Quit listening to the magazine already

I was on my way to work this morning when I saw a woman wearing the ugliest purple lipstick.  My first thought was, “Someone read this months beauty magazine.”

I’m not against purple lipstick.  I’m not against trying anything new.  I am against doing something just because the magazine told you it’s the “New Thing” or the “Trend.”

Fire engine red lipstick was the cool thing for a while.  Yet fire engine red lipstick doesn’t and didn’t work for everyone.  You know who you are.  I saw a lot of catastrophes in New York.  You know who you are.  Just because the magazine told you it’s the “Trend” for now doesn’t mean it works for you.

I worked selling women’s shoes when I lived in Nashville.  Shut up!  I was just out of college and needed some extra cash so I picked up a second job.  When one night a woman came in the store, looked like she was in her late 50’s and wanted “What the 16 year old girls are wearing.”  This made me sad and I had to have a coworker help her because I couldn’t do it.  She could have picked up any shoe and I wouldn’t have thought anything of it but the fact that she had to have what the kids were wearing.  No.

Who sets these trends anyway?  Just because the magazine tells you red lipstick is what you should be wearing you mindlessly follow?  If Revlon gives the magazine a million dollars and says tell everyone our red lipstick is all the rage, you’re running out to buy it?  Yes, yes you will.  Because this is exactly how trends get started.  It’s marketing and selling to the masses.

I was standing outside the back doors of work wondering where my life had gone wrong, just as I do every night at work.  When one of our chefs walked out the door heading home.  I laughed and made a comment that his pants were too short.  He smiled and said, “No they’re not.”  Stood tall and marched on down the street.  That. That there is confidence, being you, accepting it and being proud of it.  That is what magazines should be selling.

It’s not just style.  It’s everything.  Remember when quinoa was the thing in culinary?  It was in every damn magazine and then in every restaurant.  You couldn’t walk in a restaurant without quinoa being in damn near every dish.  Every year the magazine comes out with the new “Super Food.”  And you, me and everyone else has to have it.

I love mens magazines too.  Every month there is a new ab workout because in last months magazine that ab workout was bad but they got it right this month.  Until next months magazine comes out and then last months ab workout was shit again too.  Then there is the yearly issue as to how a man should act and dress.  You know, because if you can’t afford the $300 shoes they tell you that you should be wearing then you’re not a man.

Whether it’s clothes, food, music or the new place to travel.  We all feel we have to wear, eat, listen and travel where the magazine tells us.

I love magazines.  They are great to flip through, see new things and get ideas or see what’s new but don’t let the magazine think for you.  People follow magazines like a religion and just like religion… Nah, I won’t go there right now.

Quit listening to the magazines already!