CosmoGirl! ™ is the teen spin-off of Cosmopolitan magazine offering beauty, fitness fashion and relationship (i.e. sex) advice. It’s marketed for teenage girls, ranging from ages thirteen to nineteen, however primarily those who are still attending high school. Sex, one of the magazines most printed topics seems to be the main focus of many of the published magazines. Only ten CosmoGirl! ™ magazines are released throughout the year and all of them contain advice on sex or how to become sexier suggesting the act of sex. However on the other side of the cover, there will be information on the spreading trends of sexually transmitted diseases and how to protect oneself. These ideas given to young women create a confusing contradiction, where on one end one women are told to become more sexual beings, while on the other, there are messages saying keep away and protect yourself. The dichotomy created by CosmoGirl! ™ send conflicting messages about gender and sex. These conflicting messages therefore create a box for young women, allowing them to only go so far one way before turning them to the other end.
“Adolescents are new and inexperienced consumers and such prime targets. They are in the process of learning their values and roles and developing their self-concepts. Most teenagers are sensitive to peer pressure and find it difficult to resist or even question the dominant cultural messages perpetuated and reinforced by the media” (Kilbourne, 258).
“Blow His Mind”, “387 Ways to Make Him Fall for You” “5 Moves to a Hotter Body” and “Naughty Sex” are just a taste of many of the headlines that can be found on the cover of CosmoGirl! ™ magazine. Bold, catchy, arousing, and all are marketed and sold to young teenage girls. These overtly suggestive messages are usually found on the same cover as “My Ex Posted Topless Picture of Me on Myspace”, “Crazy Ex-Boyfriends: How to Deal When He Won’t Leave You Alone”, “The STD 80% of Women Now Get”, and “Could Your Friend Have a Eating Disorder” shared by a thin, celebrity smiling to you from the cover What kinds of messages are these images and statements sending to the teenage female consumer and how is she reacting to these messages. Advertisers are very aware of what they sending and how they are affect these women. They particularly play on the insecurities of this population in order to market their products. Kilbourne states, “Advertisers are aware of their role and do not hesitate to take advantage of the insecurities and anxieties of young people, usually in the guise of offering solutions” (Kilbourne, 258). These solutions include ways to convert and conform to the social standards of beauty and sexualizing oneself for likings of a patriarchal society.
Sexualizing messages are being sent along with confusing messages about the consequences of becoming a more sexual human being creating a dichotomy of misdirection. CosmoGirl!™ like many other women magazine publications keep women in a never-ending cycle of confusion, with advice on how to keep him wanting more and other publications on how to get a way from a crazy ex boyfriend. Where can we draw the line of what is too sexy are too sexual. Young girls are then stigmatized as “too fast” or “bad girls” when they end up pregnant or with a sexually transmitted disease. But how can these young women not when they are being sent these conflicting messages constantly. These young girls are being manipulated and exploited by the American mass media and society’s cultural worship of women as sexual beings. Magazines such as CosmoGirl! ™ needs to reevaluate the messages being sent to these young women to help in stopping the cycle profiting from female insecurities.
Dines, Gail & Jean M. (McMahon). Humez. Gender, Race and Class in the Media: Text Reader. Kilbourne " The More You Subtract, The More You Add: Girls Cutting Down on Size" . 258-267. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications: 2003.
