'Figure' Magazine Caters to Reality

With 65% of American women wearing size 12 or larger and unable to wear any of the fashions displayed in Vogue, Elle, W, or Harper's Bazaar, Figure Magazine is just the ticket. Figure, launched this week, is a new 300,000 circulation magazine designed for the plus-size woman. Plus size just sounds so unattractive but it is a reflection of today's reality. Women are not Kournikova sized.

Brinsights LLC is the publisher of the lifestyle magazine which will include articles on shopping, makeovers, and etiquette. The magazine has sold 68,000 copies in its first four days on newsstands.

It's an admirable effort but the downside is that people continue to aspire to be what they are not. It's human nature. A person always wants to be better (read skinnier) than they are. Or sexier. That is why the Vogue's of the world are so successful. They show the unachievable. The goal that may never be reached yet it motivates (yes, in unhealthy ways sometimes) people to aspire to a higher goal. While there is nothing wrong with facing reality, readers of Figure may experience lost sense of aspiration and long for, again, reading about the unachievable.