{"id":662,"date":"2021-10-08T13:54:41","date_gmt":"2021-10-08T12:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ashareh.fit\/?page_id=662"},"modified":"2022-06-08T18:34:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-08T17:34:04","slug":"magazine-reader","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lala3xl.com\/index.php\/magazine-reader\/","title":{"rendered":"Magazine Reader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Magazine Reader<\/em>\u00a0is a workshop in which a fashion magazine (mainstream, high\u2013end) is being dissected, critically analyzed from various perspectives and put together again in an alternative form. The material from the magazine is used to create a new zine that gives insight into the cultural power and forms of value production that\u2019s at the core of fashion media.\u00a0Re-reading the magazine by analyzing the words, images, materiality, items and strategies of the specific magazine, changes the way we read fashion. The zine will be published in Amsterdam, NL in Nov 2021<\/em>.
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Harpers Bazaar, UK. Nov 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Hairy beavers and heavy brainwashing in Harper\u2019s Bazaar<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

This article explores the subliminal messages in the pages of magazines and the ironic fact that we have to fight a battle to claim back our cunts.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Think<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first thing I saw as I opened the November 2020 issue of Harper\u2019s Bazaar – a fashionable model, gracefully posing in front of a\u00a0gaping snatch<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What?!? Did I accidentally shop in the pornographic section? I double checked the cover.\u00a0\u00a0No just a normal fashion magazine.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the shape in question was not literal female genitalia<\/em>, but the pink padded felt chamber surrounding the model unnervingly appeared to be just that. Why would they print such salacious content in a mainstream publication?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The salmon-coloured sticky notes in my hands or the rose-coloured outfits of the actress in the featured article might have had an influence on me fixating on caverns of \u2018binnepoes pienk\u2019 (an Afrikaans word literally translated to\u00a0inside vagina pink). It\u2019s also worth mentioning that I paid a visit to the gynaecologist that morning so had\u00a0vajayjay\u2019s\u00a0on the brain. Regardless, on almost every page of the Harper\u2019s Bazaar, I was bombarded by the allegorical shapes and colours of\u00a0coochies<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once engrossed in the shape I couldn\u2019t unsee it. I saw labia<\/em> enclosed within the folds of jackets. I saw gaping open holes<\/em> formed by ballooning ballgowns. The curves of bracelets tracing the outlines of ovaries<\/em>. Bows puffed up like clitori <\/em>and hairdos styled like golden pubic triangles<\/em>. Less subtlety the magazine featured the work of an artist that described her work as chaste eroticism. She paints female forms<\/em> playfully hidden in minimalist flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ros Bramwell, in an article for the journal\u00a0Sexual and Relationship Therapy1<\/sup><\/em>, analyzed 10 glossy female magazines and found that \u201cin pictures of women naked or in tight clothes, the\u00a0pubic area\u00a0<\/em>is usually obscured in some way, or represented as forming a smooth\u00a0curve between the thighs<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the norm is to style all women like Barbies, why was this Harper\u2019s Bazaar so heavy on\u00a0fleshy flaps<\/em>?\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0yonis<\/em>\u00a0plastered on the pages as prolifically as the phallus appeared in ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian art, made me suspicious as to the intent of this subliminal exposure. Was the Harpers Bazaar\u2019s employing its own version of the\u00a0Ludovico technique\u00a0<\/em>(the aversion therapy administered to the protagonist in Anthony Burgess\u2019s Clockwork Orange in an attempt to indoctrinate and placate him)\u00a02<\/sup>? Are they on a mission to change our ideology; to supplant the traditional male\/female power dynamic?\u00a0Are they preaching freedom through sexuality?\u00a0What was the end game in bombarding us with images of our\u00a0girly bits<\/em>\u00a0as \u2018sex sells\u2019 is hardly an appropriate trope for the 2020s?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Feel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This made me think about the mixed messages fashion magazines contain.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Harper\u2019s Bazaar was packed with words plucking at our emotional heart-strings like \u201cSophisticated silhouettes\u201d, \u201cNewly reinvigorated\u201d and \u201cGirls are superheroes\u201d.\u00a0Even though these phrases and messages sound uplifting, the insinuation is that we need to stive for more, which means there is a cultural belief that we are not good enough as we are. Are magazines really selling us empowerment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our obsession for self-improvement was unintentionally shaped by entities in an attempt to empower us. By intellectualizing life through psychology and philosophy humanity has essentially problematized normality. Eva Illouz\u2019s book, \u2018Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism\u2019 explores the arc of our indoctrination. Excerpts from the book outlines how \u201cFreud systematically blurred the boundary between normal and pathological and posited a new kind of normality, an open-ended project, an undefined and yet powerful goal for the self\u201d.  It also mentions Abraham Maslow and his \u201cidea that there is a need for self-actualization that led him to offer the hypothesis, namely that fear of success is that which prevents a person from aspiring to greatness and self-fulfillment.\u201d Even feminism and therapy had good intentions when they paved the road to our personal introspective hell. \u201cTherapeutic discourse, like feminism, constantly encouraged women to synthesize two contradictory sets of values, namely care and nurture on the one hand, and autonomy and self-reliance on the other. These values, when properly synthesized, would constitute emotional health and political emancipation. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, both feminism and therapy shared the idea and the practice of converting private experience into public speech\u201d <\/sup>3<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as our private thoughts become public domain, we surrendered our agency to external forces such as marketers and promotors. We equipped them with the tools to capitalize on our insecurities and flaws.\u00a0Distance from our emotions – viewing them in an objective light – turned them into commodities and now\u00a0everything we touch read and feel\u00a0has been optimized to\u00a0make us believe\u00a0we are not good enough\u00a0–\u00a0because\u00a0being\u00a0happy\u00a0and\u00a0comfortable with your\u00a0imperfections\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0sell.\u00a0The\u00a0integrity of our looks has been under attack for decades, but Harper\u2019s Bazaar was so flagrantly heavy on\u00a0genital symbolism<\/em>\u00a0that it felt like sinister clandestine manipulation was at work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seemed like the battle for self-help and self-improvement, satiated with objectifying our bodies, had shifted south – and now our\u00a0nether regions<\/em>\u00a0were under attack. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Why was Harper\u2019s Bazaar trying to focus our attention\u00a0down there<\/em>?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Learn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a culture obsessed with penis and testicle size we blush when uttering the word vagina<\/em> and when we do, we are usually talking about the vulva<\/em>.  Men touch their dicks every day, but women almost never touch our vulvas<\/em>. We have a less tactile relationship with our pussies<\/em> and traditionally we were also taught to be shy of our sexuality. This is why we still speak about the vagina<\/em> in inaccurate, misleading ways. According to Healthline, \u201cthere wasn\u2019t even a medical term for the female sexual passage until around the 1680s. Before then, the Latin word \u2018vagina\u2019 referred to a scabbard or sheath for a sword. So it shouldn\u2019t be surprising that in the medical realm, the vagina and other female reproductive parts were long viewed as mysterious, and even treacherous, bits of anatomy\u201d <\/sup>4<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western medicine and science have also been complacent in myth creation and a lot of awful bogus ideas.  A 2018 exhibition by the Royal College of Nursing \u201cshowcased a series of strange, sometimes disturbing objects used in women’s healthcare. From pink pills to help women with so-called hysteria, to vaginal douches to keep them \u2018clean\u2019, the historical displays show how gynaecology has often been dominated by superstition and ignorance\u201d.5<\/sup><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why many women, especially minorities and transgender women who have suffered even worse maltreatment, justifiably mistrust the ways conventional doctors address their concerns and treat their pain.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The internet has opened up a new avenue for discovering answers. Today,\u00a0women can find more information about their bodies than ever before, but\u00a0that also means they\u2019re bombarded with more negative and inaccurate messages.\u00a0There\u2019s so much misinformation on the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judy Norsigan, one of the publishers of \u2018Our Bodies, Ourselves\u20196<\/sup>\u00a0has much to say about how uninformed women are about their pelvic areas.\u00a0\u201cWomen today get the idea that you have to look like they do in porn, so they\u2019re shaving and altering the vaginal area”, Norsigian says.
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Vaginal rejuvenation is a hot surgery now.
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“Women also often\u00a0don\u2019t understand about menstrual health and urinary tract infections\u00a0or they don\u2019t even know they have two different orifices!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen\u2019s magazines and many health-oriented websites don\u2019t help, promoting nonsensical ideas like \u2018how to get your best summer vagina ever\u2019 and normalizing cosmetic procedures and surgeries that serve to shame women into thinking their perfectly normal vulvas aren\u2019t attractive enough\u201d <\/sup>4<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Act<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No real estate in Harper\u2019s Bazaar was overtly assigned to showcasing or peddling labiaplasty (a plastic surgery procedure for your\u00a0labia minora<\/em>)7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0or other\u00a0vaginal\u00a0<\/em>remedies, but a whole industry has been developed around priming us to feel inadequate. With a recipe favouring everyone complicit in the beauty and wellness industry, collusion on a universal scale subtly preaching self-doubt, enable brands to profit off us.\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0feeling of insecurity\u00a0is carefully cultivated, and it\u2019s especially potent when a brand targets people who feel that their concerns and problems have been overlooked\u201d8<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>When the hook is\u00a0\u2018Your problem matters,\u2019 whatever\u00a0pseudoscience you tout as fact will become a veritable course of treatment.\u00a0\u00a0Even damaging ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The obvious culprits are unnecessary invasive surgeries, but even alternative therapies chanting the brain-vagina connection can have detrimental effects.\u00a0Yoni\u00a0eggs, very popular of late, are heavy crystals eggs that are supposed to be kept inside your\u00a0vagina\u00a0for extended periods of time. A workout, consisting of reps of contracting and releasing your\u00a0vaginal\u00a0muscles around the egg, is supposed to strengthen your\u00a0pelvic floor. Clenching your biceps all day won\u2019t make them bigger and applying that logic to your\u00a0vagina<\/em>\u00a0will potentially lead to fatigue or intensification of other painful symptoms. The crystal the eggs are crafted from is also porous and difficult to clean properly.\u00a0Which means\u00a0by inserting them\u00a0you can put yourself at risk for infections like\u00a0toxic shock syndrome\u00a0and\u00a0bacterial vaginosis.9<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then there is\u00a0vaginal\u00a0<\/em>steaming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steam, on your delicate\u00a0labia<\/em>. Come on ladies! <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The likelihood for disaster is high. Your skin or epidermis is much tougher than the delicate pieces of flesh comprising your\u00a0labia<\/em>. Are we so insecure about ourselves that we are willing to burn our\u00a0sex organs<\/i>\u00a0off?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Get rid of douching and special soaps. The vagina<\/em> is a self-cleaning organism and all it needs is admiration and your own personal brand of stimulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wellness industry and female magazines like Harper\u2019s Bazaar are oxymoronic entities. It\u2019s selling us remedies with the obvious limitation that it cannot really resolve the stress, exhaustion and inadequacy that we feel. Their only endgame is cold hard cash – selling, upselling and reselling us the same bogus ideas, repackaged with a different tone, in a different context and pandering to the current zeitgeist. When not even our\u00a0minges<\/em>\u00a0are taboo and have become the province of industry, it\u2019s time to subvert the subjugation they wield have over us. Don\u2019t let them steal your power. Love your\u00a0vulva<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are healthier ways to increase your awareness and sexual pleasure. It doesn\u2019t have to be complicated or cost a fortune. My personal solution is doing it through craft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Design a Vagina<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

There is no one ideal\u00a0vulva<\/em>. Your\u00a0vulva<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0labia<\/em>\u00a0come in many different colours, shapes and sizes.\u00a0The\u00a0clean slit\u00a0– the types of\u00a0genitalia\u00a0seen in porn are the least common type. If your\u00a0vulva\u00a0and\u00a0vagina\u00a0are clean and healthy \u2013 meaning there is no unusual smells, itching, discharge, change in colour or swelling \u2013 it\u2019s perfect!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the left is a spread-eagle graphic. Please feel free to draw or design your own vulva<\/em> in the space between the legs. You can draw from memory. You can draw by doing research. I recommend that you hold a mirror to your beaver<\/em> and then draw what you see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written on the buttocks and inner thighs, are some common characteristics of\u00a0vulvas<\/em>.\u00a0If you are so inclined\u00a0highlight the ones that apply to you or add more if your particular characteristics are missing –\u00a0vulvas<\/em>\u00a0vary as much as snowflakes do! Say your qualities out loud and with pride. Wear them as a badge of honour. Let the appearances of your vulva become your new emotional lexicon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Artist and bits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n