Quiz for women: What do you like and dislike about Cosmopolitan magazine?

[crystalclear]

No, I don't work for Cosmo! I am curious what others think. Lately (I am a 27 year old woman) I get more and more disgusted with this magazine although I've read it for years...

 

Mostly because I think they perpetuate an unrealistic standard of female beauty, which I also think contributes to the competition and insecurity so many girls my age feel with each other.

 

But, there are some entertaining parts of the mag too! What do you gals like and dislike about Cosmo?

 

I don't like how they create a certain 'look' that women are supposed to adhere to in order to be considered beautiful. (Take that game show 'Deal or no Deal - why are there 40 model-type women up there? Couldn't they throw some hot men into the mix for the other half of the audience's enjoyment? Or at least some girls that you can tell apart from one another?)

 

I do like how they have advice articles and small stories on couples.

 

What do you think?

[Kittiecat]

I'm not so much annoyed with the standard of beauty thing as I am with the expectation that a woman is supposed to have everything (i.e. gorgeous looks, fantastic body, hot man who gives you hot sex every night, kick ass career, etc. etc.).

[RecordProducer]

All female magazines are a bunch of BS written by complete dilettantes, if you ask me. They have no value whatsoever. The only thing that is professional in those magazines are the photos and quality of paper.

 

They live off advertisements and the rest they are just strung to fill in somehow to make women buy the magazine. I can't believe that such magazines still survive actually!

 

I like to believe that the gyms and cosmetics salons are the only ones that actually buy them regularly.

[Adunaphel]

I used to like Cosmo and kept buying it every month for quite a long time because I was very fascinated with articles about men, relationships, night clubs and strippers, what is supposed to go through a guy's mind, why you shoud, or should not, have an affair/buy a vibrator/go to a strip club with your partner/compare your SO's penis size to those of your exes, advice about how to deal with specific situations concerning your partner and you.

 

.....then I found Loveshack.

[erika2610]

All female magazines are a bunch of BS written by complete dilettantes, if you ask me. They have no value whatsoever. The only thing that is professional in those magazines are the photos and quality of paper.

 

They live off advertisements and the rest they are just strung to fill in somehow to make women buy the magazine. I can't believe that such magazines still survive actually!

 

I like to believe that the gyms and cosmetics salons are the only ones that actually buy them regularly.

 

Not true. Not ALL female magazines are like that. For example, I buy Woman's day from time to time. They actually have some pretty good advice as far as health, fitness.. etc. Cosmo sucks, yea. But once in a while, I think it's Glamour mag - they have some pretty good articles.

[Pink Amulet]

As I read ALOT of hard news every day, it's nice to fill my mind with fashion, celebrity, and general shallow nothingness once a month.

[BlueEyedGirl]

I buy cosmo regularly. It's relaxing for me to read about fashion, relationship advice etc after a full day of reading scientific journal articles for work. The shallower the magazine the better.

[HeyYouGuys]

Cosmo is poorly-written trash masquerading as 'advice' for women.

 

It's mindless and great fun to read at the beach, when all you want to think about is shoes and lipstick.

 

 

But you're right, the endless ads, airbrushed models and chirpy articles about how to 'lose belly fat' and 'get gorgeous fat lashes that will make his jaw drop' get old fast.

 

 

 

The last time I bought Cosmo was about two years ago on vacation. We had just purchased a new house and I was debating what color to paint the kitchen.

While flipping through a Cosmo in line at the store, I found a picture of a vintage-inspired coat ($660) in just the shade I wanted for the kitchen.

Also, the model's shoes ($450) were just the right shade for my bedroom.

 

I bought the rag just to tear out that page and used it to pick paint chips at Sear's hardware.