The Illusion Of The "Fitness" Magazine

Katharine McPhee's January Shape cover stirred up debate in the blogosphere about whether or not celebrities can be positive body image role models, and whether "fitness" magazines are doing anything other than promoting the same unhealthy obsession with thinness that dominates the mainstream media.

McPhee (of American Idol fame) was interviewed in Shape talking about her struggle with bulimia.  According to the piece, she used to vomit up to seven times a day and has been obsessed with thinness since a young age. Supposedly, she's become "more forgiving" of her body and this is what the piece is celebrating.  On the Shape cover, she looks like just about every other Shape cover model (read: thin, white, young, smiley, bikini-ed) -- no sign of struggle there, just the predominant image of female beauty reinforced once again. The subtext here is that of course she'd be forgiving of her body, since she looks absolutely no different from any of the other models who fitness magazines hold up to be our thinness idols.

Of course McPhee deserves credit for talking about her struggle and her steps towards recovery. But putting her on the cover of a magazine like Shape doesn't really do any of that struggle justice -- especially when the feature article on her highlights the workout that made her a "lean, strong singing machine." Well, thanks Shape, for helping people recovering from eating disorders find ways to stay lean.

The mixed messages here are dismaying.  Supposedly we're meant to think that Katharine McPhee is inspiring girls to seek treatment for eating disorders and acknowledge they have a problem.  At the same time, magazines like Shape are what Katie Drummond calls "heroin for the eating disordered." They are little more than article after article on how to lose that extra ten pounds, get tighter abs, eat less, eat healthier, eat light, try such and such miracle diet food ... and especially when the recommendations change randomly from one week to the next (in January it might be almonds and pilates that'll shave off those last five pounds, in February its dark chocolate and surfing). All focus on the one narrow goal of thinness it seems these magazines aren't about fitness or health at all. They're about reinforcing the same, singular standard of beauty our society revolves around: thinness.

Putting Katharine McPhee on the cover in a bikini and doing a photo shoot that emphasizes her body and how she got lean does not seem to have much to do with eating disorder recovery.  In fact, it has everything to do with inciting girls to disordered eating: encouraging an obsession with body image, with staying thin, with having the perfect (lean) bod.

Photo credit: Kindofadraag