Monday, December 17, 2012
Media Moment: Cosmo makes me blush
I was again looking for a topic in which to post this blog, and I found myself typing into google seemingly endless combinations of words with women next to it. Women + Rights, Women + Issues, Women + News. So I just went to http://www.cosmopolitan.com/. We had talked about it for class, about its origins and its creator, so I guess it seemed an appropriate place to go. What I saw kind of frightened me. I really did blush. I immediately looked over my shoulder to see if anyone could see what I had just seen. The last time I had seen an issue of Cosmo in the "wild", I had visited an old girlfriend at her dorm in Boston, which she occupied with about four other women. Loose copies of the magazine were scattered around the suite and when I picked one up and began to leaf through it, she dismissively waived her hand and told me it was "ridiculous" and it was kind of like reading the Weekly World News to keep up with current events. She did mention that it was fun. Going through the website I imagined the "fun" aspect of it was an acquired taste, kind of like smoking your first cigarette or drinking hard liquor for the first time. The first experience is an intense and revolting burning sensation that leaves you breathless and choking for air, but with repeated attempts becomes normal and eventually enjoyable. I mean, if you're into that kind of thing.
I normally feel that I'm keyed into modern culture or at least desensitized to it to the degree that I don't have a puritanical reaction to anything anymore. I guess that's a naive way to approach the internet. I just didn't expect such a calculated and intense approach to sexuality. Which I can only really describe as the cool methodical way a lion, or stalker, approaches its prey. I wonder if I am just purely ignorant of this publication, and it's a matter of "just not getting it." I do find the inverse, say Maxim for example, to be equally gross. As man I was ready for that kind of grossness, I guess. Am I being chauvinistic? I'd like to know what you think of Cosmo?
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Your humorous description of your experience with Cosmo is entirely relatable. When I first moved to New York, I had a co-worker at a restaurant that I worked in, who thought it was her to job to take me under her wing, and show me the 'way of a woman'. At the time, I was holding onto my V-Card for pretty much anyone that I trusted enough to give 'it' to. I remember her saying to me, "the worst thing I did with my first, was pretend that I was some sort of goddess in the bedroom. I didn't leave any room for innocence and purity, and I pretended like I had been doing 'this' for years. Don't make that same mistake".
ReplyDeleteHolding onto her advice, I allowed my first 'experience' to be innocent and pure. After that, I wanted to know how to do EVERYTHING. I went to Cosmo.
THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER. I was not even close to ready to be a 'sizzling-sex-symbol' and those '7 things I didn't know would make my man howl', yeah, I really didn't need to know about any of that. Cosmo took away part of the innocence and fun in exploring sexual behaviors and preferences. However, I am most horrified when I look back on reading Cosmo in middle school with my girlfriends. We had NO CLUE what we were reading, thank God, but we were still exposed to all of it.