Niki Shisler

Heat magazine have, for the FOURTH week running, run with a cover story on body size.  "Skinny Celebs";"Curvy Stars"; "Best and Worst Bikini Bodies" - body fascism is alive and well and living in Heat Towers (sic).  They dress it up as 'concern' but it's relentless.  Women like Nicole Richie or Jessica Simpson have every pound gained or lost, charted, photographed and analysed by everyone from fashion "experts" to health professionals.  Then, the second they show any sign of becoming as obsessed with their weight as Heat clearly is, they are subjected to even more critical commentary.

A look at Heat's own forums shows that many of their own readers are sick of this absurd one-track-mind 'journalism', so why do they do it?  Two reasons: firstly it's cheap.  The same feature, usually with the same pictures that have been used (and paid for) by the magazine already, can be rehashed endlessly by a staff writer, and can fill any number of pages.  The second reason is that, despite the whining of the Heat forum, it sells.  People - women - buy this shit.  Again and again and again.  Here's a suggestion.  Don't do it.  If enough people refuse to buy any magazine that sticks a body-size story on the cover, they'll soon get the message.