I was lucky enough to get my hands on four copies of Cosmopolitan from 1970 and 1969 a few months ago – I know, pretty cool, right?
As I was flipping through them, I noticed some things I thought all of you collegiettes™ would find interesting: Although it’s been forty years, not much has changed in the magazine. Sure, the style is totally different – the 1970 Cosmo certainly has longer articles and fewer photographs. But let’s take a look at the article titles. I’ll name a few, and you gals try to guess if it was published in 1970 or 2011.
“Three Ways to Turn Him On.”
Think you know? It’s from 1970.
“Why Bad Sex is Shortening Your Life.”
This is definitely 2011, right? Yep, it is.
“20 Spring Dresses He’ll Love.” A
ny ideas? It’s 2011.
“The Driven: Girls Who Have to Make it.”
Give up? 1970.
“Why Girls Stay with Men They Can’t Stand.”
This has to be 2011, right? It’s definitely something I know we have all struggled with in today’s world. But guess what? This was also written in 1970.
It’s no secret that Cosmo loves to publish stories about sex and relationships nowadays, but it’s definitely cool to learn that not much has changed. Despite the fact that these articles were written in 1970, the topics are issues we face on a daily basis.
Don’t think we’re completely stuck in a rut though and everything is always the same in Cosmo-land. Some things are strikingly different. Although the articles are relevant to today’s woman, the tone has changed. Advertisements are definitely different, too.
A lot of the stories and ads are aimed at married women, or promote marriage and living as a wife as
the ultimate goal. Take, for example, an ad I found in the 1970 issue about feminine odor: it reads “What does douching have to do with your HUSBAND?” Mind you, husband is written in size 40 font. It’s the first thing you notice when you flip to that page.
An article titled, “Hardened Criminals: Men who never marry,” also shows how marriage was such an important part of society in the ‘70s. There are so many articles and ads about this, it’s crazy!
Other articles are focused on how to make girls look prettier and how to please men. Somehow, this seems strange to me because this is exactly what Cosmo (and many other magazines) still write about. What about the feminist movements? If so much has changed in the last 40 years with women’s rights, why have magazines stayed the same?
I’m definitely not saying everything is the
same – I have yet to come across an ad on today’s newsstands asking me to make a connection between feminine odor and a husband. But it is a little odd to me that there still are not as many articles and ads featuring strong women as there are beautiful women. So many articles are about making sex more pleasurable for men and making yourself looking great for your man. What about us girls? Collegiettes™, I challenge you to focus on the smart, the strong, and the beautiful. Let’s try to take the emphasis off of solely a person’s outer beauty – sure, that’s important, but at the risk of sounding like a cliché, I’m going to say that inner beauty should be important to us, too.
Photos by Kaitlin Provost