A look at COSMOPOLITAN

I realized we thoroughly discussed Cosmo and Maxim magazines this past week, but I thought it was important for me as a reader to re-analyze at least Cosmopolitan because, yeah I am a woman who does read it.
The typical cover of a Cosmo magazine has titles along the lines of “sex him up in ten minutes,” “How to look sexy in anything (or not in anything),” and the smallest title at the bottom of the cover: “How to lose 20 lbs in 20 days.” Okay, so they don’t exactly say things that extreme but they come real close! Usually…well almost always they boarded along the lines of sexual. Sure, Cosmo is a fun read that gives women dieting tips, fashion tips, and sex tips but often times (as mentioned by Johnson) those cover titles make it seem as though women need to be gorgeous, sexual creatures who know every rule to making sex easy and wonderful, a perpetuation of Dr. Galician’s myths 4 and 5.
I was thinking about our discussions in class about magazines, especially Cosmo and Maxim and decided to pull out my one issue of Cosmopolitan that I own. It’s the newest issue with Lauren Conrad. As talked about in class, her stance is one where she is standing confidently with her hand placed ever so perfectly on her thigh. This photo could show women, that you have to be thin, have long hair, be tan, and have perfect breasts to hold confidence. Next, I noticed the headlines on the cover; they are large, bold, and attract your attention with edge, raw words. My issue featured articles called: “100 SEX Questions,” Virgins in Cosmo! We thought this day would never come,” “You on Top,” “4 Signs He’s Craving You,” and the small line, “Cut 100 Calories at Any Meal.” Some of these articles are about just what they say they are; like the 100 SEX Questions. But, others are about how to be successful: You On Top. But who is going to stop and examine that? All people care about is what looks dangerous and exciting on the cover of a magazine.
I was interested in checking out Cosmo and Maxim’s websites to see if those forms of their media are as risqué as their magazines. And… they are. The first titles I noticed on the home page of Cosmo was “5 Annoying things Guys do on Facebook,” “A Meal that will Mesmerize him,” and “Cosmo’s Sex School.” And with Maxim I first noticed “Today’s Girl,” “Nutsack safety tip #286,” and “Maxim.com’s DVD aphrodisiac.” Once I moved on to their sex topic links I noticed more provocative titles like “7 Kinds of Sex all Couples need,” “Hot 100,” “10 things to do with Ice,” and “Hometown Hotties.” I’m sure you could make an intelligent guess as to which title belongs to which website.
With all these titles it’s easy to see how and why they catch a reader’s attention. But, one thing I will never understand is why we (including myself) put ourselves through reading things that make us seem unattractive, unsuccessful, and just plain bad at sex?!?

Blog 1- 6/23

Hello.
My name is Lauren vonville. I am going to be a fourth year student and am studying english. Originally I was a restaurant management major and I plan on going to culinary school after college. I want to be a restaurant owner, chef, food critic, and paid traveler! I was a Gahanna Lion and now an OU bobcat. I am 21 years old and have lived in Gahanna for about 19 years!

Since I've changed my major to english, I have now experienced both basic tier english classes and major english classes. I have taken many classes in both writing and reading. I have taken classes specifically for research & essay writing and classes for poetry writing & textual analysis and also reading survey courses. My major strength when it comes to writing is relaying and conveying the information that I have researched or learned from other authors. This has also been considered one of my weaknesses in writing; because I really enjoy relaying other peoples works, sometimes I don't fully focus on what a prompt is asking about the tone or text of of a piece of writing. Lets just say... Reading is all weakness for me (well, for the most part). I've never been a big reader and I honestly don't enjoy it that much unless it's about cooking, chefs, or the food industry. (ya, i like reading magazines...)

My expectations for this class are high in respects to learning alot about sex, love, and relationships in mass media. I also expect to learn alot more about rewriting. I can already see that this class is going to be filled with assignments and projects that will better me in the english world.

TTYL