As I flipped through this month’s issue of Glamour — I’ve subscribed for years — a photo of a naked woman grabbed my attention. It’s pretty normal for there to be women sans clothes, usually in stories about body image and health.
What was different about this one was that she looked shockingly normal and not at all airbrushed. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Editor Cindi Leive blogged about receiving messages from lots of women who also loved it. In her post, she wrote that the model in the photo, size 12-14 Lizzie Miller, was thrilled it resonated with readers. (Side note: Am I the only one who adores Leive’s haircut?)
Leive also hinted we can expect more realistic looking women on the magazine’s pages. “Trust me, Glamour’s listening, and this only strengthens our commitment to celebrating all kinds of beauty,” she wrote.
Hmm. Would you be willing to agree to a formal commitment? I’ll extend my subscription for, say, five years in exchange for a guarantee that at least half of the women will look like they’ve indulged in raw chocolate chip cookie dough at least once in their lives. Who’s with me? I’ll go longer, even buying a subscription for my niece who won’t need Glamour for another 15 years, if you promise to use all real-ish women. I say real-ish because Lizzie is so pretty and comfortable with herself she glows. Let’s not pretend the fact her stomach’s not ridiculously flat keeps her from being any less stunning than the other models in the magazine; that only shows how very far we have to go on this issue.
Honestly, Glamour does a better job than any magazine I can think of showing women who are diverse in many ways, including race, body shape, skin tone, and hair color. They have a real opportunity here to position themselves as the magazine that understands real women. I noticed a shift already toward deeper stories about inner happiness and career, and I’m really, really looking forward to the visual aspect catching up.
It’ll be easy to gauge Glamour and other magazines’ progress. We’ll know they’re better reflecting our lives when no one’s compelled to write in about a photo like this; when we can just smile and expect to see more like it when we turn the page.
Find the photo in print on page 194 of the August issue with Jessica Simpson on the cover. If you like Jessica, the Glamour Web site has a photo gallery of her fashion looks over the years.
Photo courtesy of Glamour.
Posted by raechal 
