Last week, we spent some time looking at magazine covers and obviously that is the topic of our group presentations tomorrow. I hope I’m not stepping on anyone’s project here, but I just had an interesting thought and wanted to share.
My group got together, and we chose a Cosmopolitan cover to discuss for our project. We had a lot to talk about, and made a lot of good points. We agreed that Cosmopolitan’s target audience is single females, ages 19-30. Johnson’s article, which discussed the “cover lines and cover images” of Cosmopolitan, compared the amount of sex/relationship cover lines to those that include intimacy, or cautionary stories. We talk about this in our project, so I won’t go in depth, but it got me thinking about the “Cosmo Girl” magazine they have.
With all the concern about body image and self-esteem for younger girls, in my opinion, this magazine does nothing but encourage negative thoughts. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to have a source from which you get personal hygiene/beauty/fashion info from, but I think some of the content in this magazine in inappropriate for the ages it is aimed at (12-18 approximately).
I think this is a problem, because not only does it add to the insecurities that teenage girls already have, but it also encourages sexual tendencies/ behavior in younger girls, which as we all know just leads to bigger problems in Jr. High and High School, and possibly further still. What are your thoughts on this early exposure to such mature material?
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I agree with what you have to say. I actually used to read "Cosmo Girl" when I was about 12 years old. The first problem I see with this magazine is the age of the target audience (12-18). Now that I am older than I was when I read this magazine, I realize that a magazine that is geared toward girls who are 18 should never be targeted to girls who are 12. I was a very different person when I was 12 than when I was a senior in high school. As a preteen, I was obviously not as mature as I am now. I read that magazine and assumed that I needed to be like the girls in the magazine. Like most magazines for girls, "Cosmo Girl" also featured nothing but super skinny models. I don't think it is healthy for girls who are between the ages of 12 and 14 to read things like this because they start to feel pressured to look and act a certain way. This magazine also features stories from girls in high school about parties and sex. I really don't think that content is appropriate for a 12 year old. Early exposure to mature content is going to make these girls grow up faster than they need to. I think younger girls should still enjoy their childhood instead of sitting at home reading "Cosmo Girl" in an attempt to get tips on how to look sexy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of you. In my blog, I talked about how magazine ads, television shows, movies, and music are all using sex to sell. The Cosmo Girl magazine is a prime example of this. It is scary to know that twelve year olds are reading about how to please their boyfriends and how to fix their flaws. When I was twelve, all I cared about was my athletics and if I remembered to do all of my homework. Cosmo Girl encourages young girls to grow up a lot faster than they need too. I think these preteens feel that it is necessary to lose weight, have sex, and attract a mate. Cosmo Girl never really talks about growing up and being successful even if it is without a boyfriend. I wish they would make more magazines that encouraged young girls to learn how to be the best person that they can be and learn how to make it on their own without changing anything about themselves.
ReplyDeleteI was the same way when I was younger! My mom would never let me buy Cosmo, but when I could sneak it and read it at a friends house, I would indulge, and I did take to heart most of the things that were said. Thankfully I had a very strong support system that I knew not to get to attached to Cosmo ideals (like a perfect body, or how to attract men at the age of 13), but, you're totally right, there are so many girls out there that do think it's ago to go ahead and be sexy in their early teens, which is just plain dangerous! And not to mention the insecure attitude young girls take right away after reading a magazine, which I can only imagine, because even I get intimidated from magazines, like Cosmo, to this day!
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