resolve
your arguments with your friends, and what men mean
when they say, “I’ll call you”. But
somehow, the attraction (to the lipstick, the men, and
the magazine) never fades.
Reading women’s magazines
can become something of an obsession. Cosmopolitan
runs two versions that are available here in Pakistan:
the British and American edition. Although both cost
in excess of five hundred rupees, and often run the
same articles in different months, ninety percent of
its readers tend to buy both versions religiously, month
after month, afraid that they might miss out on some
extremely vital fashion pointer, or a picture of Cameron
Diaz looking like she was run over by a bulldozer (no,
that’s just what she looks like without makeup).
Libraries in Karachi report that the magazines most
likely to be stolen from their premises are Vogue
and Ladies Home Journal, and I have personally
never seen a copy of a magazine in a library that didn’t
have at least some of its pages ripped out.
However, many critics claim that
this fascination with women’s magazines mean that
women are easily led creatures who have to rely on the
advice of so-called experts to lead any area of their
life with some measure of success, or else they would
collapse into Bridget Jones wannabes, eating moldy cheese
and unable to sustain anything other than a dysfunctional
relationship. This is patently untrue: women who read
these magazines are successful people in their everyday
lives – if they weren’t, they probably wouldn’t
be able to afford these magazines to begin with. Most
women see magazines as entertainment or diversion,
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