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Perhaps we should all read ladymags with such expressions of contemptuous incredulity as British journalist Tanya Gold displays here. Actually, just read her piece in today's Guardian in which Gold replicates Cathy Alter's much-discussed project of living by the advice of women's magazines. Of course, Alter was dead-serious, whereas Gold has this to say about Vogue: "The accompanying photograph shows a woman with two hairstyles on her head. The first has been stolen from the corpse of Maria von Trapp. The other is the bottom half of a squirrel." She also has some choice words for breast exfoliation, sterling silver jar lids, and xylophone-playing Swiss masseuses. Seriously, check it out. More »
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Cathy Alter's life was a mess. She was divorced, unhappy, lost, etc. So she spent under 200 bucks and in one year, she was greatly improved. The gimmick? She used women's magazines to get herself back on track. "Women's magazines definitely have a bad rap, but… I looked at them as being full of hope, like they were showing me what this perfect life could look like," Alter says. "I sat down and wrote this list of what I wanted, the changes I wanted to make, and they really did resemble these cover lines you see on the front of women's magazines." Now she's happier! And, as the above clip from the Today show insinuates, more importantly: Married! And she has a new book: Up For Renewal: What Magazines Taught Me About Love, Sex, and Starting Over. Why did Cathy think Cosmopolitan, Glamour and In Style would help her to cope? More »
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