Cosmo, you claim to be a magazine for women, but with your featured headlines screaming “What Sex Feels Like For Guys: Once You Know the Key Arousal Triggers, You Can Double His Satisfaction” I know who it is you really serve. And it isn’t me.
Honestly, do you really think women need pressure to perform for men — or any partner? Make no mistake: That’s what you are saying when you want us to focus on the satisfaction of others. It’s not like women have a long rich history of selfishness; on the contrary, ours is a history of selflessness. So when your cover also screams “Get More Pleasure: The Secret to Savoring Every Moment” I know it isn’t going to include my sexual pleasure. (It doesn’t. And, as I wrote before, Cosmo doesn’t exactly want us to find pleasure in our naughty dreams either.) It’s clear that you, Cosmo, believe my sexual satisfaction is unimportant, a distant third to pleasing him and capturing him (which is really about pleasing him anyway).
No, I’m so not over this Cosmo issue; and you can’t make me stop ranting about it. Cosmo, with its pandering to men under the guise of female liberation, is actually so misogynistic that it is dangerous. And people need to know.
As much as Cosmo does emphasize pleasing men and getting men above all else, it isn’t exactly too kind in its portrayal of men, either. In the headline article that you cited, “What Sex Feels Like for Guys,” it ends with an “infographic” that says that all men think about having a cheeseburger once they orgasm. Really? So all men are neanderthals, and we their subservient love slaves. In the newest shade of lipstick, of course:)
When I was growing up, I would see Cosmo in the newsstands and if I was not reading the words, I would have thought it was a men’s magazine. I remember my grandfather oogling over the big-breasted women on the cover. And the covers have not changed all that much. I read Cosmo in college – but really read other people’s mags or when I was waiting for the dentist. And I would read about moves to make to make him feel better. It may cast some men in a bad light, but it was normally all about him.
I completely agree with this. I used to read it religiously as a teenager. Then somewhere along the way the much-kinder, in my opinion, Glamour magazine supplanted it. I picked up a Cosmo issue during a recent illness, just for something to read. I finished the magazine feeling ugly, unworthy, and sleazy. Yikes! I can’t believe I used to do that to myself on a regular basis! I would rather be inspired. Down with Cosmo and its misogyny!