1. Looking at a recent issue
of Cosmo, I was left
feeling like the whole
magazine was putting
modest women down and
making sex and beauty
appear to be the only
way to get a guy. That
led me to want to look at
the content of this
magazine a little closer.
Thursday, April 26, 12

2. Has Cosmopolitan magazine turned women
into a sexualized object instead of acting as
a source of advice and entertainment for the
majority of women?
It is important as a
professional in the field of
communication to understand
the affect of your content on
society. Cosmo certainly
provides and ideal women, and
readers are encouraged to
convey in themselves the
messages that this magazine
is channeling.
Thursday, April 26, 12

3. Cosmopolitan magazine has been around since 1886, making it one of the oldest magazines in print. Like the rest
of the world, Cosmo changed greatly over time. It began as a publication that consisted of popular women’s
fiction and advice columns. It appealed to the majority of middle class working women and provided dating tips
to help these woman find the right guy. The magazine took on the assumption that their readers were single
working women.
Today, Cosmo’s audience is mainly married women. Its content focuses on ways to spice up relationships and
inform women of the qualities and characteristics that men like the most. The magazines monthly publications
are gushing with sex tips and stories, and provides ways for women to look their best and increase their men’s
desire for them. Women are being objectified on almost every page on this publication, whether it is in an
advertisement or an article itself.
Thursday, April 26, 12

4. Benefits of my research:
In the 1900’s, cosmopolitan magazine ran into trouble with funding and
readers and decided it needed to make some changes to get more copies
sold. These changes led to the Cosmo that is in circulation today. Literary
sources explained the reasons for these changes, and the results of these
changes, but it did not show them. My research will provide me with
visuals of todays Cosmopolitan experience.
Thursday, April 26, 12

5. My Expectations:
Based on the information I found from other sources, I expected to find a
lot of articles about how woman should look and behave for their men. I
expected a large focus on beauty and sex, and little content varying from
that.
I believe that my research will show how highly sexualized Cosmo has
become, as well as many ads about how to be the ideal woman, sharing
products that can help you accomplish the overall image. I believe that I
will find that this magazine demonstrates how women can become objects
for men to fantasize about instead of teaching woman how to be respected
and courageous. There is also a part of me that expects the amount of
sexualization in the magazine to be less than described in past research
because of the rising popularity of feminism and women’s lack of
appreciation for being objectified.
Thursday, April 26, 12

6. What method will work
well for my research?
CONTENT
ANALYSIS
It is a great method to use for subjects in the media.
I am looking for what the magazine is composed of, what is in the content and
what the content is saying which is essentially the definition of a content analysis.
Thursday, April 26, 12

7. More about the method of Content Analysis:
A content analysis is a way of breaking
down the content of something into
categories in order to better analyze it. It
also provides you with quantitative
information about the content being
analyzed.
Thursday, April 26, 12

8. For a content analysis, one must use operational
definitions. An operational definition is a definition that
tells you how the content you are analyzing is being
classified. Operational definitions use operations and
indicators to define terms. For this research project I
will use the following operational definitions:
Advertisement: Pages selling products, for the purpose of this project I counted the
advertisements by pages; if an ad took up a three page spread, I counted it as three
pages of advertisements instead of just one advertisement.
Sexually Charged Images: Images with male and female physical contact, women wearing
only under garments or clothing resembling under garments, women posing in provocative
positions (leg spread, laying down, making breasts the central focus of the photo).
Beauty Products: products that can be used to alter natural body appearance. Included in
this category were diet pills, lotions, perfumes, and make-up.
Political/literary/inspirational content: these three categories I grouped together simply
because they were virtually nonexistent in this magazine, but are important as a category
in women’s magazines. This category consists of current issues such as birth control and
abortion; important, inspirational, or popular books and novels that are often talked about
in women’s magazines; and educational articles telling inspirational stories from peers,
another really popular part of women’s magazines.
Thursday, April 26, 12

9. How I went about doing
my research:
I created categories of topics popular in the majority of
women’s magazines as well as topics that are true to all
magazines. I flipped through the magazine time after time
counting, recording, reading and observing images. After
finding which categories were the most surprising and
relevant, I edited my categories further until I thought
they well represented my findings in the magazine. My
categories can be found in the next slide.
Thursday, April 26, 12

10. Category # of Pages % of total
Total # of Pages 259 100
# of Pages with Women 163 62
# of Pages containing talk of
sex 45 17
# of pages With Ads 124 40
# of pages with beauty ads 94 36
# of Pages with women in sexually
charged poses 93 36
# of pages with men in sexually
charged poses 11 4
# of pages with political, literary, or
inspirational content 4 1
Thursday, April 26, 12

11. My analysis showed that almost half of the magazine was composed of
sexually charged images and articles.
Sexually Charged Image or Discussion
Other Content
43%
57%
Thursday, April 26, 12

12. Some of the articles advertised on the cover included: “Feel Great Naked” and “The Sex Issue” and “Sex Questions.”
Inside of the issue you find more headings “Packing Heat,” an article that explores sexual relationships with co-workers.
“Makeup men find irresistible” a four page spread that gave men’s opinions on how they like women to do their makeup
and what they think looks the most attractive on women.
“Strike the pose that drives men wild” explores a pose that ‘scientists’ say turns on men the most.
“Look sexy from head to toe” a small section containing tips to make clothes highlight the ‘sexiest’ parts of a women’s
body.
“The innocent habit that hurts your hubby” a column that points out how guys are hurt when women talk about how
they find other men attractive, but dismisses the fact that men are just as guilty of this habit.
“How not to attract a dude” things that some women do that are a turn off to men.
These articles that take up a good portion of the magazine do nothing but teach
women how to make men happier. There is nothing about how to make women feel
good. This puts a lot of pressure on women to be perfect so that men will be
attracted to them and love them. What these articles fail to mention are how
important it is that women feel free to express themselves and it does not offer
any hope as far as how to get men to bend over backwards to make women happy..
Women are definitely being objectified in a sexual sense in this magazine.
Thursday, April 26, 12

13. Advertisements in Cosmo
Percent of pages with Advertisements
Pages with other content
Out of the total pages
48%
52% with ads (124), 76% of
those ads were for
Beauty Products, 36% of
the whole magazine.
Thursday, April 26, 12

14. Even advertisements that were not
for women’s clothing or cosmetics
used women’s bodies to sell products.
Thursday, April 26, 12

15. What I found:
Cosmopolitan Magazine is largely focused on turning women into
perfect objects of sexual desire for men. The magazine puts a
large focus on putting a lot of energy into making your man happy
and looking and behaving in a way that is attractive to him.
Cosmopolitan magazine does not spend a lot of space discussing
political issues, women in positions of power, stories of women
being taken advantage of, or advice on anything other than sexual
relationships like other women’s magazines. Although Cosmo is a
very popular magazine, it is not spreading any encouragement for
women to be anything other than sexual objects. The small part
of me that believed that Cosmo’s current issues may give into an
increasing feminist movement was completely blown out of the
water as soon as I looked at the cover and table of contents. It is
clear that Cosmo is a magazine with a particular style that they
are sticking with.
Thursday, April 26, 12

16. Sources:
http://cdn2.khloekcdn.celebuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Khloe-Kardashian-Cosmopolitan-Cover-May-2012-
Issue-580x788.jpg
http://www.dailystab.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/lady-gaga-cosmo-cover.jpghttp:/ /www.google.com/
imgres?q=cosmopolitan+magazine
+1900&hl=en&biw=1256&bih=618&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=xpQ717t3QqcFkM:&imgrefurl=http:/ /
fishinghistory.blogspot.com/&docid=tAVopyN8MkPMnM&imgurl=http:/ /i1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa358/
heidstress/fishcover_21.jpg&w=376&h=500&ei=ui-
XT4ncBOnw0gHHrrXYDg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=449&sig=107381193148217088927&page=1&tbnh=126&tbnw=95&start=
0&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:22,s:0,i:115&tx=39&ty=60
http://www.stylehasnosize.com/wp-content/uploads/InbetweenieCosmopolitan01.jpg
Feminist Media Studies; Sep2009, Vol. 9 Issue 3, p267-283, 17p
McMahon, Kathryn. Journal of Sex Research, Aug90, Vol. 27 Issue 3, p381-396, 16p
Gupta, Antoinette E.; Zimmerman, Toni S.; Fruhauf, Christine A.. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 2008, Vol. 7 Issue
3, p248-266, 19p, 1 Chart
Thursday, April 26, 12