Cosmopolitan (magazine)
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Cosmopolitan is a magazine for women, sometimes referred to as Cosmo, which has been published for more than a century. It began as a family magazine, launched in 1886 by Schlicht & Field as The Cosmopolitan.
Paul Schlicht told his first-issue readers that his publication was a "first-class family magazine", adding, "There will be a department devoted exclusively to the interests of women, with articles on fashions, on household decoration, on cooking, and the care and management of children, etc., also a department for the younger members of the family."
Cosmopolitan's circulation reached 25,000 that year, but by March, 1888, Schlicht & Field were no longer in business. John Brisben Walker acquired the magazine in 1889, and E. D. Walker, formerly with Harper's Monthly, took over as the new editor, introducing color illustrations, serials and book reviews. It became a leading market for fiction, featuring such authors as Annie Besant, Ambrose Bierce, Theodore Dreiser, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London and Edith Wharton. The magazine's circulation climbed to 75,000 by 1892.
In 1897 Cosmopolitan announced plans for a free correspondence school: "No charge of any kind will be made to the student. All expenses for the present will be borne by the Cosmopolitan. No conditions, except a pledge of a given number of hours of study." When 20,000 immediately signed up, Walker could not fund the school and students were then asked to contribute 20 dollars a year. Also in 1897, H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds was serialized, as was his First Man in the Moon (1900). Olive Schreiner contributed a lengthy article about the Boer War.
In 1905 William Randolph Hearst purchased the magazine for $400,000 ($10,000,000 in 2006 prices) and brought in journalist Charles Edward Russell, who contributed a series of investigative articles, including "The Growth of Caste in America" (March, 1907), "At the Throat of the Republic" (December, 1907 - March, 1908) and "What Are You Going to Do About It?" (July, 1910 - January, 1911) and "Colorado - New Tricks in an Old Game" (December 1910).
Other contributors during this period included Alfred Henry Lewis, Sinclair Lewis, David Graham Phillips, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell. Illustrators included Francis Attwood, Dean Cornwell, James Montgomery Flagg and Harrison Fisher.
With a circulation of 1,700,000 in the 1930s, Cosmopolitan had an advertising income of $5,000,000. Emphasizing fiction in the 1940s, it was subtitled The Four-Book Magazine since the first section had one novelette, six or eight short stories, two serials, six to eight articles and eight or nine special features, while the other three sections featured two novels and a digest of current non-fiction books. During World War II, sales peaked at 2,000,000.
The magazine began to run less fiction during the 1950s. Circulation dropped to slightly over a million by 1955, and it continued to decline for another decade. The fear of atomic warfare hung heavily over everybody's heads, and women were forced back into their more traditional roles of housewife and mother. Life revolved around the family, and there was little thought to magazine reading.
[edit] Helen Gurley Brown arrives
Everything changed when Helen Gurley Brown became chief editor in 1965 and remodeled the magazine. In the late 1960s, Cosmopolitan became a women's magazine complete with a sexy cover shot every month of a woman (usually) in a low cut dress or bikini. Brown wished to show the "single woman" that she was not alone in engaging in pre-marital sex; there were other women throughout the country who were doing the same thing.
In Brown's early years as editor, the magazine received a lot of criticism. Many people were shocked at the new message of the one-time literary magazine. Brown, however, took no notice and continued to print the magazine that she had envisioned.
The magazine ran a near-nude centerfold of a then little-known actor named Burt Reynolds in April 1972. It was a scandalous move for the time. The issue created great controversy, propelling both Cosmopolitan and Burt Reynolds to the forefront of American popular culture.
In recent years the magazine, and in particular, its cover stories, have become more sexually explicit in tone. The UK editon of Cosmopolitan, which began in the early 1970s, was well known for sexual explicitness, with strong sexual language, male nudity and coverage of such subjects as rape. More recently, CosmoGIRL!, a spinoff magazine targeting a teenage female audience, has been created for an international readership. Another spin off, Cosmopolitan Men, is aimed at a male audience.
Though Cosmopolitan is known for its sex advice and sex tips, the magazine mainly focuses on educating women in areas other than sexuality and providing coverage of the latest in fashion and beauty. Real-world stories are recounted ("Real Life Reads") first-hand by survivors, safety tips for risky or dangerous situations (such as living alone) accompany stories of hidden risks, health myths and urban legends are debunked. Sections such as "Health Check", which has featured articles such as "Cosmo Gyno" and "Your Body: What An Abnormal Pap Smear Can Mean", are there not only for entertainment value but to help women understand their bodies and even recognize possible health problems. Less serious regular features include "Guy Confessions" (pages where men share embarrassing stories or shameful things they've done); celebrity gossip; "You, You, You", which contains a wide variety of fun facts and advice.
The magazine currently features feminine topics such as sex, makeup and hair tips, yet cover blurbs like "How to date eight men at once and get away with it" annoy some readers. Third-wave feminists have argued that although the present iteration of Cosmo was started to stop discrimination and empower women, it now contributes to women's oppression by inspiring uneasiness over their physical image, due to the magazine's venerated display of women's sexuality and statuesque body image. Computers are used to manipulate photographs of women. Elizabeth Hurley described the magazine's digital enlargement of her breasts: "On my last Cosmo cover, they added about five inches to my breasts. It's very funny. I have, like, massive knockers. Huge. Absolutely massive." [1]
In its January 1988 issue, Cosmopolitan ran a feature claiming that women had almost no reason to worry about contracting HIV long after the best available medical science indicated otherwise. The piece claimed that unprotected sex with an HIV-positive man did not put women at risk of infection, further stating that "most heterosexuals are not at risk" and that it is impossible to transmit HIV in the missionary position [2]. The stance of this article angered gay rights and AIDS activists who felt it contributed to the demonization already in the gay community due to the epidemic.
Cosmopolitan reaches readers in more than 100 countries and has been published in 32 languages, including Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew, Romanian, Russian and French. It was banned in Singapore until recently.
Cosmopolitan has traditionally been a women’s magazine discussing such topics as sex, health, fitness and fashion. Recently the magazine is sharing their focus with men’s issues as well. “Cosmo for your guy” is featured in every issue with exclusive advice for the men. Cosmopolitan also recruits men as a part of their staff to answer their female reader’s burning questions they just can’t ask the men in their lives. The “Guy Confessions” add men’s embarrassing mishaps to those submitted by women.
