Saturday 14 May 2022 02:58 AM How Lisa Wilkinson glosses over the truth about Dolly and Cleo trends now

Is Lisa Wilkinson living in some kind of alternate reality?

The Project host's latest rallying cry against women's magazines and 'trashy gossip websites' that 'bring out the worst in human nature' is somewhat surprising for one simple fact: She was in charge of Dolly and Cleo for 15 years.

These hugely influential magazines were built upon images of conventionally attractive, predominantly white females alongside articles that encouraged body hatred, pitted women against each other and sent the constant message 'you're not quite good enough'.

Under Wilkinson's leadership, both magazines reached record sales and made huge profits with hundreds of thousands of Australian women reading them every month.

But it appears Wilkinson would prefer to keep this inconvenient truth stashed away in the archives. 

According to The Australian, Wilkinson gave a scathing assessment of the publications at a recent event in Melbourne to promote her autobiography.   

 'Every time we pick up one of those
 magazines in a doctor's waiting room and every time we click on that salacious link to a trashy gossip website, not believing the ridiculous emotion-charged headline but clicking on that link nonetheless, a click means you like it, so it only brings more of it,' she said.

'In these faces women exist only to be ogled at, picked on, ridiculed, pitted against each other, laughed at or scorned. It's designed to make us feel better if we are having a bad day, but it doesn't, it makes us feels worse and it simply brings out the worst in human nature.

'It's part of a system to weaken and suppress women and we've been witnessing it for decades.' 

It's fine to have these opinions, but wouldn't it be more convincing if Wilkinson acknowledged the significant role she played in this 'system of female suppression'? How her editing directly led to more ads featuring products that promised to 'improve or fix' women's appearances, and as a nice sidekick - made lots of money for her bosses, including the late Kerry Packer? 

Wilkinson was editor of Dolly for five years in the 1980s. The magazine featured attractive, slim clear-skinned teenagers on its covers and in its pages. It was marketed to Australian girls aged 13 to 17 - highly impressionable ages where self-esteem and identity are being formed.  

Content included 'Last Chance Swimsuit Shape-Up'; 'Dieting Myths - The Things You Believe Could Make You Fat!'; 'Fade Freckles From Your Life - Forever!'; 'Amazing 7-Day Binge Repair Diet'; 'Your Last Chance To Be A Dolly Cover Girl'; 'Six Stunning Make-Overs', plus countless more.

Sure, Dolly provided important medical advice that 'girls were too embarrassed to ask about' in its famous Dolly Doctor section, and stories about how to navigate bullying and friendships. 

But surrounding this content were images of traditionally beautiful females and accompanying articles and ads that supported this ideal. Its modelling competitions pitted girls against each other in the most unsupportive ways.