"The Vagenda"

Heya,

I'm currently reading "The Vagenda: a zero tolerance guide to the media", by Holly Baxter and Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett.

I'm loving it!

Hilarious, intelligent, witty, thought provoking, real.

Holly and Rhiannon write like they're having a conversation with their best friends ie. friendly, inquisitive, sarcastic and colloquial . They're writing about the stupid, ridiculous content in both the general media, the fashion industry and advertising that is pumped out year after year to make you feel shit about yourself. The idea being that the more shit you feel the more likely you are to buy this AMAZING, NEW, SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN product that will enable you to be deemed BEAUTIFUL (even though beauty is a constantly shifting goalpost that while different in various cultures is rapidly becoming homogenised... and is always decided by the so-called powerful within these industries.

Here's a snippet of what I was reading this morning regarding advertising :

Chapter 6 Fashion and the Shoeniverse
Getting in with the 'fash pack'
..."So if it works, and we like it, then where's the (hand-massaged, lean cut) beef? For us, it's the message that, if you're not already worrying about your body, you'd bloody better be worrying about the garments you're using to hide it. Most fashion magazines offer up the kind of luxe status porn that provides a lovely, albeit brief, daydream of style and affluence, but which is nonetheless always followed by a sickly bitter aftertaste following the realisation that most of us will never, ever have that life. And yet they send the message that unless you fart Chanel No. 5, own the latest styles and drift around in a cloud of expensive chiffon, behaving as though you've just stepped off a Monaco yacht, then you just haven't got this 'being a woman' thing down. Though fashion itself is as old as the hills. Ever since cavepeople competed over who had the softest furry loincloth (probably), human beings have been using their clothes to express their personalities, wealth and social standing - it's hard not to notice how modern consumerism has perverted it to such an extent that we're all being told to look, think and act exactly the same way.

A woman in her eighties who approached us after a speaking event said exactly this. When she was a young woman, the biggest fashion faux pas she could imagine was turning up to a party in the same dress as a fellow guest. These days, everyone's got exactly the same 'must-have' Topshop jumper that Glamour  told you to buy - or, if you went to private school and sport a name like Appollonia, the latest 'must-have' Mullberry bag straight from the pages of Harper's. Furthermore, we're expected to aspire to dress and behave like the women we're constantly exposed to in the media, whether it's 'style icons', socialites, celebrities or, most recently fashion bloggers. Let's be honest: 'stealing George Clooney's style' isn't really an activity many men are encouraged to pursue. Nor are they informed in grave tones that Kanye's leather jogging bottoms are a 'must-have'. But from an industry that supposedly values women's individuality and creativity, everything looks suspiciously the same, and we've become a nation of style sheep running blindly around a field while the farmers sit back and enjoy the evening's entertainment (before fucking us). It makes you question how much of your style can be attributed to personal preference and how much has been determined by advertisers and magazine staff who'd never dream of following suit...

...Fashion can be many things, but it very rarely has a sense of humour, as demonstrated by Anna Wintour's permanent facial expression and anything Karl Lagerfeld says about anything, ever. Maybe this is why models such as Cara Delevigne - quite frankly a breath of fresh air, in this regard - have been able to build whole careers around their ability to pull silly faces as well as pout."

Thought you'd like it :)

♥ Yaz