understand that life's no fairytale: it gets messy and people are broken and weird stuff happens. But, fear not – hope comes in the form of a new hairdo and seasonal wardrobe update. We LOVE tangible life-fixers. Think happy thoughts, people...First up in features is an eight-page Reportage piece devoted to the outspoken, eccentric, anti-establishment Queen of Punk Vivienne Westwood (fashion land's answer to The Mad Hatter), who once flashed the Queen, uses her clothing to air her political views, aims to shock with obscenity, is married to a supposed bisexual 25 years her junior and refers to fashion as a "life-enhancing activity". Not my cup of tea but quite the character.
Next we have 'Lethal But Legal: Why Pill Popping Is Australia's New Addiction', a six-page investigation. The use and abuse of anti-depressants has scored a fair amount of women's mag coverage over the past 12 months (Cosmo, Cleo, Glamour, ELLE... you name it) and Heath Ledger's death has added further fuel to the over-the-counter medication fire, resulting in several news reports about the use of prescription medication. Apparently, it's not just celebrities who are mixed up on meds: Professor John Saunders of the University of Queensland tells Marie Claire that "the real drug crisis gripping Australia" is prescription drug abuse (300,000 Aussies use anxiety-type medications while 75,000 regularly use heroin).
Awesome – if the media is to be believed, we are now a nation of binge drinkers AND pill poppers. Only, where once a "cup of tea, Bex and a good lie-down" was the recommended solution for chore-weary stay-at-home mothers (codeine – woo!) and stumbling home after a few beers at the pub was socially acceptable for blokes, we're retreating into the home and closing doors to satiate our daily worries, while rationalising the use of medication bought from the pharmacy because a doctor signed the script. Truth is, we're all a little guilty of using something unhealthy to medicate our worldly worries – ranging from coffee hits, cigarettes, taking laxatives, shopping on credit, scoffing Krispy Kremes and skipping meals to drinking alcohol, gambling and snorting coke – it's just that prescription meds are getting all the press.
Marie Claire suggests that prescription drug misuse doesn't discriminate. Sure, young blokes like Alex, who the mag reports takes his Xanax with Vodka for a high, but there are also stressed-out mothers mixing Nurofen Plus with prescription drugs and victims of accidents who require painkillers who become pill dependent. Marie Claire introduces us to 35-year-old Jeana Hutsell who developed a 60-pill-a-day oxycodone habit after undergoing an operation (she liked the way they made her feel "chattier, friendlier"), Geoff, whose female friend became addicted to opiate-based pain-killers after taking them in her teens for period pain and the late Mairead Costigan, then 30, who took her own life after taking insomnia medication (including Stilnox) for nine months.
The mag lists the medical side effects of pill abuse (ulcers, memory, organ damage, insomnia, nausea, death) and says GPs are concerned about limited controls around over-the-counter meds. It goes on to list the celebrities who have been known to use prescription drugs: Winona Ryder, Matthew Perry, Courtney Love, Nicole Richie, Eminem, Melanie Griffith, Kelly Osbourne... Furthermore, "Pharm parties" are now popular amongst teens in the US, "doctor shopping" is an easy way to access all the prescriptions you need to get by and the internet makes pill shopping super-easy.
Who's to blame? Doctors who prescribe medications without a full psychological assessment of the patient? The pharmaceutical companies? Gwenda Cannard of counselling centre Reconnexion tells the magazine it's society's insatiable craving for a quick-fix – that people see counselling as too hard and expensive, so they pop a pill not expecting to become addicted. The mag lists a bunch of help lines for addicts or friends of addicts, and we're encouraged to sign a petition on Facebook to ban Stilnox. What the mag doesn't ask is why we aren't resilient enough to cope with life without med assistance. Would a little spiritual and moral grounding, and less focus on the self, go some way to abating the issue (which is not to say there aren't people out there who genuinely need the help)?
Next up is 'La Dolce Visa', the story of two privileged American fraudsters who had everything but a sense of ethics going for them (a shocking cautionary tale showing how losing one's "moral centre" can quickly lead to the downward spiraling of one's life – a little lying, greed and exaggeration can snowball into a one-way ticket to goal); 'From Russia With Love' (put away your prejudices and summon all your non-judgmental willpower to read this one), takes us behind the scenes at a Russian seduction skill where women are taught to master the arts of erotic massage, fellatio, subtle manipulation and false praise to win the wealthy man of their dreams (it's a tough market out there: Russian women outnumber men by 10 million and there's slim pickings in the status department), which reminds me of the Sex and the City episode where Carrie is asked to speak at a conference about finding men, which reminds me that we Westerners aren't so different from the Russians; 'The Sex Secret I Can Never Tell My Partner' is three tales of sexual desires fulfilled by men other than the women's current partners (only one cheated); 'Trigger Happy', a pictorial spread of gun-happy Americans and their weapon collections; 'Accident or Assassination', which looks at the Diana conspiracy theories; and the 'Life Stories' section, which examines the strange and controversial lives of the six Mitford sisters.More positive features include 'Home Economics', which profiles four women who've made a whole lotta money out of property (warning: this smart bunch may depress you, though Cheyanne Brae provides some hope: she was once $52,500 in debt and now owns $2 million of property!); 'Stylists To The Stars', which profiles four Hollywood stylists and examines the power of the personal stylist and asks whether they will continue to reign supreme; 'And Baby Makes Two', three emotional first-personal accounts of single motherhood; and 'Kylie', the one-page cover story promoting her new perfume, Showtime.
The Music review pages give us The Presets, Duffy, Portishead and Moby; Sarah Jessica Parker's new film, Smart People, gets a 4/10 from reviewer Vicky Roach ("an unsympathetic romantic comedy"); and Kathy Buchanan reviews the latest books, including Kate Jacobs' Comfort Food and The Young Widow's Book of Home Improvement by Virginia Lloyd.
Fashion spreads include 'Taking Shape' (the model looks like Selma Blair), 'Best in Show' (bold, bright, fun; dogs and accessories) and 'Simply Irresistible' (cue Robert Palmer song), where knits meet smart pants and tweed dresses. The 101 Ideas fashion pages have given me a strong urge to splurge, such is the simplicity of the styling (think dark denim, light denim, striped shirts, chunky knits) and relative affordability of the garb (Target providing most of the 'affordable' goods). I could make a shopping list as long as my arm from these pages alone... or, more practically, delve into the depths of my wardrobe to create similar looks, perhaps with a couple of new additions (like the $99 striped Jigsaw top, $280 Karen Walker striped knit and $489 Pepe Jeans jacket). I hope you love these pages as much as I do...
The fashion section also offers up a single page on Collette Dinnigan's lingerie collection for Target, an editor's choice of online buys and special section on shopping for your shape (the tall, petite, voluptuous, pear-shaped, boyish and hourglass are all given celebrity body examples for guidance). We're also given a 'shop smart' guide to the best labels to buy for our shapes, with each body type linked to a chain store, local designer and international designer (boyish? Try Cue, Scanlan and Theodore and Chanel; hourglass? Try Target, Carla Zampatti or Donna Karan).
The beauty section leads in with a hair special – the grand dame of beauty features – which includes three easy ways to update your 'do, 'the news in hues', 'blow-dry basics', a three-page makeover story (retro curls – eek!), and a complementary seven-page John Frieda promotion. Beauty also delves into scents (how to pick a perfume, which ones to buy...) and new products. I find Marie Claire's beauty quite formulaic, prosaic and lacking personality: unlike other high-end mags, there's nothing in the way of first-person features and stories questioning/looking at beauty outside the bubble. I'm not sure if this is a deliberate attempt to keep things simple and scientific (insert expert quote/product name here) or a clever means for satisfying advertisers while downplaying the role of beauty in our lives? Also of note – there are no health features this issue. Best left to mag stablemate Women's Health, a deliberate effort to abstain from bringing women's attention to their bodies or pages cut to make way for all those advertorial features?
The Lifestyle takes us inside the lavish homes of four designers (Betsey Johnson, Vanessa Bruno, Loulou de la Palaise and Christian Louboutin), shows off space-saving product solutions and tells us how to 'create an urban oasis', followed by a nine-page Domayne furniture ad feature, in which four women are given a budget to spend creating a room to their style: quite an interesting read! Fast Feasts are what food's all about and we're taken to six of the best bargain boutique hotels, from Bangkok to Naples.The 'It's All About You' section addresses love and marriage (think your relationship is marriage material? Here's a checklist!) and diary delegation (hire an entourage to pick up the fruit, walk your pooch, fetch the dry-cleaning, whip your body into shape, set career goals, back up your files and get the latest designer handbag.
Perhaps my favourite feature (probably because the writer's situation resonates with me) is 'Till Debt Do Us Part', by writer/editor Andrea Chapin, author of The Honeymoon's Over: True Stories of Love, Marriage and Divorce. In it, she talks about her struggle to cope with her husband's lack of income and their different financial priorities and how money comes to symbolise other issues in their relationship. Thankfully, she speaks about how they resolved their issue over time (and these things do take time) and concedes that she can only work on changing herself and her perceptions and that marriages take a whole lotta work.
Call me Pollyanna, but I like something a little uplifting with my magazines – and fashion doesn't count. I appreciate that Marie Claire delves into the real and complex lives of women, and the nitty-gritty of global and national health/human rights issues, but where are all the happy, fulfilled, life-loving souls? Where are the well-rounded role models for older women? The property tycoons are great, the single mums are amazingly resilient and Chapin's story is emotive and relatable, but I want some icing on my cake and new perfume won't suffice.
Overall excitement factor: 6
Feel-good factor: 1/2
Eye-candy rating: 4 (101 ideas – driving me to the shops)
The Stats
Issue: May 2008
Book size: 300 pages
Inside front cover: Giorgio Armani Code
Back cover: Chanel jewellery
FOB ads: Dior Addict, Elizabeth Arden Mediterranean, Lancome Paris, Miss Dior Cherie, Louis Vuitton...
Editor/Publisher: Jackie Frank
Published by: Pacific Magazines
Website: www.marieclaire.com.au
Yours truly,
Girl With a Satchel
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