Sunday, August 28

Proper or prudish?

Black plastic wrappers around magazines like Playboy would seem extreme in Europe, but are common in the States. I suppose I understand the practice. I really don't need or want to see boobs when I'm buying a pack of bubble gum.

But my grocery store seems to have taken this practice to a whole new level.
Really, Publix? Really?

I lifted the modesty panels, just to see what could possibly be so shocking that it needed a cover. (Curiosity is either my strong point or my weakness. You decide.)

Here's what I found:
Apparently the September cover of Oxygen is inappropriate for the grocery store checkout line.

I'm so confused! Remember, this is the Florida panhandle. Standard summer attire for men is shorts. Only. From the backyard to the bayou and certainly out in public there are nearly-naked men everywhere here in the summer. Summer attire for women is a bit more modest. But while exercising outdoors the uniform for Florida ladies is shorts + sports bra. How else can a girl run in this heat?

So I can see my neighbors running around in various states of undress, but I can't see a photo of the same attire on the cover of a magazine?

And, more importantly, Florida's panhandle is in the nation's obesity alley. In nearby Alabama and Mississippi one third of adults are obese. Perhaps we should put modesty panels over the chocolate bars at the checkout line, not the fitness magazines.

Am I wrong to be shocked?

Is this proper? Or prudish?

4 comments:

  1. That's disturbing, actually. Do they cover the men's health mags as well?

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  2. I did not notice any men's health magazines at all at the checkout. (I may swing through the magazine isle next week just to be sure).

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  3. That seems a bit extreme to have them covered up like that.

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  4. One woman (in a different discussion on this topic) told me that she was "glad they are covered" because she has a teenage son and doesn't want him seeing women in bikinis. (My Sociology Instructor brain had so many questions about that line of logic, but I managed to keep my thoughts to myself!)

    I will say: I find it sad that we don't cover up images of violence in newspapers or video games. But we do cover up athletes' bodies.

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