lately so I found this advice very useful - although to be honest I'll probably break all the rules next time I need them. To hell with clockwise formations - just give me the cheese.
• Other features include an interview with Beth Ditto, 'The relationship relic' (letting go of souvenirs from exes); 'Our little farm' (six people talk about life on the land); 'The pixel trade' (one man traveling around Australia for free by trading his photography services for food/shelter/transport); 'Sharpest tool in the box' (basic tools everyone needs); 'Pink walls and displaced identities' (a pictorial on Transcarpathia, a region in the west Ukraine); 'So you want to be gay' (one man's experience of coming out) and 'Draw your desk' (five artists, y'know, draw their desks).
• This issue of Frankie left me feeling really happy. As much as I love magazines, this isn't a very common feeling when finishing many of them. So big props to Frankie for a wonderful 50th issue!

Mag Monday: Cleo, September 2012

The September issue of Cleo features a candy-coloured cover befitting its star, Katy Perry. I'm not a massive fan of hers, and I really don't like the purple pony she's rocking, so this cover (and the accompanying story) doesn't particularly draw me in. The cover lines don't really grab me, either.

September being 30 Days of Fashion and Beauty for ACP, the mag is filled with related features. Visually, I liked "My style icon is...", featuring readers with the people who influence their style (an older friend, sister, boyfriend and boss). But while the shoot is fun, all the people involved have been professionally styled using borrowed clothes, which I think undermines the authenticity of a piece that's supposedly celebrating "real" style icons.

I really enjoyed the feature "Meet the fatshionistas" by Nicole Elphick, which provides a spotlight on a corner of the blogosphere - and the fashion community - that isn't usually seen in the pages of a mag like Cleo.

"New-season style commandments" is a fun spin on a trend report, though I can't say I'm quite ready to embrace the tracky dack trend and "take them out for a spin with [my] fave heels" (as much as I love my trackies). Girlie pieces, neon, smoky eyes, statement earrings, floral prints and white nails I will be more inclined to try. The jury is still out on peplums. Speaking of - the following spread with a reader trialling the trends is an effective way to make them more accessible. I just wish I had the hair (and the braveness!) to try dip dye, and I know I'll never be bold enough to wear clashing prints and leather pants. Still - pastels, nail art and hot pink lips, I can definitely do.

"What's with all the hate?" is a feature by Genevieve Rota that discusses all the "Hatorade" that seems to be going around. So it's not just in the book blogging community, then? Rota focuses on the sledges leveled at celebs like Lana Del Ray, Lara Bingle and Delta Goodrem, interviewing a psychologist and therapist who put the problem down to a combination of jealousy and tall poppy syndrome. I can't say I'm convinced - I'm guilty of hating Delta Goodrem and Lara Bingle more than you should feel anything about someone you've never met, and I can't say I'm particularly jealous of either. They just really freaking annoy me. Anyway, it's an interesting idea, and I liked the breakout on online trolls, which is really a whole issue in itself.

To tie in with R U OK? Day on September 13, Lisa O'brien has written "Is he okay?", a feature about how depression affects men and what the women in their life can do to help. It's an important issue and refreshing to see guys allowed more depth than the usual "What he really thinks when you tickle his nipples" lines.

Then we have "Three in the bed", which profiles a couple who have started having threesomes to spice up their marriage. Ho hum, it's nothing I haven't read in Cleo/Cosmo 164 times before. I have to say I really can't stand these kinds of articles that imply you have to have threesomes or try bondage or whatever to have an interesting sex life. If that's your thing, go for it, but the way they feature them implicitly sends the message that you're not good enough in the sack if you don't perform bedroom acrobatics with multiple partners. It's telling that Mel, the girl featured in the article, says "Our sex life was in a bit of a hole. Andy and I dressed up for each other, went away for weekends and tried to liven things up by having sex in places where there was a risk of getting caught, but it felt like we were trying too hard." (Emphasis mine). That's exactly what gets me about these kinds of articles - people read them and feel like they have to do these things not because it actually turns them on, but because their sex life must live up to some Sex and the City-inspired myth. OK, end rant.

Other features include:

• "Words with friends", about how to deal with tricky conversations. It's a good story, but I'm not a fan of the app-inspired design.
• "What does success look like?" Helping others, mastering the balancing act, and doing what you really love, apparently
• "Single with children"
• "20 tiny tips to improve your life right now" It's common sense stuff but the tips are still useful - like making your bed, stretching, wearing something bright and - my fave - playing on the swings.
• "Is someone sabotaging your diet?" I don't like the "d" word but it's a good feature about how others influence your eating.
• "12 things you can do for a healthier you" A bit of overkill considering it's very similar to "20 tiny tips"
• "A hungry girl's guide to portion control"
• "The other woman", about mums who interfere in their kid's relationships.
• "Great sex tips (in 50 words or less)" Same old, same old. Yawn.
• "Fight club" Shirtless boxers who obviously haven't been hit across the head too many times, coz their faces are still pretty.
• "7 reasons why you're still broke" 

Rating: 3/5