I am so tired of hearing women prattle on about how the media is responsible for all the eating disorders and negative self image in this country. Ever since that huge black girl was in that movie, everyone has been on a crusade to have "real" women featured in the pages of magazines because we all need to feel great about ourselves and there's no better way to accomplish that than to look at other women who also have cellulite and back fat. I'm all for self-confidence, but seeking it in a fashion magazine that relies on advertising revenue is simply foolish. It's not an advertiser's job to make you feel good about yourself; it's their job to make you feel inadequate so that you may justify buying their products. Vogue sells you an ideal, not reality, because women don't want reality. Women don't want to look at other frumpy sans-Photoshopped women; they want fantasy. They want to believe that if they buy this dress and that lipstick, they will be better for it, and frankly, it does our country good to convince people they need things, so let's stop bashing the fashion world for giving us what we really want. If women actually desired to see overweight models prancing down the runway, someone would have thought of it by now and it would be the norm. As of now, it's the exception, as it should be, because the average woman can't afford anything displayed during fashion week anyhow. The average woman will at some later point buy the watered down version at Macy's and call it a day. You know a really good way to boost girls' self-esteem? Buy them Photoshop. Show them how easy it is to erase blemishes or to wittle someone's waist down to nothing. Let them have it and and let them see that nothing they see in magazines gets there without hours of rigorous retouching. Take them to a set so they can observe just how many lights are required to make someone glow. I know. I work in TV. NO ONE hits the air without make up or lights.

Interestingly enough, the same phenomenon occurs in my job as well, albeit in a slightly different form. Whenever I tell people I work at a TV station, they almost immediately respond with, "You should report on more happy news." Happy news. Kittens being born. Fundraisers for sick children. A rainbow painting the sky. All these things are well and good, and believe it or not, we spend a significant amount of time covering "happy" news. But once again, people are too stupid to realize what it is they actually want, because every time someone sees more than three police cars on the side of the road or hears a plane flying overhead, they call us to see what's going on. They hold us accountable for all the bad things that happen in the world, yet claim they get sick of hearing about so many murders and robberies. But I assure you that if we neglected to report on all the awful stinky poo poo stuff, the very same people who think they only want to hear about babies and pecan pie would be livid.

Women read fashion magazines for a reason, and it ain't to see stretch marks, so quit trying to be revolutionary.