Women's Health

This time last year I submitted my final piece of Language coursework: a Very Angry essay about the immense differences between magazines geared towards men and women. Specifically, I argued that Men’s Health was everything I wanted in a magazine.
“It’s aspirational!” I wrote. “It focuses on fitness, not on weight loss!” I yelled. “Why don’t we get something like this?” I ranted, Very Angrily.
It seems somebody heard my complaints, because today I spotted, nestled between the magazines I had got such high marks for vilifying, was a launch issue of Women’s Health.
I bought it. Obviously.
I walked back from the store, wondering. Not daring to hope. Somehow knowing that what I held in my hands was not quite as good as its male counterpart.

And I was right.
But I was also, to be fair, wrong.

I didn’t read Women’s Health with a horrified look on my face (Ok! and Look make me cry when I dare to read them), but I didn’t exactly yearn to take out a subscription.

The articles are a mixture, focusing on both weight loss and fitness. They perhaps lean more towards weight loss, but this is also why the majority of women take up exercise, so I don’t think I can really complain about this. On top of this, the diet and workout tips were realistic for normal women, something that other magazines have always, always lacked.It also contains pieces on coping with stress and relationships that were not at all patronising or ridiculous, and the sex tips didn’t even make me cringe!

On the other hand, not a single model in the whole thing is bigger than, what, a size six? Average women can be fit too you know, how’s about they get some coverage in your magazine aimed at the average woman? In fact, the thing that bothered me the very most is actually the largest heading (sans the title) on the front page. ” A Flat Sexy Stomach in 15 Minutes” Kate Beckinsale’s non-existent tummy yells. Now that’s some serious fat-shaming if I’ve ever seen it.

Those adjectives are not intrinsically linked. Your stomach does not need to be flat to be sexy.

And would it kill the editors to put in an article about good spending habits that doesn’t convince you to immediately blow your new cash on pointless designer products? “Stop getting a Starbucks every day.” Yes, good. “Buy a £260 iPad case instead!” No, no, no. Bad, bad, bad. Women do not need to be goaded into spending money on things they don’t need - there are hundreds of other magazines willing to do that for them. I would like for just one to encourage us to work on solid financial planning instead - Men’s Health can do it, why not you?

Women’s health is, in a word, an improvement on the utter trash we’re forced to look at every day.

Is it as good as its male equivalent? No. But this is the launch issue, in its defence, and I hold out hope that it will move in the right direction.

Until then, I think I’ll stick to getting health tips online and saving myself £3.60.