Did I just reference a Cosmopolitan magazine in the scene I'm writing at this moment? Sure have.
Did I put down everything to google search the cover and make sure I described the issue for that month correctly? You betcha.
Did I go to the store to find that issue? Of course not. It's from several months ago, it's 3:30 AM here, and I'm at work.
Did I purchase it online, just so that you could hear Aisling's perspective on whatever insipid article they were running on the cover that month (SEX… Your Way: Kisses, Touches & Positions to Satisfy Your Body—Get It Girl!)? Also no.
Did I go to pirate bay and see if they had it, find out they did, rationalize that Cosmo gets money from the fact that there are more pages of advertisements than features, realize that arguing with myself was futile, and download it? Yes. Yes I did.
So that I could read the entire magazine, and fill you in on what a person inside my brain would think of it, with devastating and real world accuracy, and for absolutely no reason at all! I could make something up that would be just as good as any article Cosmo published, arguably better.
But I won't, because I'm dedicated... to wishing I wasn't so dedicated.
Comments
Oh, Cosmo-Not!
Watch out with that Cosmo, it'll rot your brain!!
A couple of years ago I'd answered some survey questions over the phone and at the end was offered subscriptions to any three publications from their list. Wasn't really a good selection for me, the selections ran heavy on hunting and sports. I chose Reader's Digest and Time. But I still had a pick left so on a whim I picked Cosmo. Worst thing I ever did! ( Figuratively speaking) I never did finish a single issue, and the last several issues never even made it in the door, mailbox to trash.
I did get one lesson from it. Any girl/young woman that enjoyed reading Cosmo was somebody I didn't want to know!!! :-(
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
We used to get...
...the issues from my brother's can't-be-ex-soon-enough-wife's subscription because she'd used our address. She never retrieved them, despite at least one renewal during that time, so eventually I started to peruse the odd issue when they caught my eye.
Yeah, the ads and the crap articles. I did enjoy looking at some of the outfits and ensembles they'd showcase, though, with full awareness that I'd never have, be fit to, nor be so silly as to want 99.9999% of it, but it did help in starting to get a better idea of fashion trends, and how to interpret the attempts of women around me (and on telly) to invoke them, and by extension ways of creating additional social evaluation filters of a sort. I don't get my worldview from such, but knowing that some do at some degree of remove allows me at least a little insight into how women evaluate themselves in relation to others. Such is not a comprehensive filter by any means (Language comes significantly closer, for example), but has the virtue of being useable at a physical distance and, with good memory and visual acuity, in just a glance.
And it's nicer to think of than, f'rex, pursuit preparatory stances or the degree to which they are actively scanning their surrounds for threats, or even whether they are potential threats themselves. Yes, I've anxiety issues, and an engaging distraction can help when I'm forced into public spaces.
-Liz
Successor to the LToC
Formerly known as "momonoimoto"
Cosmo and consumer culture
Cosmo was one of several women’s magazines developed by William Randolph Hurst in the 1920’s to promote consumer culture, which was a new business model at that time. Then and now, the mind rot was and still is by design. See the Adam Curtis documentary series, The Century of the Self for the details.
Twisted Souls
Been enjoying TG Techi.. Only lost me in the 4th Dimension ????
alissa