Cosmo: “For Whores and Idiots”
Kevin at Pointless Banter took the words right out of my mouth with today’s post "Cosmopolitan Magazine is For Whores and Idiots," in which he reviews Cosmo’s recent suggestions of places to meet guys. Here’s an excerpt:
Hot Spot: A grad-school coffee shop
This is what Cosmo has to say:
“The dearth of chicks, combined with the little free time these studious dudes have to play the field, means they’re thrilled when you seek them out.”
If you were reading that and actually thought it was a good idea do you look in the mirror and officially come to grips with the fact that you have hit rock bottom and are totally desperate? How demeaning is that?
Why don’t they say:
Since these guys are really busy and there are like no women in their program they will date just about anything with a vagina.
Yup, that pretty much hits the nail on the head. I’m sick and tired of mainstream magazines promoting desperation, promiscuity, and self-loathing as an accepted and encouraged norm. In fact, Cosmo has gotten so utterly disgusting and offensive that I’ve canceled my subscription because I didn’t want that trash coming into my house. I am particularly horrified by the Cosmo Confessions feature in which one woman’s particularly heinous deeds, like pulling a Carrie Underwood, are highlighted and rated on their level of evilness or justification by "women on the street." These morons say things like, "OMG, he didn’t call her back so it was like totally justified for her to bash in his windshield with a baseball bat. I mean, he has to respect her you know?" Give me a break.
I’m sure this post has ensured that I will never be hired as a freelancer for Cosmo, which used to be a dream of mine, but I’m okay with that. Newsflash, Cosmo: We’re not idiots, and pretending like we are and encouraging us to be totally wrapped up in hair and having an abnormally small butt and complete control over our men (whom we must describe using terms like "yummy" and "smokalicious") so we have zero real self-respect and are trapped in a never-ending real-life version of Mean Girls is not cool. All it’s doing is reinforcing already damaging stereotypes and screwed-up worldviews. Get over it.
What do you think?
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Tags: womens health blog, womens health, health information for women, cosmo, cosmopolitan magazine, cosmopolitan magazine is for whores and idiots, self-respect, good magazines for women, lively women, kristen king
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POSTED IN: Emotional health, Mental health, Recommended reading, Women's Issues
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9 opinions for Cosmo: “For Whores and Idiots”
kevin
Mar 6, 2008 at 5:47 pm
Aw thanks for the link I appreciate it!
Sean
Mar 6, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Good point Kevin.
Men’s Health has an analysis of restaurant food choices with nutritional recommendations, analysis…then discredits the whole thing by adding which restaurant dishes make you better in bed or some other inane crap.
To think I took my eyes off the E! channel and missed the latest Britney update for this. Never again.
Alicia Sparks, NAMI Affiliation Leader
Mar 6, 2008 at 9:18 pm
I’m sure this post has ensured that I will never be hired as a freelancer for Cosmo, which used to be a dream of mine, but I’m okay with that.
Of course you are. You’re an intelligent, confident, and self-respecting woman. You writing for Cosmo would be as ill a fit as Kate Hudson writing those superficial articles she was forced to write for the magazine her character worked for in “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.”
I agree wholeheartedly with both you and Kevin. I stopped reading Cosmo a few years back for these same reasons.
Peggy
Mar 8, 2008 at 6:41 am
Yes. I checked it out a few months ago when I started freelancing. Not only could I not stand the articles, but the magazine smelled too much like perfume. It made my head hurt.
Keane
Mar 11, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Great post. I thought it was humorous at first until I saw the magazine cover. I really hoped it was photoshopped as a joke to be so dumb, but somehow I doubt this is the case.
keane
keane.festizio.net
Kristen King
Mar 11, 2008 at 6:56 pm
LOL all of you! Keane, I swear, this is the real cover of the current issue.
Peggy, I also get headaches from all of of the different perfumes! I thought I was the only one. ;)
Liberty
Mar 13, 2008 at 1:56 am
You know, even though I am a Grade-A magazine junkie, I haven’t read Cosmo in years - and it sounds like I’m not missing much.
Here’s what’s even scarier: This magazine’s covers have gotten so blatantly (and explicitly) pre-occupied with a certain three-letter topic that a regional grocery store chain I frequent now has those little “hidey” things on the rack to mask the cover (think the same method used for Playboy et al). Now if that’s not saying something…
moggy
Mar 18, 2008 at 12:17 am
Is it any wonder that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease? Just look at what we are pushing at them!
Peter
Apr 4, 2008 at 8:21 pm
There must be a ton of Whores and Idiots in the world, Cosmo is laughing all the way to the bank.
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