I recently watched a powerful documentary called Miss Representation ( http://bit.ly/MissRepTrailer) on dvd. It is well worth seeing particularly if you are currently or are planning on raising girls in our goofy culture. It’s a secular movie but the values and hopes it proposes are things I think all sane people can agree on. It’s premise is that our media is training young girls (and everyone else to a certain degree) to focus on the wrong things at the expense of the right things; essentially keeping over half our population locked into second class citizenship. This got me thinking about a simple issue that I’ve wondered about since I opened Hair By Joey.
It’s practically law that salons stock gossip mags like US and People. Due to the expectation and the obvious enjoyment my clientele (who invariably reach for those ones first) get out of these tabloids, I’ve complied and always kept my subscriptions up. Sadly, due to competition from skankier magazines like Star and O.K. I’ve watched (over my clients shoulders) as through the years as these two magazines have become less about interesting stories and more about celebrity gossip. After seeing this movie and taking the pledge on their website to help fight for healthier monitoring of media, I’m feeling more torn about continuing to make these magazines available in my salon. I don’t want to take away a guilty pleasure from my hard working clients who like everyone deserve a break once in a while and who look forward to “catching up” with all the juicy stories and glitzy images. At the same time I feel conflicted about making available magazines that sell an image of beauty and life that I couldn’t disagree more with.
This got me thinking it might be fun to take an anonymous poll amongst you, my clientele and friends. I’m honestly curious what you think so please, click here http://www.facebook.com/HairbyJoeySeattle to jump to my Facebook Page and cast your vote!
Thanks!