About the October issue of Redbook. Well, part of it.

Today I got my October issue of Redbook in the mail, and learned a valuable lesson about research.

I have been a subscriber for about 6 months or so. I like this magazine, and can easily read it cover-to-cover without skipping through it, like I sometimes do with magazines like Cosmopolitan--it applies more to single women--or Marie Claire--I'm too poor for their fashion--or magazines that focus mostly on parenting (yeah... not a parent, either). While Redbook does also feature all that stuff, I feel that the variety that their magazine has applies better to my current life, and is more focused on the balancing act that adults do. Redbook is good for those of us who are married or otherwise not-single, whether you have children or not. Then again, I'm a person who enjoys reading parenting stuff, too, as a way of preparing for becoming one myself... whenever that may be. So Redbook is perfect for me, because it focuses on the more practical, day-to-day lives of actual women who aren't *only* concerned with learning about the hottest sex positions, luring in a man, and what the best drink of the season is. Yeah, it definitely covers those topics too, but it doesn't seem to be so damn desperate while doing so, and I can enjoy reading those articles without feeling slightly skeevy. Not gonna lie, though--I also have a subscription to Marie Claire (got a deal for getting that and Redbook together through Amazon.com) and I always pick up the newest issue of Cosmo in stores. It's a habit now, and The Hubby will even ask "Do you have that one?" On second thought, maybe I'm not the only one reading it... **(That means go to the ** at the bottom of the page real quick, but then you should definitely come back up here. I shouldn't have to explain things.)

In any case, Redbook's my favorite. But this time when I grabbed it out of my mailbox I was disappointed to see Jillian Michaels on the cover with the quote "I would sacrifice anything to be a mother." As a disclaimer, I do not watch much TV these days, especially reality shows, and so although I know who she is and what she does I have never watched a single episode of any of her shows. Apparently she's excited to be branching out to daytime TV, and good for her for fulfilling that dream. My disappointment was because the first thing to pop into my head when seeing that quote was "Yeah, she'd sacrifice anything but her flat belly." For those of you non-link-clickers, here's what I'm talking about from her 2010 interview with Women's Health:

She also hopes to have kids someday, saying, "I'm going to adopt." One of the reasons: Jillian admits to having an aversion to pregnancy, the result of being an overweight kid. "I can't handle doing that to my body," she explains. "Also, when you rescue something, it's like rescuing a part of yourself."

And you know what? Bravo for her for wanting to adopt, and according to the Redbook article, she's been in the process for quite a while now. I hope it works out for her soon, because it's a heartbreaking process, and she's definitely frustrated because she thought it would be easier than this. As it should be for people trying to rescue kids from a messed up system. I don't care why she wants to adopt, I wasn't one of the people that got all up-in-arms over her apparently wanting to adopt so she can keep her figure. Didn't care, at least she was honest. But my first response was still basically a snort/smirk when I saw that quote on the front of my beloved magazine, because of the, ahem... contradictory previous remark she had made, and because of my tendency to be a smartass. It made me wonder if anyone else was making that same connection, or if there was any further information. You know how the media has a tendency to spread the sensational but keep the corrections on the DL if it makes them look like dicks for posting the original story.

Sooo... OFF TO THE INTERNET!!!

I discovered that after the uproar over that interview, she clarified her statement, which she says was misconstrued. Although she did say in the interview with Momlogic that she had admitted that her having previously been overweight could be a part of why she's leery of getting pregnant, the primary reason is a much bigger deal, and she didn't say anything about it to Women's Health: She has endometriosis and PCOS, and has been told she would require surgery in order to be able to get pregnant. She says THAT'S what she couldn't handle doing to her body. And you know what? I believe it.

Endometriosis and PCOS are no joke, I have friends with both and know from talking with them how much of a struggle having children is when you're dealing with those conditions. I whole-heartedly support Michaels's decision to adopt in the face of that issue, and I understand why she wouldn't necessarily feel the need to come right out with that in the original interview. It's personal, and it's most likely a bit of a sore subject for her. I'm one person who thinks celebrities aren't required to share every aspect of their personal life and health, nor do I generally care. At the same time, it's a shame that she's more afraid to admit to a fertility issue than to admit that the weight gain might be a part of why she's hesitant to get pregnant. 

At the beginning of this post I said that I learned a valuable lesson about research. Here's what I learned: Do your freaking research if something bothers you. It's okay to have an immediate smirk/snort reaction due to your general state of smartassery, but get more information before publicly hating on someone you've never met. I was all ready to be a total dick and slam Redbook for putting that quote on the cover (Still, though, I bet others thought the same thing if they didn't hear about the clarification--or maybe even if they did--and I'm kinda irritated that Redbook said nothing about the "controversy" in their interview...), but I researched it myself so I wouldn't be an ass *unnecessarily* to Ms. Michaels herself for being a skinny-bitch liar. And since I have enough reasonable doubt to believe she wasn't only concerned about baby weight, I'll let it slide with a heartfelt "Good luck with the adoption process. And I don't think you're just some skinny-bitch liar, like SOME people might."

However, I will clarify this and say perhaps a different quote could have been used on the cover? One that wouldn't spark such a reaction (and a blog post) from an inquiring mind? It may even have prevented the possible negative reader feedback the magazine may receive on that topic. Of course, there's also the possibility that I'm the only person in the entire world that cared, or noticed. In which case, carry on, and I'll continue to research things that make me go "hmmm..."

**And please note, although the first part of this post may seem like a freaking ad for Redbook, it's not. I'm not getting paid for it, wasn't asked to post about it, and not trying to wrangle any comments or free shit from them. This was all my opinion, because something bothered me. And if you feel differently, or the same, about any of it, feel free to comment!