How Cosmo Culture Creates a Synthetic Reality

My mouth hung open as I exclaimed, "I cannot believe this crap!" This may seem like a normal response to many things, but not for a person comfortably watching cable news, right?

I can't remember what channel I was watching at the time, but it doesn't really matter. The anchor or talking head of the show was discussing the women of Hollywood and how they deal with body image. To add another cringe, the online poll posed this question: "Do celebrities make you feel fat?"

No, actually when I see the Victoria's Secret advertisements I feel like I compare point for point to Heidi Klum. Nah, I never wish I looked like Kira Knightly or Cameron Diaz ... sigh.

What the hell kind of poll question is this? Is this really news? I guess we could argue whether this really a column or not also, but I'm the writer here, so don't worry, this is a column, and I will get to my point.

To top it all off, the segment ended with Uma Thurman. Uma was asked really tough questions such as how she can be so comfortable with herself, blah, blah blah.

Has anyone seen Uma? Oh, I don't know, it must be tough being tall, skinny and blonde ... that's just so far from the societal ideal ... And Uma's response - it is tough, and she's not comfortable all the time.

If Uma has troubles, let's think about the average woman. According to a Seattle Times article from August 27, the average woman is a size 14, and the fashion industry is only now trying to accommodate to these sizes.

Oh, and "average" is a lot of times synonymous for "plus size."

That's nice.

It's time for women of all ages to take control back, to gain more self esteem and to take a stand.

This means no more Cosmo, ladies.

I'm sorry but if you really read that magazine, you can tell it's not helping, it's harboring.

If the only thing you are interested is getting guys in the sack and then having them treat you like a piece of meat, go for it.

Men, you are not out of this. I know many men are socialized into thinking women are something to look at, but we have brains. I know, wow, huh? Like, totally.

And when we get really smart, we don't give a crap about how much of our cleavage is showing to your liking or how much of our behinds are hanging out for your enjoyment. Don't get me wrong, if you're comfortable with yourself, fine.

If we quit consuming the culture that is hurting our women and girls, we can start to fight this problem. Many girls by the age of 12 begin to worry about weight and appearance; this is according to Maggie Vlazny, MSW of Connecticut. It has gotten out of control. You know it's a real issue when Pink devotes an entire song to "Stupid Girls."

Let's smarten up ladies and gents.