Body anxiety: mummies and men

Do you avoid bread and pasta at night, exercise like a freak so you can eat out without feeling guilty, have exhausting mind battles every morning (sleep in or schlep to boot camp?) and ritually examine nutritional panels on pre-packaged foods to determine fat and carb content? So does Madison's male columnist Dan Rookwood!

Rookwood is a not unattractive, hetero, 29-year-old Aussie male who gets anxious about unburned carbs turning into fat. He has coined the term 'aesthetic athletics' to describe the style of exercise he practises to maintain his weight (he has an inherent fear of the double chin) and exert some existential control over his possibly meaningless life ("my hang-ups about age are very tightly wound up with a gnawing sense that... if I'm not careful, life will pass me by"). Fat is not just a feminist issue.

While Rookwood's vain pursuit of the body beautiful doesn't involve some of the extreme practises undertaken by otherwise super-intelligent women to lose weight (ultimately resulting in brain-cell suckage and misery), there's definite borderline eating disorder behaviour happening here. And Rookwood isn't alone in his chick-like obsessive behaviour. In cities the world over, men are putting themselves through gruelling exercise regimes in pursuit of Brad Pitt pecs or passing on bread baskets to maintain that lean Adam Brody aesthetic.

According to the Eating Disorders Foundation of Victoria, 17 per cent of men are dieting at any one time, one in 10 anorexics are male, 4 per cent of men purge their food (not just after a night on the turps) and many more are exercise dependent, though, as the Foundation notes, men aren't likely to seek treatment for their disorderly eating/exercising behaviour/psychological issues, which means the figures are probably much higher. The major differences between male and female eating disorder sufferers are that most males are concerned with gaining bulk, not losing it, and men are less prone to emotional eating. Men are also more likely to exercise to excess to work off a pub lunch than go on a crash diet.

Rookwood may be in the minority but he must be given props for discussing his weight control issues in a public forum (albeit under the guise of concern about ageing). While you can't open a women's mag without reading a story on weight loss or body image, men aren't likely to read about food issues in the pages of FHM (correct me if I'm wrong, please), while mags like Men's Health usually only serve to put the focus on the male body and bedside stamina.

Flick a few pages on and we get a different spin on the female body image angle – an excerpt from Kellie Hush's book My Body After Baby. It's enough to put any vain Jane off pregnancy. Pip Edwards (designer and partner of Ksubi's Dan Single), 27, (above) is like Australia's answer to Nicole Richie – and I'm quite sure her thoughts on her post-baby life and body would be similar to Richie's. Edwards couldn't wait to be un-pregnant, tried to squeeze back into her size-8 jeans after the birth but couldn't ("I can't believe I was ever that thin"), avoided the beach for fear of showing her stretch marks, gave up on breastfeeding to suit her lifestyle (much to the dismay of relatives) and has now accepted the new shape of her body (somewhat reluctantly). For Hush, who fell pregnant when she was the deputy editor of Harper's Bazaar (fatness is so not fashion), says "The extra weight was one thing, but it was the loss of control over my body and my loss of confidence in myself that shocked me the most... I wanted my life and my body to be the same as before I had a baby... I didn't know how to deal with the physical changes." We chicks want to control everything!

For women in the public eye, or working in the fashion/PR/media industries, for whom daily exposure to images of perfectly toned celebrities (even ones who've given birth), there is definitely external pressure, which is internalised, to return their bodies to their pre-baby condition. For some women it appears easy – I know several new mums whose bodies are even smaller than they were pre-baby (how much of this is down to diet/exercise/self-control I don't know) – but for others, it's a slow and hard process. So how to we best prepare for the inevitable weight gain, wobbly birth-body aftermath and give our bodies a reasonable amount of time to return, somewhat, to their natural form? Should there be some kind of psychological coaching in addition to pre-natal classes for the modern body-conscious woman? Or should we all just 'get real and deal' – and be less body obsessive pre-baby?

Aesthetically speaking, this issue of Madison is rocking. Even in her pink cupcake dress, Heidi Klum looks divine amongst the eye-colour-matchy foliage; I have a major crush on the 'Urban Edge' (very Paris Vogue), 'Happy Ever After' (confetti, butterflies, bird cages, gnomes and flowers = gorgeous) and the CheapChic fashion spreads (can totally see Mary-Kate or Ashley stepping out in those outfits); and the full-page shot of Nathalie Agussol's book shelf is giving me heart goosebumps. In fact, I enjoyed the entire fashion section, from 'It Girl' Chloe Sevigny (okay, she's overexposed right now, but whatevs), to the Style News page, Fashion Notebook with Susien Chong, the pages of 'Fancy Flats' and patent leather bags, and 'Age Workshop' (leather, military chic and body-con in your 20s; trench coats, man-style suiting and shoe boots in your 30s; black, knits, ballet flats and luxe tones if you're 40+).

The beauty section covers winged eyeliner, bright eye shadows and treatments/products/tips for keeping your skin looking its best in your 20s (protect and prevent – oops, too late for me), 30s (illuminate, hydrate and erase fine lines) and 40s (lift, smooth and revitalise), with the lovely Ali MacGraw pictured at each stage. Futher on we get 'Fountain of Youth', a story about the cosmetic procedures we can blow our cash on in the pursuit of facial and body perfection.

I had mixed feelings about the features. I'm not a fan of the 'Crime' stories, 'Roadtrip' made me feel nothing but loathing towards the English backpacker and the interview with Justin Timberlake was adequate but not revealing. 'Why Can't I Be Famous?' rounded up the celeb-bogans with commentary on our fascination with self-promoting white trash and I skipped over parts of the 'Mystery' story (Crime and Mystery, I feel, are what the mag could do without – how about some stories of global significance and/or more biographical pieces; or would that be too Marie Claire?).
The Hollywood story is a day-in-the-life type piece profiling a producer, actress and screenwriter, which I enjoyed, 'Life Break Downs in Your 20s, 30s, 40s+' is fairly innocuous (will induce only minor ageing anxiety), and 'Madison Manual' is a comprehensive guide to making a difference. The issue rounds out with yet another editorial on Going Grey (pertinent as this is the magazine's age issue) and Tina Arena's assertion that she hasn't had any work done (unlike, ah-hem, certain other signing Aussie exports). Heidi Kulm, Germany's answer to Tyra, is also likeable in text – and there's the added bonus that her post-baby body wasn't the Sports Illustrated image of its former self (why this makes her more likeable is testimony to where the female species is at right now).


Paula Joye's editor's letter also resonated with me. She talks about how she felt about the "binge on information" she suffered after Heath Ledger's death thanks to the media machine (which, of course, she admits to being a part of). It left her "feeling uncomfortable and slightly ashamed." Joye propses that we learn to self-edit what we expose ourselves to.

I do often wonder how self-editing our exposure to women's magazines and celebrity media might affect our self-image and overall happiness.

Overall excitement factor: 8/9
Feel-good factor: 2 for the body-image anxiety affect constant reporting on body image has (perhaps if we tuned in/focused on more important things, we would get over our superficial hang-ups?); however, the 'Make a Difference' story is well-meaning and inspiring.
Eye-candy factor: 5 (loved the fashion section and the Ralph Lauren feature, too)

The Stats
Issue: March 2008
Book size: 268 pages
Cover price: $8.20 AUD
Inside front cover: L'Oreal
Back cover: Dior
Front-of-book ads: Ralph Lauren, Clinique Dramatically Different, Dior Capture cream, Elizabeth Arden Prevage anti-aging night cream (is there a theme here?), Kerastase...
Editor: Paula Joye
Publisher: ACP Magazines/PBL Media
Website: www.madisonmag.com.au

Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel