This is another thread spawned from the demeaning women thread.



As a side note to Lorax: It is not merely minimum-wage earners who read these magazines. There are also many well paid and well educated women who indulge in them.

I’d like to focus this particular debate on media products designed specifically for female audiences.

Questions for debate:

• Do you read/view any products specifically targeting women? Why or why not? This is to try to establish why they do or don’t appeal to certain women.
• Do you feel that these products manipulate women into modeling themselves as sexualized beings? Is it destructive?
• What kind of media would you like to see geared towards women, and why?

Edited to fix my list.

What better way to start this discussion is there than to go straight to the source
Cosmopolitan
Lets look at some of the articles shall we?
How to Get Sexy Cosmo Cover Hair. A direct correlation to the model on the cover suggesting that women want to have stylized hair blowing in the wind. I must comply, the model is very attractive, but is she posing for me, the average eligible testosterone-crazy guy? Is it I who am wanting to have long sexy hair? If I contrast this to a men’s magazine like GQ I get a picture of Johnny Depp fully clothed with hands in pockets. He is not showing any leg or has any seductive look, neither is it telling me how to have his hair style. Why not?
What’s Your Risqué Factor?: What’s the biggest complaint you get from guys in bed? Are women always so concerned about how they perform in the bedroom? Not just from one guy, but from many guys? Are men typical enough to complain about their sexual partner in terms of: you’re hard to read, you need to loosen up and I can’t keep up with you?
Land that man, ace your job, and look your sexiest ever? Evidently these are the top three most important things for a woman. Do they happen to be in the correct order? First get man. Next, do good at your job and still try to look as sexy as possible? What would be the point? If you are already in a committed relationship then why the die-hard struggle to constituently look as sexy as possible? And, is looking sexy a requirement for where you work?
Mattress Moves to Memorize: How well do you know your Kama Sutra positions? What ever happen to the spirituality of Kama Sutra? Should we just skip that and practice how to fornicate like porn stars? Once again, another article of how to perform better in the bedroom.
Cosmopolitan use to be a constructive magazine much like Ms. but then how many advertisements do you see in Ms.? Are advertisements destructive toward women’s interests? They certainly are not expanding their interests. They certainly are not advocating women to be more involved in the public. Nope, advertisements want women to buy, they want women to feel they need something. According to Cosmo, women need to feel sexy, they need to know how to stimulate great sexy in bed, they need tips of how to pick up a man. And immersed between all these articles they have cosmetics, weight loss programs, shoes, push up bras and any product designed to make a woman more desirable. But desirable to whom?

Thank you, Lorax. As another added resource, Amazon.com ranks it's top selling women's interest magazines.



To be honest, I hate women’s magazines. They are filled to the brim with the same monthly articles about dieting, dating, stupid quizzes, how to get and keep your man, fashion, primping, plucking, waxing, tanning, botox and ad upon ad trying to get you to buy expensive products to make you look younger and more beautiful.

I have no problem with women who want to look beautiful. Self-esteem is important, and being happy with your body and your image is a part of that, but there is more to being a woman than image, and that’s where these magazines are lacking, at least for me.



Absolutely, they do, but it’s not the idea of women being sexualized beings that I have a problem with. I think that women should embrace their sexuality in whatever way makes them feel comfortable. It’s fine to want to please your man, but not at the expense of yourself, and the cookie cutter ideas of human sexuality that are displayed in these magazines are a bit irksome to me.



Well, for starters, it would be nice to see a wider representation of women. Not all women look like the women that grace the covers of Cosmo magazine, and that’s a good thing, in my opinion. There are so many beautiful women out there that don’t fit into the cookie cutter mold.

Articles about real issues effecting women would be nice, and I’m not talking about What to wear to the office. Feminism is alive and well, especially in the third world, and it would be nice to read about both domestic and international issues that pertain to women.

What about all of the things that women do outside of getting dressed, going to work, and having sex? Pieces on books, movies, athletics, travel, etc…

Experience pieces & biographical pieces, particularly about women who have done interesting or extraordinary things.

There is so much that could be included in these magazines. I don’t understand why each issue has the same garbage printed over and over.

I dont really read typical women's magazines aside fromsome sick perversion when they are at someone else's house. I have a strong interest in fashion and photography, and I like seeing the photos in the magazine, but the articles?! BAH.Everytime I read one, it never fails to disappoint and anger me and I constantly wonder if real people think like that. When I was in France a friend of mine bought American Cosmo and there was a whole list of "sexy" moves to catch a guys attention, one of them included standing on a bar. WTF? The less outrageous ones included twisting your long hair (which I happen not to have, does that mean I cant complete a sexy move?), and sipping cappucino and licking the foam off your lip. Alot of them were things that are natural to human behavior when they are trying to impress the opposite sex (or the same sex). I dont need to land a man or have a career as some money hungry corporate whore (and I rarely see magazines that show ANY of profession other than business/management cubicle work).

I will say that from time to time I buy Elle magazine because I dont think its quite as trashy and sometimes theres an article that cathces my interest (this happens about once a year). Sometimes Ill buy a magazine like Flaunt or Nylon because the articles focus more on art and music, and the design is cool (but this will happen about three times a year). Most of my reading material comes in book format, and the magazine's I do buy on a regular basis are about Japanese pop culture and politics.



Yes and it depends. Everytime I see a perfectly airbrushed model I dont go into a spiral of self depression or anything, but I happen to wonder if people find me that attractive, especially if its someone I find attractive (not every model I see). Typical questions of "Why dont I look like that?" float through my head, but I dont think thats abnormal and I dont know if its because Im exposed to highly appealing women. Something tells me that even in the stone age if there was a pretty girl around, other girls knew it.

As for it being destructive, when I see pre-pubescent girls girls dressing up as Britney Spears, I am going to have to say its destructive. Not for everyone, and there's nothing wrong with a woman or girl wanting to look and feel attatractive, but I do think that it may be getting to the point where it skews the healthy view of what is attractive.



Everyone ends to say the same thing here "realistic models", and I obviously agree, but I would rather see things that are geared towards both sexes that have little to do with sexual imagery. More focus on things that arent beauty and attraction and sex. My favorite magazine is Giant Robot, and its a magazine that is pretty asexual and has its focus on things from Asia and music and art. Why dont we see more things like that going around? Why is even our entertainment seperated into gender specific media?

Not anymore. When I was young I bought Cosmo every month. It is intellectually vacuous swill. I don't know why I bought them. Perhaps a bit of the 'wanting to be that person on the cover' concept. Who wouldn't want to be the rich, beautiful girl everyone seemed to want? Maybe I thought the idiotic tripe magazine would give me some pointers. Actually, I probably bought the magazines for the same reason I played with barbies as a young child.

I think they fill a demand. Clearly women are insecure about their appearance. Perhaps women who buy those magazines hope to obtain the power beauty would provide them.


Honestly, I would LOVE to see a woman's magazine that emulated the men's magazine. Similar to the show Sex In the City...Maxim for women .I think there would be a market for that type of woman's magazine. More politics, witt, and humor. Drop the continuous 'how to please him' and 'lose weight' concepts (the occasional diet and sexual advice are good, but those topics shouldn't make up the entire magazine)

1) I get Better Homes & Gardens but that's because Mike found me a free subscription. Otherwise, I can't think of any strictly female-oriented media I frequent. Why? Well, I guess because most of the popular stuff is mundane. I mean, honestly, if I were concerned on whether or not my man's doing (insert naughty verb here), why would I turn to popular magazine or television show? How in depth can it get?

2) I suppose these magazines/shows don't do anything to stop women from being sexualized beings, but they surely aren't the cause. It's capitalism in motion. Somewhere along the line we determined it was acceptable for women to be valued for their bodies over their minds and now it sells. The only solution I can offer is not to buy and teach your daughters to do the same (assuming you're one of the ones that don't like it).

3) Honestly, I'm not sure if there is any media I would like to see geared towards women. My topic of preference is politics and I can't imagine politics without men. I guess an occasional article in a magazine or a show on a network dedicated to women would be OK, but not the entire magazine or the entire network. But I realize I'm an exception. I know there are women out there that enjoy the women only discussions, I guess I'm not the best person to determine how to best cater to that market. I much more prefer balance and moderation in everything.

I think most women's magazines are too expensive when you can't find the table of contents for all the slick advertising with pouty gamines and hoity toity designer togs and accessories. The magazines cater to narcissists, particularly those with money. You're cool and sexy if you spend lots of money.

Yankee Magazine is good, and obviously it's not a women's magazine. I like to buy some magazines around Halloween and Christmas, family-style magazines that have costumes and crafts for the holidays, and essays about the changing seasons and of children growing up. And a recipe might catch my eye.

I like the photojournalism and articles in TIME. Newsweek's not too bad.

And of course there is that bathroom classic, The Reader's Digest. When you get past the preachiness, it has a lot of good stuff.

Most advertisements in these magazines are specifically geared toward the female consumer because women tend to shop more than men do in a given household. But by and large, they don't capitalize as much on insecurities we might harbor about our appearance or our sexual desirability.

(Edited to add: Yes, I do think it is destructive to portray women as self-absorbed, sexual creatures who exist to copulate and who don't actually contribute anything to make this world a better place.)

So - who are these women who consume media geared towards women? I consider most of the ladies who post here to be of above-average intelligence (actually, that goes for the entire membership, but is irrelevant) and most of us claim not to read that stuff, and if we do, only occasionally for fun.

I also didn't think about the divide by age groups that the media really helps define through their products. There seems to be a complete disconnect between items like Cosmo and Women's Day magazines. The former is geared towards younger, often unwed, women and the other to older, married women, likely with families. I don't have much to comment on in that regard, but it was an aspect of this argument I had overlooked and need to consider for this debate.