Cosmopolitan Magazine and Body Image, Men and Sex
1. Cosmo Magazine: The Best-Seller That Sells Women Short
- Ties into body image
- Self-Objectification: the tendency to perceive one’s body according to externally perceivable traits instead of internal traits
- This article talks about the 4 different ways Cosmo magazine objectifies women and their bodies. In the first “chapter” called “What Men Want”, the author emphasizes how much men look at women’s bodies and what they want when it comes to women. The author later mentions the “male gaze”. The “male gaze” is when women are portrayed in a certain manner for male’s enjoyment. This portrayal is, often times, objectifying and oppressing women. The second “chapter” is called “The Natural, Healthy Girl: Normalizing Beauty and Health Ideals”. This chapter focuses on a women’s body and the constant pressure created by magazines. These magazines tell women that a skinny and tight body is healthy and ideal. They normalize this as the only true form of beauty and health that the female body should take on. The author mentions Lindsay Lohan’s response to her weight loss in a Cosmopolitan magazine in which she says that stress and not eating right is what keeps her thin. The third “chapter” is called “Appearance is Everything” and it’s, well about, appearance. It connects to “chapter” two and once again sends out the message “that weight loss = fitness = sex appeal”. It emphasizes that the way a women looks is above her own health. The author mentions how Cosmopolitan make it seem like they try to empower women by telling them to be confident but in reality this confidence they are trying to pass on, is more for the men than for themselves. This confidence is used to keep men interested and to please them rather than to empower the female readers. The author also mentions that Cosmopolitan later refers to too much confidence as off putting to men. This isn’t exactly something a women’s magazine should be saying to its readers. It should focus on women not on what a man will find unpleasing. In the 4th chapter called “The Look of Spectators: The Male Gaze Demonstrated in Images”, the author talks about the actual pictures of women used in Cosmopolitan. The author mentions how the thin and white women that cover these magazines wear small amounts of clothes, have their chest out and their backs arched. The author says “a sexualized image is made to represent an otherwise non-objectifying message”. This writing ends with a chapter about what men actually want compared to what women think men want. Studies about this found that women think men overly prefer thin bodies. Unlike what women thought, studies showed that men preferred a larger female body over a thin body.
2. Cosmo Still Spouting Out Male-Centered, Stereotypical Information and Advice to the Detriment of its Readers
- Ties into men
- This source talks about Cosmopolitan’s articles and how they take a step back in women’s liberation. The author mentions that “15% of the articles were focused on getting a man, pleasing a man, doing things for a man, looking sexy for a man, understanding men’s thoughts about women and solving relationship issues which were mostly caused by the man”. Even as a women’s magazines, they seem to center their articles on men. The author describes Cosmopolitan as a male-centered magazine despite how hard it says/tries to get rid of old stereotypes. Cosmopolitan excuses “bad male behavior by saying that men are “hardwired” to think or act in a certain manner”. They make it seem like women should just let go of whatever bad thing a man did because he can’t help it. Because men are “hardwired” and “reckless” by nature, women shouldn’t blame them for anything they did wrong. Instead, women should think about what they did wrong because whatever they did wrong, is the reason why the male did something bad. Later on, in this writing, the author starts to talk about the different articles Cosmo has published. These articles dictate what women “should or shouldn’t wear, say, or do, to turn a man on”. The author argues that Cosmopolitan, instead of empowering women, demoralizes and de-values the female readers. It overemphasizes the importance of a male’s opinions, views and preferences to anything a woman does. Like many magazines, Cosmo thrives on old and common gender stereotypes and instead of disregarding them, Cosmo seems to empower them.
3. Cosmo Is More about Sex than Freedom
- Ties into sex
- This source talks about Cosmopolitan’s change from empowering women to subjecting women to gender stereotypes. The author talks about how Cosmopolitan’s articles revolve mainly around men and sex. They make sex seem like it’s the only way to achieve happiness and if a women is worthy of sex, she’s “given value” as a women. Cosmo makes it seem as if men give women value and because of that, women should be beautiful, healthy and experienced in order to please their male counterparts. The author also mentions that instead of being a magazine that targets all women, Cosmo’s main audience is white, middle-class women from the ages of 18-34 and most of these women don’t even have a full-time job.
- “Their value is merited solely by men, because all their efforts — looking beautiful, being healthy and being a sex goddess — are geared toward pleasing their male counterparts”.
- “This is not to say that women shouldn’t read and enjoy Cosmopolitan.
Women should read it knowing Cosmo’s purpose.
And then they shouldn’t take it too seriously”.
5. The Evolution of Cosmopolitan Magazine
- This source is a brief look at Cosmopolitan magazine throughout the years. It has a few images of previous Cosmo magazines and the years they were published. This basically contributed to the history part of my paper.
- Cosmo has been around since 1886 and was a women’s fashion magazine with articles about topics like the home, family and cooking.
- Cosmo articles, at the time, were “Some Examples of Recent Art” and “The Progress of Science”
- Around 1896, the covers of Cosmopolitan used to be exclusively illustrated
- “In the mid-sixties, Helen Gurley Brown stepped in as editor in chief. She brought with her the message of sexual freedom for single women, and started replacing the cover illustrations with photos of young models in minimal clothing. Sales increased as a result.” (where everything changed)
- “It is fascinating to see how it has shifted with the culture and how our culture has changed because of it”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Works Cited
-Beauty Redefined. "Cosmo Magazine: The Best-Seller That Sells Women Short." BEAUTY REDEFINED. Beauty Redefined, 4 Jan. 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
-Courtney. "Cosmo Still Spouting Out Male-Centered, Stereotypical Information and Advice to the Detriment of Its Readers." Feministing.com. Feministing.com, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
Myers, Brooke. "Cosmo Is More about Sex than Freedom." OUDaily.com. The Oklahoma Daily, 31 Mar. 2010. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.
McGuire, Lauren. "Sociological Images." Sociological Images RSS. The Society Pages, 26 Apr. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
1. Cosmo Magazine: The Best-Seller That Sells Women Short
- Ties into body image
- Self-Objectification: the tendency to perceive one’s body according to externally perceivable traits instead of internal traits
- This article talks about the 4 different ways Cosmo magazine objectifies women and their bodies. In the first “chapter” called “What Men Want”, the author emphasizes how much men look at women’s bodies and what they want when it comes to women. The author later mentions the “male gaze”. The “male gaze” is when women are portrayed in a certain manner for male’s enjoyment. This portrayal is, often times, objectifying and oppressing women. The second “chapter” is called “The Natural, Healthy Girl: Normalizing Beauty and Health Ideals”. This chapter focuses on a women’s body and the constant pressure created by magazines. These magazines tell women that a skinny and tight body is healthy and ideal. They normalize this as the only true form of beauty and health that the female body should take on. The author mentions Lindsay Lohan’s response to her weight loss in a Cosmopolitan magazine in which she says that stress and not eating right is what keeps her thin. The third “chapter” is called “Appearance is Everything” and it’s, well about, appearance. It connects to “chapter” two and once again sends out the message “that weight loss = fitness = sex appeal”. It emphasizes that the way a women looks is above her own health. The author mentions how Cosmopolitan make it seem like they try to empower women by telling them to be confident but in reality this confidence they are trying to pass on, is more for the men than for themselves. This confidence is used to keep men interested and to please them rather than to empower the female readers. The author also mentions that Cosmopolitan later refers to too much confidence as off putting to men. This isn’t exactly something a women’s magazine should be saying to its readers. It should focus on women not on what a man will find unpleasing. In the 4th chapter called “The Look of Spectators: The Male Gaze Demonstrated in Images”, the author talks about the actual pictures of women used in Cosmopolitan. The author mentions how the thin and white women that cover these magazines wear small amounts of clothes, have their chest out and their backs arched. The author says “a sexualized image is made to represent an otherwise non-objectifying message”. This writing ends with a chapter about what men actually want compared to what women think men want. Studies about this found that women think men overly prefer thin bodies. Unlike what women thought, studies showed that men preferred a larger female body over a thin body.
2. Cosmo Still Spouting Out Male-Centered, Stereotypical Information and Advice to the Detriment of its Readers
- Ties into men
- This source talks about Cosmopolitan’s articles and how they take a step back in women’s liberation. The author mentions that “15% of the articles were focused on getting a man, pleasing a man, doing things for a man, looking sexy for a man, understanding men’s thoughts about women and solving relationship issues which were mostly caused by the man”. Even as a women’s magazines, they seem to center their articles on men. The author describes Cosmopolitan as a male-centered magazine despite how hard it says/tries to get rid of old stereotypes. Cosmopolitan excuses “bad male behavior by saying that men are “hardwired” to think or act in a certain manner”. They make it seem like women should just let go of whatever bad thing a man did because he can’t help it. Because men are “hardwired” and “reckless” by nature, women shouldn’t blame them for anything they did wrong. Instead, women should think about what they did wrong because whatever they did wrong, is the reason why the male did something bad. Later on, in this writing, the author starts to talk about the different articles Cosmo has published. These articles dictate what women “should or shouldn’t wear, say, or do, to turn a man on”. The author argues that Cosmopolitan, instead of empowering women, demoralizes and de-values the female readers. It overemphasizes the importance of a male’s opinions, views and preferences to anything a woman does. Like many magazines, Cosmo thrives on old and common gender stereotypes and instead of disregarding them, Cosmo seems to empower them.
3. Cosmo Is More about Sex than Freedom
- Ties into sex
- This source talks about Cosmopolitan’s change from empowering women to subjecting women to gender stereotypes. The author talks about how Cosmopolitan’s articles revolve mainly around men and sex. They make sex seem like it’s the only way to achieve happiness and if a women is worthy of sex, she’s “given value” as a women. Cosmo makes it seem as if men give women value and because of that, women should be beautiful, healthy and experienced in order to please their male counterparts. The author also mentions that instead of being a magazine that targets all women, Cosmo’s main audience is white, middle-class women from the ages of 18-34 and most of these women don’t even have a full-time job.
- “Their value is merited solely by men, because all their efforts — looking beautiful, being healthy and being a sex goddess — are geared toward pleasing their male counterparts”.
- “This is not to say that women shouldn’t read and enjoy Cosmopolitan.
Women should read it knowing Cosmo’s purpose.
And then they shouldn’t take it too seriously”.
5. The Evolution of Cosmopolitan Magazine
- This source is a brief look at Cosmopolitan magazine throughout the years. It has a few images of previous Cosmo magazines and the years they were published. This basically contributed to the history part of my paper.
- Cosmo has been around since 1886 and was a women’s fashion magazine with articles about topics like the home, family and cooking.
- Cosmo articles, at the time, were “Some Examples of Recent Art” and “The Progress of Science”
- Around 1896, the covers of Cosmopolitan used to be exclusively illustrated
- “In the mid-sixties, Helen Gurley Brown stepped in as editor in chief. She brought with her the message of sexual freedom for single women, and started replacing the cover illustrations with photos of young models in minimal clothing. Sales increased as a result.” (where everything changed)
- “It is fascinating to see how it has shifted with the culture and how our culture has changed because of it”
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Works Cited
-Beauty Redefined. "Cosmo Magazine: The Best-Seller That Sells Women Short." BEAUTY REDEFINED. Beauty Redefined, 4 Jan. 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
-Courtney. "Cosmo Still Spouting Out Male-Centered, Stereotypical Information and Advice to the Detriment of Its Readers." Feministing.com. Feministing.com, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
Myers, Brooke. "Cosmo Is More about Sex than Freedom." OUDaily.com. The Oklahoma Daily, 31 Mar. 2010. Web. 04 Nov. 2013.
McGuire, Lauren. "Sociological Images." Sociological Images RSS. The Society Pages, 26 Apr. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.