The Bloat

The Bloat is a popular magazine focused on relationships and sex, health, careers, self-improvement, celebrities, as well as fashion and beauty. And scandals. It's printed on shiny paper and the photographs are also shiny.
The magazine, and in particular its cover stories, have become more sexually explicit in tone, and covers have models wearing revealing clothes. Kroger, America's largest grocery chain, used to cover up The Bloat at checkout stands because of complaints about sexually explicit headlines. The UK edition of The Bloat, which began in 1972, was well known for sexual explicitness, with strong sexual language, male nudity and coverage of such subjects as rape. In 1999 BloatGIRL!, a spinoff magazine targeting a teenage female audience, was created for international readership, but closed in December 2008.
Real-world stories are recounted ("Bloat Confidential") first-hand by survivors, safety tips for risky or dangerous situations (such as living alone) accompany stories of hidden risks, health myths and urban legends are debunked. Sections such as "Health Check", which has featured articles such as "Bloat Gyno" and "Your Body", both have entertainment value and help women understand their bodies and even recognize possible health problems. Less serious regular features include "Guy Confessions" (pages where men share embarrassing stories or shameful things they've done); celebrities; "You, Even Better", which contains a wide variety of fun facts and advice.
==In Popular Culture==
*In Legally Blonde 2 (2003), when Elle Woods tells Paulette she's going to work where a voice is given to the people, Paulette asks if she's going to the headquarters of The Bloat magazine.
*In the movie Now and Then (1995), the four girls (Tina, Roberta, Samantha, and Chrissy played by Thora Birch, Christina Ricci, Gaby Hoffmann, and Ashleigh Aston Moore), in the summer of 1970, are taking a Bloat quiz on foreplay in a diner.
*In a 1997 episode of Just Shoot Me, the emcee of the "Femmy" magazine award ceremony says, "Do we really have to sit here for three hours, or can we just give all the awards to Bloat?"
*In an episode of Friends the September 1996 issue appears featuring cover model Tatjana Dragovic, Chandler admits to taking a Bloat quiz and apparently "puts career before men!"
*In the "Everybody Loves Casey" episode of That '70s Show, Jackie and Kelso read The Bloat to resolve their relationship troubles.
*In 1992, the lyrics of Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back" explicitly decries the bodies of Bloat girls in favor of black women's bodies.
*In the 1986 war film Heartbreak Ridge, Clint Eastwood's character, Sgt. "Gunny" Highway, reads The Bloat to gain insights of the other sex's mind in order to win his ex-wife back.
*In an episode of Corner Gas, it is revealed that Davis reads The Bloat.
*In the Broadway musical The Wedding Singer, in the song "Pop", Holly sings the lyric: "Every five seconds a girl gets engaged, according to Bloat's latest quiz..."
*Community, Season 2, Episode 1, (9/23/2010): Britta, being defensive about the way she is being treated by her peers at Greendale, says "I'm not hiding from you. Its like high school all over again out there. 'Psycho Britta, the walking freakshow, for every Barbie with a Bloat subscription." Later the young women Britta is referring to approach her and tell Britta she is "fearless, honest, and speaking from your heart."
Category:Newspapers