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Wednesday 28 October 2009

One step forward, three back…


SARAH Murdoch has appeared on the cover of a women's magazine in an untouched photograph, saying women should be able to embrace the beauty of ageing.

"It makes me mad that we can't embrace the beauty of ageing, because we're all going to do it."

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,26266376-5013560,00.html

Well done Sarah Murdoch. We need more women of influence to be game enough to look like themselves and to hell with what anyone thinks. And yeah, we’re all going to age and we have to deal with it as countless generations have before us. I have never understood why people don’t comprehend that. People age. Get over it and get on with life I say. My 72 year aunt slid down a banister three times today just because she could. Spirit is way more beautiful than any airbrushed photo could ever be.

“It's women competing against women, they're not doing it for their husbands.”

Oh yeah…sadly we do. And why? Is any man worth the competition? And if you have to compete in some beauty contest for his heart then that suggests to me he was never meant to be yours and it’s not his heart he’s thinking with.

Parts of the article annoyed the hell out of me….

“The non-airbrushed photo of Ms Murdoch, a model and the wife of media heir Lachlan Murdoch, appears on the cover of the latest issue of the Australian Women's Weekly.”

Hmmm…I have never understood how it’s relevant who a woman is married to. Wife of? It’s so 1950’s. What would have happened if she wasn’t married? Sarah Murdoch unmarried and er …then what? How is it relevant? She is who she is regardless of a tag or husband.

“Ms McCabe said the magazine often received letters about their use of airbrushing but Ms Murdoch's example may not set a precedent.” "I can't possibly commit to that, I'm a realist.
"There are real business imperatives why magazines have gone this way, it's a very competitive industry and I'm at this stage just taking a little baby step and seeing how this goes for now."

Baby steps? Who the hell will ever get the guts to do something in the fashion industry without worrying about what another fashionista or woman’s magazine is thinking or doing? What this says to me is that this is essentially a stunt to sell magazines. All that talk about ‘codes of conduct’ and ‘healthy weight models’ is just talk. I wonder how many more women will starve to death or be maimed by dangerous plastic surgery before the fashion industry has a real conscience and not just sing platitudes to look like they’re doing something. Baby steps? For god sake stride ahead and make a bloody change. I’m sure we’ll be having this debate in 20 years. How sad.

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2 comments:

Sandra Cox said...

As far as who they are married to...I walked through an old civil war era cemetery and the women's stones would read Sarah daughter of so and so. Mary wife of so and so. The men's last name was mentioned but not the woman's.

Anny Cook said...

Yes, we are still defined by the man we belong to... whether father, husband, or even son.

Interestingly enough, men are not. But isn't that also sad? In an era where "belonging" to family was important, many men had none to claim them.