Critical & Contextual Studies: Cosmopolitan Month by Month View

Can women’s magazines, focusing on the case study of Cosmopolitan (UK edition), ever be considered feminist?

October 2012 - Cover star - Leighton Meester (Actress)

70 Fashion / Beauty adverts ÷ 244 pages = 29% of magazine

[excluding other adverts for food, drink, cars etc]

For.

Letter to Editor (pg 15)

- about founder of Cosmopolitan - revolution for women

100% Confident - Regular Feature (pg36)

- This feature often includes inspirational quotes from famous female celebrities which encourage the readers to be confident women.

- This promotes women as living up to the tagline of the magazine, which is 'For For Fearless Females'

- "Ever since we were little, we were so on fire for our dreams. We never let anyone blow our flames out." Kelly Rowland

Alpha Female - Regular Feature (pg36)

- This feature often includes advice from a successful working female about the industry they work in

- This advice encourages the readers to focus on their career choices

Feature about Abortion (pg 64 - 80)

- Cosmo writes non-biased articles about current, sometimes controversial, news topics, which other magazines may just ignore

- These kind of features help women to know and understand their rights

Or Should We Just Call it a Vagina? (pg 90)

- includes reference to feminist writer Naomi Wolf

Cash & Careers Clinic - Regular Feature - (pg 103)

- This regular feature helps women with a different topic regarding their work every issue, inspiring women to focus on their careers.

- Gives women reassurance, tips, and real life examples of certain situations. Can help to build women's confidence in work, an topic that other magazines may not touch on.

Equal Pay Petition (pg 108)

-

my job 111

Catwalk to Curvy - Regular Feature (pg 153)

- This regular feature shows how women with curvy bodies can still wear the catwalk trends

- This feature shows the readers that any size body can be beautiful

- However this feature only takes up 1 page of the whole magazine, there should be more pages focusing on the bodies of curvy girls rather than the pages full of thin models

How Your Rabbit Was Born (pg 200)

- This article stands out because women's sexual pleasure is important too, and Cosmo have been revolutionary in writing about this since its existence
- Different article from the others which are usually about how to please your man

Against

Sexy, Confident and Smart - Regular Feature - (pg 21)

- This page features the inspirational quotes, ‘Live big and go for it!’ and “Sexy, confident and smart... That’s you’. However, these two quotes are without fail placed next to a photograph of a scantily clad female, moving the focus of the reader from the text on to the image, enforcing the gaze to be on the female, so that the magazine tries to reiterate the idea that a high achieving women is a good looking one. Being ‘sexy’ could be a quality given to a women to refer to any of her characteristics, but the use of the female gaze shows that here, sexiness is about flaunting your body for the viewer to see.

Men vs. Fashion - Regular Feature - (pg 25)

- This is a regular feature where three men rate what they think about what four female celebrities are wearing, also featuring the Cosmo fashion verdict, which can be quite different from what the men think

- The article does state, "we don't dress for men, but we're often curious about their fashion sense."

- However this article still suggests that we should consider what men would think of our outfits and what is 'fashionable', rather than wearing what we want to, and what we feel comfortable in

- The article also is an example of the magazines fixation with celebrity culture and body image

- The celebrities are often criticised for making bold moves or wearing unusual fashion choices, giving the reader the idea that we should all be dressed the same to be considered fashionable

Men on... - Regular Feature - (pg 28)

- This is a feature which regular features a few men's opinions on a random issue.
- This issue three men give their opinion on women taking instagram vanity pictures. There is no reason for women to dress to please men so it seems irrelevant that this feature would be printed in a magazine which is supposed to be about giving confidence to women.