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That Was Enough For Revlon. The Advertisements Were Removed. Later On Came An ...

That was enough for Revlon. The advertisements were removed.
Later on came an editor from Australia: Cyndi Tebbel, who headed New Woman Australia in 1996. For a year and a half, Tebbel focused on self-help that could not be equated with self-flagellation: she said no to diets, yes to relationship and career advice. In 1997, near the end of her leadership, she published a groundbreaking issue embracing the concept ofand featuringlarge-size models. Although the original strap was ‘Fat Is Back', the issue finally ran as ‘The Big Issue'. Sales did not plummet, but neither did they soar. Still ‘The Big Issue' was perceived as ‘unglamorous', and did little to win support for Tebbel's cause. Shortly after its publication, Tebbel resigned.
There are more and more editors like thisas well as writers, designers, photographers, even fashion models themselveswho are ‘coming out' as true supporters of women ‘as they are'. This is, no doubt, due in good part to the work of those that came before. However, they are still a minority, albeit a strong one.
B. Fashion Victims
What is it that women want? In her book Fashion Victim, editor and writer Michelle Lee raises a number of valid points as she attempts to answer this question. She speculates on what would happen if mainstream magazines began to feature plus-size, or even slightly plump models on their front covers: ‘Even if magazines showed heavier body types on a regular basis, would consumers really respond positively?' She answers the question by explaining that in theory, we like the idea of showing realistic portrayals of ‘real' womenbut the truth is that we don't like to see them. ‘We appreciate the idea of magazines that use larger models' Lee asserts. ‘We're glad they exist. We like the idea of magazines that show more realistic sizes. The only problem is that we don't buy them, and then they go out of business' (Lee, 2003: 144). She follows this statement with statistics to underscore her point. The point that truly needs to be addressed here, however, is not the fact that we don't buy magazines that feature the truest images of our selves: but rather, the reason we don't we buy them. Why don't we buy them? What is wrong with these magazines that show us who we really are? Or rather: what is wrong with these images of our less-than-perfect ‘selves'?
‘With all of these studies pointing to the public's apparent need and desire for more realistic body shapes, it would seem likely that magazine publishers would bow to public pressure', asserts Lee. Apparently, the magazine publishers are one step ahead. They know that what people say is often very different from the ways in which they act. The proof, for them as well as for Lee, is in the numbers. ‘Magazine publishers know that survey respondents are more virtuous on paper than they are at the newsstand', notes Lee. ‘Top editors and publishers know that thinner cover girls sell more issues' (Lee, 2003: 139).


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