"The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
I had to laugh when I saw the most recent cover of Cosmopolitan magazine, sitting on the stand of my local Barnes & Noble, which had the words "The Sex Issue" stamped on its glossy cover.
The sex issue? It's a running joke, even among Cosmo's most loyal readers, that every issue of the magazine is the sex issue. If you look at the past examples of Cosmo covers, you'll see that the word "sex" is always the biggest, boldest word on the page, and that the articles about sex, from issue to issue, are so similar that the editors' efforts to make one sound more unique and outrageous than the other results in hilarious and absurd headlines ("THE SEX ARTICLE WE CAN'T DESCRIBE HERE!"). Usually, the articles are variations on two themes: (1) "The Fifty Greatest SEX Tips of ALL TIME" and (2) "SEX Moves That Will Drive Your Man Wild."
If you don't believe me, take a look at some of the more recent Cosmo covers:
Ironically, Cosmo was founded as a family magazine in 1886. It later became a literary magazine, featuring contributions from Jack London, Rudyard Kipling, Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, and Sinclair Lewis.
But, by the late 1960s, riding the tide of the Sexual Revolution--and contributing to it--it transformed into a women's magazine under the editorship of Helen Gurley Brown, who wrote the 1962 book Sex and the Single Girl. She believed that women could have it all, "love, sex, and money," a point of view that reverberated through the articles she commissioned for Cosmopolitan and still does today. By the time Brown left the magazine in 1997, the magazine ranked sixth at the U.S. newsstands and number one at college book stores. Even back then, in the late Nineties, I remember the articles being as sexually explicit--and repetitively so--as they are today.
It's obviously a formula that works. The magazine's circulation is over 3 million in the United States alone. By way of comparison, Newsweek's circulation is 1.5 million and its audience is much broader than Cosmo's narrow base of young female readers. The question that puzzles me is why does that formula work? I understand that sex sells, but don't women get tired of reading the same article over and over again? When I tried to look into this question--by Googling "Why are all issues of Cosmo about sex?"--the first hit that came up was, of course, an article from the very magazine in question on the topic of "75 Crazy-Hot Sex Moves." Go figure.
Another irony here is that articles like "75 Crazy Hot Sex Moves" and the other sex pieces that perennially appear on Cosmo's covers are always about how you, the young female reader, can better pleasure your man with hot new sex moves. Brown wanted to empower her readers, but these pieces do little more than cast women as sex objects that should please men--the same way that, on an interpersonal level, college women are cast as sex objects by frat brothers and the most predatory of men in the hook-up culture, which I witnessed in college and have written about. Women willingly participate in that culture, complain about it later, and loyally continue reading the latest issue of Cosmopolitan. Go figure.
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Comments:
May '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Oh, come on, Misthiocracy, let's not take the fun out of cleavage!
Aug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
There has been research that women who merely appear to be more "confident", particularly in their sexuality, are more likely to have orgasms.
In one study, subjects watched video of different women walking down the street. The subjects were more or less able to predict which women were more likely to have orgasms, merely by their appearance.
Those women who looked more "confident" - better posture, a sexier "walk", heads up high, better makeup, more curvaceous, more provocatively dressed - had more orgasms than women who looked more reserved, timid, conservatively-dressed, and "boyish" or "mousey".
As such, if you're selling a magazine based on the idea that the contents will magically provide the reader with untold sexual fulfillment, you put photos on the cover of women who look like they are already more sexually fulfilled - taller, better posture, more buxom, dressed more sexually, with the hip tilted to the side in that "devil-may-care" pose.
Edited on April 10, 2012 at 10:40pmSep '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
In the 90s I saw a spinoff called Cosmo Girl! (for teens) in the supermarket checkout line. The cover had my all-time favorite headline from a women's magazine:
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Mark Belling Fan
I had the same thought as soon as I saw the Lady Gaga cover in Emily's original post.
"Slightly more feminine than Ziggy Stardust" is not a good look for anyone. · 4 hours ago
Well put!
Mar '11
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
I kinda like the alien's cleavage. Face? What face?
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
I think after the word SEX, the cleavage is the second most noticeable thing on the covers (maybe the first, to some).
Nov '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Is there any quantity of cleavage that is non-gratuitous?
Can you advise, katiev?
May '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Words?
Apr '12
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
No.
Jun '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Western Chauvinist
This is the noble enterprise of feminism? Manipulating a man with sex to get what you want rather than actually pleasing him? We're living in some sad and diminished times. · 2 hours ago
Pass the word. WC has returned. We missed you. And I'm now able to get back to my lima beans and brussel sprouts.
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
badgergreg
No. · 11 minutes ago
Me either. I truly am a disgrace to my sex. Also, I don't get the appeal of Pinterest. I do cook ...
Apr '11
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
I used to ferry subscriptions over UK-US. I understand it's now easier to get the UK edition in the US. Why go to the effort? Because the US edition is far, far, more prudish, hinting at acts of relatively mainstream sexual activity rather than explicitly recommending more exotic tips.
In terms of repetitiveness, Car And Driver is less the man's equivalent than Men's Fitness, which also photoshops like crazy, has the same promised stories every issue (X ways to improve one's abs). And, of course, Hustler, which may or may not have the nerve to declare a particular issue "the sex issue".
Edit: I ferried them over for platonic friends. Just realized that I should probably have made that clear.
Edited on April 11, 2012 at 12:54amAug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
badgergreg
No.
Me either. I truly am a disgrace to my sex. Also, I don't get the appeal of Pinterest. I do cook ...
Cosmo sells about 3 million copies. There are well over 150 million women in the United States. That's only two per cent of the women, so I wouldn't be too hard on your sex.
Aug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
dogsbody: In the 90s I saw a spinoff calledCosmo Girl!(for teens) in the supermarket checkout line. The cover had my all-time favorite headline from a women's magazine:
Teen girl magazines give advice how to get a boy. Cosmo gives advice on how to keep a man.
The women chosen for the cover of Cosmo are, generally, currently in a "successful" relationship, or thought to have no problems attracting men. Gomez has Bieber. Khloe is married. Fox and Gaga turn men away.
You rarely get women who have been recently dumped or with a history of bad relationships. Jennifer Aniston may have once been on the cover of Cosmo, but not anymore. Khloe Kardasshian is on the cover instead of Kim.
The buyer is a woman in a relationship who lacks confidence and tends to worry about her relationship. The cover model is a women who has confidence and has no problems keeping a man. The buyer wants to learn how to be more like the woman on the cover.
If you already have confidence and you aren't generally worried about your relationship, then Cosmo will look silly to you.
May '11
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Misthiocracy, if I had had to write a description of the redeeming artistic or social relevance of Cosmo to save my life, it wouldn't have been anywhere near that good. Well done. Now whether it is true or not, I don't know because I only read Cosmo for the pictures.
Feb '12
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
I don't know that I've ever cracked open the sex issue of any publication. However, when I saw this issue on the newstands last week I remarked to my wife, while we were standing in line at Wal-Mart ("the walmarts" here in East Texas), "Isn't every issue the sex issue?"
Looks like that's the case. I wanted confirmation but I don't want my computer to show that I've been googling "sex issues." ;)
Aug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Catmopolitan and Playboar are kinda fun. ;-)
Dec '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Poor Doctor Bean! But, you really shouldn't go naked at the public pool in any case.
May '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
The woman on the cover of the first Cosmo cover looks in some way like an attractive version of Rosie O'Donnell.
There, I said it.
Aug '10
Re: "The" Sex Issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine
Apropos of nothing:
7 Psychotic Pieces of Advice from Cosmo