I'ts very possible!!!!

Without a doubt. when I would read those muscle mags, it made me feel like shit inside. So, I think it must make women feel the same way.

Listen, I saw what Jamie Lee Curtis looked like without the airbrushing and photo-shopping. Those women in those magazines look just like us in real life so I don't sweat it.

Yes as well as the tv & the way the media chews them up & spits them out if they gain a few pounds & look healthy. I think for some women that reflects the opinions of others around them & they feel like they need to diet & get plastic surgery to be accepted by societies standards. Super sad. I feel the overwelming urge to kidnap & feed those skinny, boney ass women you see with the bones buldging out of their backs & chests. Looks kinda gross.

I think they're designed to make you feel: a) like you're imperfect and b) you have the potential to become perfect by buying product X, Y or Z It's more difficult to sell anti-aging and cellulite creams and fake tans to people who believe they're fine just the way they are, or to people who believe they can't do a thing to change it. to a certain extent this is all fine - you can be happy with your body and still want to look your best, or to glam up a bit for a night out, or lose a few pounds - and a magazine that tells you how to do this is fine if you have a healthy and realistic attitude about what it's going to do for you. Having a nice bath with scented oils or going for a facial now and then really can make you feel great - as long as you recognise it for what it is - superficial - and don't let it rule your life. It's only when taken to extremes that this is damaging - when people begin to believe that they have an obligation to look perfect, that looking good is the highest of achievements, that it's possible, or healthy to try and fight against the natural aging process or change your basic body shape. I believe it was Joan Collins who once said something about how the cosmetics industry exploits people by giving them ever-lasting hope.

They are responsible and what is more, it is intentional. It was created to sell magazines and ads. It has worked and women have suffered for decades because of it.

I've heard this same thing said about magazines, commercials, beauty pageants, television, a Barbie doll, etc. Of course those things are going to prey upon your desire to be desirable, but they all zero-in on the same thing: your insecurity. "Use our product or you'll be ugly!" And people buy into it. The truth is that your self-esteem was already on shaky ground to begin with if those things actually make an impact. Idealizing beauty is just a way of denying your own self-worth by comparison. As soon as someone says that someone else is attractive, it's almost a reflex to compare yourself, feel a little competitive, and bruise your own ego for not fitting someone else's idea of beauty. When you get right down to it, if you see yourself as beautiful, then no magazine or anything else is going to convince you otherwise. If you get your perception of beauty from magazines and other people's opinions, then be braced for a lot of disappointment, because you're never going to fit everyone else's standards. It's smarter to see yourself as the beautiful creature you are, and let others appreciate it or not.

Yes, I do. Check out this video on YouTube, called "Time Lapse Beauty".

Magazines have a vested interest in connecting the readership's self esteem to the products that they are advertising. Magazines make a lot more money selling space to advertisers than they do from subscriptions. Subscriptions are used to attract advertisers to a willing customer base. The magazine then produces articles that establish a need for the products that their advertisers are selling. That could be anything from electronics to diet products to medications. Can you remember the last time you saw a magazine article that told you to buy LESS stuff? Or to tell you you're fine as you are and you don't need products to be a complete person? Most magazines don't work that way. Women's magazines focus on a particular aspect of their readers, which is their attractiveness to men. Whether their angle is that the magazine will make you more sexy, through clothes and "new tricks that will blow his mind in bed!" (Cosmo), or that the magazine will make you cook and keep house better (Martha Stewart Living), they all imply that if you don't buy the products they sell you will no longer be attractive to men or to your particular man. Of course, this process never ends. The magazine can never stop selling to you and you can never buy enough products to reach ultimate attractiveness, because there is always something new to buy. Perpetually selling people the idea that they are themselves "lacking" has a negative effect on our psyche over time. I think it's really bad for people. I try to stay away from advertisement-driven media altogether, really. I think young women would be a lot healthier if they did the same.

Wow, great question. And yes, I think it affects some of today's young women, especially housewives who shop at the supermarket several times a week and have no job or other outlet for creative, financial, or other "measurable" success.

i have low self esteem but i was reading a teen magaine with miley cyrus on the cover with girls who weigh nothing and WEIGHT LOSS TIPS its like there afraid of gaining 2 pounds!

Yea partly! I think that half the problem is the magazines and tv, really all forms of media, but I think that the problem is also us as females(not you specifically us as a group). We say that the media makes us feel this way, but then we go and buy it, read it, or see it. The media is trying to make money and if someone wanted to pay me millions or billions to make them feel like shit I would probably consider doing it too. Sorry about the harshness I'm really a nice person.

Most definitely! Those magazines set up a standard of "beauty" that is unhealthy and totally unrealistic. In fact, I'm convinced that the advertising industry is responsible for most of our emotional ills...but that's a different question.

Yes, women's magazines, men's magazines, advertising and the media generally. They are responsible for many of the ills of the world today, not just those affecting women.

not women's magazines.. men's magazines with all those sexy women decorating its pages

I think that young women compare themselves to these size 0 to size 3 models, and think "I can never be like that." If they only knew that they are not the norm! Most women are not that size! My daughter gets on the scale every day! It kills me to see her do that. She does have a good appetite though, and exercises with her ballet, swim, and soccer. She's the perfect size. She'll ask me if her thighs look fat! She doesn't have an ounce of fat on her. It's not just the magazines though. It's TV too!

An individual is responsible for their own self-esteem.Really.

Nope. It's like blaming Wal-Mart for the collapse of the mom and pop stores, or McDonald's for kids being overweight. We all make our own choices, and nobody os forcing anyone to read women's magazines, shop Wal-Mart, or eat at McDonald's. Some choose to, some don't. Also, not all mom and pop stores go out because of Wal-Mart, not all kids are fat from McDonald's, and not all suffer low self-esteem from women's magazines.

Magazines alone cannot force an opinion - there has to be some belief within society to accept what they are saying. Consequently it is up to the individual - male or female to show it as a lie - by living a life free of superficial vanity and not promoting it to our children, making sure they are loved for who they are, and not for what they look like, how popular they are, how successful/wealthy they are.Those things are all fine in themselves, but not at the expense of a person's self-esteem or personal development. If you yourself don't promote it by your own attitudes - that's the best role model any young women and men around you can have.

definitely! whenever i look at them i always try to remember that the ads aren't real or natural. sometimes i feel bad about my appearance after reading a beauty magazine. especially Cosmopolitain! i read Glamor now and that magazine is practically the only one i know that have fuller 'normal' sized woman model and now it sells more copies b/c of that. magazines are more powerful that some people think!

They are so very responsibly for the low self esteem. They have these beautiful, slender women on the cover and lead us into believing that we should all look like that. It's not realistic so I do not understand why they would even do that. Being fit and healthy is wonderful, but they actually seem to promote being as skinny as possible, skipping meals, throwing up food and the whole nine yards. It's a terrible way to manipulate women.

Definitely. Good question. I stopped reading them a long time ago. I mean, I know how to lose ten pounds, apply eyeshadow and how to keep my man happy. How many more ways are there to apply mascara? In our thirties, we start to say, "What is this crap we are reading?" Then, you have Dove ads on one page that say, "Be happy with yourself" Then you have Adrianna Lima and other supermodels posing in skimpy clothing on the next page. I personally would like to see men on the cover of women's mags, like men's mags. I'll buy that! Patty

Yes I do agree. I heard Faith Hill talking about how she was excited to pose for a fitness magazine because she works hard to stay in shape. THEY AIR BRUSHED HER! Is there any hope for the rest of us? My niece is 14 and luckily realizes that it's all fake. She is a dancer with an amazing body and knows that most of the skinny people in the mags look nowhere as good as she does. I feel bad for kids!

Yes sadly I think they are. Too many very beautiful very thin airbrushed visions of perfection. I do love looking at them though.

probably partly. From my own experience I believe its your choice how you choose to view yourself.

Absolutely! Everytime you look at a magazine you only see girls and women with flawless features and bodes. M daughter is gorgeous but everytime she looks at a magazine she always says to me that she is ugly. It's fustrating. I tell her those people have money and their best friends are the plastic surgeons and personal trainers. I guess if we had money like that then of course our personal trainer can come over every day and everytime we get fat, have children we can take out the wallet and pay our plastic surgeons. It's ridiculous how plastic society has become. You can beat natural beauty. :) +6

No. I think the problem is the women actually pay attention to that stretched out, airbrushed crap...and think they should look like that. Com'n ladies, you know better than that. A woman is a woman, all she has to do is be healthy and clean...and she is absolutely beautiful. All shapes, all sizes, all colors, hair...skin. Everything. The magazine women are such a small percentage, and even their not that perfect. Women just need to realize, thats not reality...and embrace their body for whatever it looks like. But just treat it with respect and love, and theyll glow. Right? Its not the magazines fault. Its that we let it get to us. eh?

No they provide a sexy image of a healthy female MOST of the time. What's wrong with that?