As an American woman it might be mind-boggling to think that some have never read or at least heard of the magazine, Cosmopolitan. I remember growing up and being so excited for my mom to buy me my first ever Cosmo. I was an avid reader of the magazine during high school, but once I reached college I realized that the magazine had overtly sexist content.
I’ve stopped buying physical copies of the magazine since their Snapchat stories are more convenient, but I would venture to say that their articles on the app tend to have more sexist undertones than their physical articles. This particular article will focus on about two weeks of Cosmo articles featured on their Snapchat newsfeed. Sometimes, the article title itself is all one needs to decipher the sexist intent of the article, but sometimes one must read the article to get to the real meat of the sexist notions.
The first article is “12 Reasons to Never Shower Together”, and is in one section of the newsfeed called “Sex and Love”. This was one of those articles that I scoffed at when I first read the title. Who are these writers to tell me why I shouldn’t shower with my partner? When I read the article, it was just as bad as the title in my opinion. Most of the twelve reasons given were about how much of an inconvenience it would be for the reader to shower with a partner. What about those who prefer to be close with their partner at that time? What if that is the most convenient time for the couple to be intimate? What if that is just the couple’s shared kink? Cosmopolitan should be supporting confident and healthy relationships instead of shaming those who go against the grain.
The next article is from the “Photos” portion of the newsfeed with the article “This ‘Fat-Friend’ Photo Makes an Important Point about Body Insecurities”. At first the title seems like an uplifting article about body confidence, but upon reading the article, the reader learns that the ‘fat-friend’ has an unfortunate condition that caused her to have multiple surgeries resulting in her retaining weight. Using the logic of this article, one can only feel confident about his/her body weight if his/her illness makes it difficult to maintain a healthy weight? The article title raises another question about use of the label “the fat-friend”. What the hell? It’s 2017 and we shouldn’t have to have this conversation about having a token any kind of friend. Such labels lead to more insecurities and force individuals into pre-prescribed, stereotypical slots within friend groups.
From the “Quiz” portion of the Snapchat newsfeed is a quiz titled “This Wedding Ring Test Shows How Likely You Are to Cheat”. Excuse me? Shouldn’t you be as unlikely to cheat as you possibly can? To be in a committed relationship, there must be trust and honesty which goes against absolutely everything cheating promotes. Obviously, silly quizzes through social media should not be taken seriously by any means, but making claims about faithfulness in relationships is simply distasteful in my opinion. Individuals should do everything in their power to maintain healthy relationships, and if one is going to cheat in that relationship, he/she is better off removing themselves from the relationship. I’m not entirely sure how this could be considered sexist, but this delves into some other issues that I have with Cosmopolitan, which may come in a later article.
The final article I’ll discuss it from the “Beauty” panel on Cosmo’s Snapchat with the article “13 Ways You’re Doing Your Makeup Wrong”. This is another article the viewer must read into a bit before deciding if there are sexist tones, but take the first line of the article: “With so many techniques out there to choose from when it comes to applying your makeup, it’s hard to know if you’re making any mistakes”. To this I say if it looks fine, who cares? For anyone who does their own makeup, it’s easy enough to nit-pick yourself about what looks right and what doesn’t. The truth is some skin types and tones cannot hold makeup using the same techniques as others. All individuals who wear makeup cannot be pigeonholed into “universal” makeup techniques. Again, allow people to do what makes them comfortable, and don’t shame them for it.
I should take this time to say that Cosmopolitan does offer many helpful articles about sexual health and women’s health in general, and I am thankful for that. Through all the good that the magazine does, the broader issues I have discussed cannot be ignored.
I recognize that articles submitted through Cosmopolitan are meant to be funny or cast a subject in a certain light, but there must be a better way to do this than shame others. To me, somewhat even more of a shocking revelation is that the vast majority of articles on the newsfeed only focus on heterosexual relationships. This can be seen almost daily with their fun, single panel sketches often entitled “Circle What Kind of _____ You and Your BF Are!” The Cosmopolitan Snapchat newsfeed should do better to incorporate all relationships, regardless of gender and sexuality. By removing sexist content from their daily articles, I believe the writers of Cosmopolitan would receive a more loyal, diverse audience.