I like to read fitness magazines. Its a guilty pleasure. I will buy one, or borrow one from my local library, and lovingly savour the 'new' workout moves, nutrition research findings, recipes, interviews and comments. Sometimes I'll sit with it for hours until every line of text is read, and every picture considered. In the lean times I will try and stretch out my reading pleasure to last me a week or more, limiting myself to only one article at a time.
With its much larger market, America seems to have much larger variety of fitness magazines. As such most of my reading material comes form the US, and the little bit that is edited here at home will often use images from photo shoots carried out by their American sister publications.
Flicking through them, one thing has always struck me in these American mags: fake boobs. So many of the women in the US magazines have made-to-order breasts. There are just so many of them. Mountains of them, if you will.
Now, I don't take issue with what other women do with their bodies (sort of, but its an issue for later discussions). If you'd like to enbiggen your boobs, far be it for me to stop you. I also don't mean to cast any judgement or offend any women who have larger breasts. I'd love to think we can all love what we've got. But I am a tad perplexed at the near monopoly that larger breasted women appear to have on the fitness modelling industry in America, as well as why it isn't as prevalent here in Australia.
One issue of Fitness Rx For Women magazine has 14 images of women with what appears to be altered breasts (whether via severe push-up bras, implants, or digital altering, I don't know). These images are of models, for the most part, either in advertisements or demonstrating moves.
This is a magazine designed to cover fitness and nutrition issues for women. Active women, who partake in athletics, weight training, and competitive sport and fitness.
Now, although I am sure there are exceptions to this rule, most women I know who are engaged in such high intensity activities have smallish breasts. Some have larger breasts, and find the need to secure them to make sport a more comfortable experience. Some had larger breasts, but have found (for better or worse) that they have shrunk due to exercise.
Most of the women pictured in this magazine are thin, and appear to have VERY low body fat percentages. Given this, it seems quite unlikely that they would have enough natural breast tissue left to fill their crop tops the we they do. So one has to assume that either the woman herself or the advertiser has felt the need to 'fill her out' either surgically or digitally.
But why?
Large breasts have long held the imagination of the masses. They can be found on billboards, used to sell cars, cigarettes, dishwashing liquid, clothes or phone companies, seen in movies, pornography, on children's toys for goodness sake. I'm rarely surprised, though generally annoyed, to see a woman with large breasts in an ad for just about anything (except fashion, what's with that?). But I get very concerned when a women's magazine that claims to promote health and fitness, an active lifestyle, and positive body image decides to jump in with the rest of the world on the issue.
The same magazines that tell us not to be afraid of the weights room, and not to be concerned about 'bulking up', are still pushing the message that extreme femininity is required to compensate for strength.
It leads me to some questions.
Do you, fit women of the internet, feel unfeminine due to your training regime?
Do you feel the need to compensate? Have you increased your bust, and why did you choose to?
In either case, do you feel it is appropriate for magazines claiming to support your goals to prey on your fears?
And, most puzzling of all, does anyone know why American mags seem so keen on the fakies, while Aussie ones aren't? Do we have fewer implants in Oz? Or is there something more to it? Am i the only person who has noticed this odd phenomena?
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