We have met the enemy and they are ours…
Read any womans’ magazine and a host of contradictions are laid out in a glorious rainbow of hypocrisy. We’re either too fat or too thin, too plain or too brazen, too old or acting too young. We’re told about independence, yet advised on how to submit when it counts; we’re shown how to be confident in our appearance, yet coaxed to dress to suit male perceptions. We’re taught how to satisfy, how to gratify, how to reshape, remould and relinquish. We’re taught how to keep him, how to thrill him, how to treat him, how to tame him. We can have it all, but when having it all threatens the man in our life, we must retreat to avoid “threatening” him with our success.
And those Marie Claire quizzes and Closer questions cram uncertainties into our inner consciousness: Are you good enough in bed? Does he really love you? Is he cheating on you? Are you fat? Are you paid enough? My answer to the latter is a resounding no: in fact, here I am paying for the privilege of being sandwiched between “10 Rules For Holidaying With Your Boyfriend” and “15 Ways To Satisfy Your Man.”
Why? Isn’t there more to life? Kat and Cila - the Plastikfantastik team - sure as hell think so. We think objectifying women and assigning them value based primarily on appearance should be left to the Loadeds and Nuts of this world. (We’ll go after them next.) We believe womens’ magazines should be, of all the crazy ideas, supporting women. Not adding straws to the pile of insecurities that threaten to break each of us. We believe that nothing will change if women don’t speak up and point out the absurdities of a commercial media that tells us our dreams will come true… if we’re only willing to forget who we are and learn how to please someone else.
-Kat * Cila Plastik
