SELF Magazine Making Fun of Runners in Tutu's

Updated on March 31, 2014
K.L. asks from Annandale, VA
13 answers

Has anyone else seen this? I'm just spreading the word here because it's so enraging!! I just think everyone should know about it. My PSA for the day. I'll post the article in SWH. Runners and WOMEN, unite!

EDIT: Ok, I guess "enraged" was a bit strong. I'm actually more "annoyed and sad." And I get what you're saying, Shannon, about it going in their cutesy feature section. But cute or not, myth busting or not, putting someone down is never the right thing to do. The caption of the photo read, "A racing tutu epidemic has struck NYC's Central Park, and it's all because people think these froufrou skirts make you run faster, Now, if you told us they made people run from you faster, maybe we would believe it." That's just plain not nice. Even if Momika wasn't battling cancer and raising money for a little girls charity, it's still not nice! No runner out there says she is we earring tutu because it makes her run faster. She's wearing it because it makes her (and sometimes those around her) happy.

And MandA M - haha, well, maybe you're right. Life would be great if we all started to make fun of one another.

What can I do next?

  • Add yourAnswer own comment
  • Ask your own question Add Question
  • Join the Mamapedia community Mamapedia
  • as inappropriate
  • this with your friends

Featured Answers

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

L.S.

answers from San Francisco on

PS nightmare for the magazine at this point. She makes them to donate $ to charity and she is dealing with brain cancer and she seems super nice.

I never like women's magazines that have that frenemy tone. I don't like it in people either.

I used to dance (ballet) and I am not offended by folks were in tutus. I think it is fun for them and their choice. Ballerinas are incredibly fit. The tutu might seem to diminish the strength and power that comes from years of training, but I see it as an interesting contrast: brute physical strength and ability and then the softest, most feminine article of clothing you can dream up. I like that. It is interesting.

If I had a daughter who ran I would get her one. My son runs cross-country and one mom made them superhero capes for one of their races. They had a blast.

6 moms found this helpful

More Answers

M.M.

answers from Chicago on

Oh good lord...really?
Well, I suppose it wouldn't be your average day if someone wasn't totally enraged about something completely innocuous and irrelevant.

8 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

P.M.

answers from Portland on

Hah! The purpose of this or any magazine is to make money, and fashion-related advertising is surely an important revenue stream. So, up with trendy, high-tech, expensive athletic fashions, and if you have to shame women for wearing something different, hey, why not?

This is why not – embarrassing fallout. But it turns out that it's possibly a good thing! Look at the attention this has brought to Monica Allen's fund-raising tutus! And how many women are snorting at the fashionistas! Gotta love it.

7 moms found this helpful

T.F.

answers from Dallas on

I don't subscribe or purchase the SELF magazine. I have had it in the past and liked it.

I am surprised they did this... you'd think they would be praising the women and encouraging them...... Wow They royally messed up on this one.

5 moms found this helpful

S.T.

answers from Houston on

I only wondered how many responses you would you get before someone nixed your outrage as being out of context with a "why-can't-we-all-get-along-and-make-fun-of-each-in-a-group-hug-kind-of-way-since-the-magazine-didn't-mean-anything-rude?" reasoning.

I put myself in the tutu wearing lady's shoes and I can see precisely how and why she was annoyed. Rude's rude. I think it is way overdue for folks to stop making excuses for acting like insensitive clods. No, we can't and won't make everyone happy all the time but this didn't even look like a thinly veiled attempt at acting civilly. When did it become so socially acceptable to trod on each other's feelings?

5 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

E.M.

answers from Phoenix on

Wow, SELF planted their feet firmly in their mouth with this one...how embarassing.

4 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

S.R.

answers from Los Angeles on

I didn't think it was SO bad. If I understand correctly they used it not to shame women who run marathons in costume, but as part of their cutesy little "2 truths and a lie" type feature. A section where they have 3 random fitness related stories and only one of them is true. So it went along with one of the "fake" anecdotes about the new trend of running in tutus because it makes one run faster. Just silly, not outright offensive to those in the picture, IMO.

I mean, from the level of outrage, I was expecting it to be a direct insult to the runners pictured, like "Do's and Don'ts of marathon running- don't mock the seriousness of the event by wearing a lame costume".

But I guess I don't blame the lady for automatically assuming that SELF would be using a photo of her running a marathon to glorify her awesome running skills and endurance.

PS why is no one in the ballet world "enraged" that their performance attire is being used in such an irreverent manner by women running marathons????

4 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

J.C.

answers from New York on

I've always hated Self Magazine. Now I know I've been right all along. :) Thanks for posting.

4 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

A.S.

answers from Boca Raton on

Oh my gosh! Thank you for bringing this to my attention. That is absolutely ridiculous.

Will never buy that magazine.

:(

3 moms found this helpful

S.T.

answers from Washington DC on

i'm with you. and i am, if not enraged, really really pissed. i've never subscribed to SELF so they're not losing anything in me but i'll certainly never look at it now.
most of the runs i run in have people dressed up to support various charities. i love it. maybe i need a tutu!
maybe i'm a little sensitive because i'm one of the folks on the receiving end of this type of scorn, but in my case it's from snotty runners themselves. i had to recycle a copy of 'runners world' given to me by my BIL to help give me help training for my upcoming marathon. since i don't hang out with the greyhound crowd, i was unaware that anyone WOULDN'T be supportive of an older, overweight woman taking on this challenge. but apparently there a lot fast runners out there who feel that folks like me are 'dragging down the sport' with our slow times, and that to 'preserve the purity of marathons' no one who can't do a qualifying run in less than 5 hours should be permitted to run. i was surprised at myself at how badly i took that. i'm happy to say that there was a backlash, but mostly from people who are running 6.5 hour marathons, not many proposing the sensible truth that anyone who finishes the damn run is worthy of at least a little regard. in fact, a fat slow old marathoner is actually, maybe, just a little MORE heroic than than a zipster!
but there are always those who are eager to tear someone else down. i'm glad this lovely woman stood up for herself, and her tutu.
khairete
S.

2 moms found this helpful
Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

J.C.

answers from Anchorage on

Self Mag should be ashamed of themselves

2 moms found this helpful

D.S.

answers from Norfolk on

Hi, K.:
It's a shame that our society has gotten so far away from common decency. Not only gotten away from common decency but also far away from our social contract.

I weep for America!
D.

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

R.M.

answers from Cumberland on

Some people just don't get the whole "solidarity" thing-recently, you probably heard about the little nine year old girl in Colorado (of all places) who shaved her head to support her friend who had lost her hair due to chemo. Then there was the young man in high school who dyed his Mohawk (wrong on so many levels) pink to show support for his mother who has breast cancer-both were kicked out of school-the little girl was allowed to attend after the school board voted (one dissent) and I'm not sure about the high school student. The perception is that showing support for one person or group is not showing support for those not in the group-that's "discrimination". Read "The KinderGarden of Eden" -it explains everything-and I do mean everything.

For Updates and Special Promotions
Follow Us

Related Questions