What women want

We are living in a material world, and though I wouldn’t call myself a material girl I’m not going to lie and pretend that I’d love to live a comfortable life in a home that has furniture, with access to some good wine every now and then. Reading through any women’s magazine you will begin to feel that these desires are not enough. You should also want the perfect man (because the heteros still dominate in the mag scene), the perfect family (sorry for you, baby-free single lady) and you should, above all, want to diet.

Being fairly critical of any women’s magazine that I have the (dis)pleasure of coming into contact with, I was mildly surprised and impressed when I stumbled across the website for Women’s Health. This magazine is due to be launched next month and attempts to put a spin on things apparently. To find out more about what this mag is going to be like, I picked up a copy of the American mag, courtesy of my local coffee shop (don’t you love those mags).

Why do I like it? Well, first of all, as a feminist I like the idea that it asks women to step outside of their gyms and try exercise outdoors. Being active is one of the primary ways that women can break free of the “ideal feminine” and challenge gender stereotypes. This may seem like a small thing, but so many women’s mags relegate women to the corner of the gym doing a hundred sit-ups so that you can have the tummy that will rest your cocktail on it with no problem. While the website has these articles and a hectic amount of muscly women on it doing them, it also has stuff on getting outdoors and actually living. Going to gym to build up strength is great, and I’m all for fitness, but using that strength to actually engage with the world is a really exciting concept which comes through quite nicely.

Why else? Well there are about a zillion recipes both online and in the mag. I’m into cooking big time and any new recipes are always appreciated. Minor flaw — they are ALL healthy, but I suppose it sort of goes with the image. Fit and healthy are almost like Ice Cream and Chocolate sauce nowadays — totally inseparable and mostly useless without the other.

Why else? There is actually a vagina on the website. Yes, ladies, you have a vagina. Yes, gents, we have them. The website goes so far as to encourage women to look at their bits and take control of their pleasure. How exciting! This totally cool tool tells you all about your lady bits and what they do. So much of women’s inability to take control of sex and their sexuality can be linked to the stigma of not looking at or touching your vagina and this is a huge step for a women’s mag. It’s not only “down there” or your “private parts”. It is now your body, and I’m so excited at the way that this tool tells you to take control (the sounds of thousands of feminist slogans were literally singing in my ears when I saw this little gem). Ok, so the link between body knowledge is linked to the idea of having the best sex, rather than being completely body aware, but I’m impressed.

The website and the magazine are undoubtedly still fixed in the heterosexual paradigm, which is a little frustrating given the huge diversity of sexual identities out there. But it sort of makes up for this with the simple fact that the majority of the content is not about pleasing a man. It is about being yourself — in fact the slogan “It’s good to be you” (cheesy, but cool cheesy) focuses the content on you. Are there sex tips — yes! Are they about pleasing your man — sometimes. Are they about pleasing you — yes, yes, yes. Nice.

I’m hoping that the South African magazine will be as impressive as the overseas mag. I’m hoping that with the wealth of debate on female athletes at present the mag will go some way to talking about what it means to be a woman, and allowing for a diversity of answers. If the flashy, stylish website is anything to go by, then I think we may be making some progress.