I could not have been happier to see Amanda Clapp’s column (“Girlie magazines destroy teenage girls’ self-esteem,” SN 9/25). Too many girls these days fall victim to the traps set by the media. Seventeen, YM, Mademoiselle and other such magazines have been feeding trash to the minds of America’s young females for too long, and too many girls have spent far too much time obsessing over weight, makeup, clothes and what boys will think of them.

Rarely do we see larger women in these magazines which opt, instead, to set emaciation as the norm.

I’m sure that most of the female population at MSU can sympathize with the feelings of guilt I have had every time I have picked up a “girlie” magazine. These magazines reinforce the sexist ideals that women must be smaller than men and that they must do everything in their capacities to please men. In a society as supposedly as advanced as ours, it is disgusting to think that our nation’s young female minds are being coerced into the conviction that opinionated, free-thinking women are not desirable and that being fat is a fate worse than death. And it is ridiculous that so much time is spent poring over the quizzes in magazines that apparently determine your personality, when, in fact, these magazines seem to be stripping young women of every ounce of individuality they possess.

Young women, don’t let these magazines brainwash you into thinking that you are less valued or loved. It is your individuality that makes you special. Being fat is not the end of the world. And if your “crush” doesn’t like you, you’ll recover. I guarantee it.

Hayley Gaines
no-preference freshman