The-F-Word.org

While in line at the grocery store last night, I noticed Kate Winslet gracing the cover of Good Housekeeping.

Winslet, who has been increasingly vocal about her refusal to lose weight to conform to the Hollywood stick-figure ideal, seems a natural cover model as any for the magazine touting itself as “the source millions of women trust.”

An accomplished actress and mother, Winslet is a winner of a BAFTA and a five-time Oscar nominee. Winslet, in fact, broke the record as being the youngest person to receive such nominations.

But despite Winslet’s glowing professional achievements, the magazine’s focus is still on her weight. “I don’t worry about weight anymore,” says Winslet, quoted in large print. “How a refreshingly real star and devoted mom stays level-headed in an image-crazed industry,” the magazine goes on.

Yet while Winslet offers a ray of sanity in this thin-idolized culture that should be lauded, the magazine’s sing-it-sister copy is hopelessly rendered moot by the larger, overshadowing print above: “The No-Hunger Diet: Stop starving, start losing.”

Good Housekeeping readers are encouraged by Winslet to appreciate their bodies and reject an unobtainable physical ideal and then flip to the next page that encourages them to do just the opposite. Such double-barreled messages strike me as ironic as other women’s magazines that put larger-than-life sized pictures of chocolate decadence desserts on its covers along with articles and tips on dieting.

Winslet’s message is a positive and healthy one. But on the cover Good Housekeeping, it’s merely lost among words.