Wednesday 26 January 2011

Cosmo and the lad mag

    It must be an experience common to all of us born as blokes with the wrong brain, to seize whatever fleeting chances we can to immerse ourselves in something feminine. I was reminded of one from my past yesterday by something that popped up in my feed reader at work, when I was much younger I always used to enjoy reading my sister's copy of  Cosmopolitan. My peers laughed at me for this, but fortunately I had an "out", I was able to successfully demonstrate that Cosmo had far more top-shelf content in its pages than any of the behind-the-bike-shed publications they passed between them, the only difference being that it was written rather than pictorial. My rampantly heterosexual teenaged alpha male credentials salvaged, I continued to read about achieving the perfect female orgasm.
    Yesterday's reminder came in the form of a text analysis of a year of Cosmo covers contrasted with a year of Maxim covers. The sentence "Nearly ever cover promises a story on sexual positions" made me laugh.
    You can find the piece here: What Are the Messages of Cosmo and Maxim?.

6 comments:

  1. I used to love getting my monthly issue of Cosmopolitan in my mailbox. I learned so much from reading it. Sadly, I allowed my suscription to expire.

    Incidentally, I spent about an hour and a half in the local garage the other day, getting my annual state vehicle inspection taken care of. The only thing that made spending that much time in a room full of "good ole' boys" talking about the things that "good ole' boys" talk about, was an ample supply of women's magazines on the shelf, presumably stocked for their female customers. They must have thought I was a weird one, because when I paid my bill, the guy behind the counter barely made eye contact with me, even though I tried to make some friendly small talk with him. Thankfully I only have to go there once a year!

    Melissa XX

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  2. Melissa, don't you know that you were in a bloke place? You were out of place in there my dear, you can't force your way into an all male club! LOL. Anyway getting back to Jenny's post (sorry Jenny), I never did read stuff like that but I did like getting my hands on 'Womens Weekly', 'Womans Own' and other similar mags. My mom must have wondered about me!

    Shirley Anne xxx

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  3. @Singapore florist, I'm afraid I've deleted your post because as a former employee of one of the large search engines you are targeting and whose job was made very annoying by it I don't take kindly to link spam on my blog. You are welcome to comment, but if you link a keyword-heavy phrase to your website as your username it will be deleted.

    @Melissa, I'm fortunate in that I mostly find myself in that situation with the Rusty Old Wreck, which is in itself a handy Good Ol' Boy (Or Brit equivalent) topic of conversation. I shamelessly read women's magazines at the hairdressers though.

    @Shirley Anne, my mother never commented on my reading her She. Maybe she didn't notice, after all I was convinced she knew all about me until I came out to her and found she had no idea.

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  4. LOL...thanks for that Jenny. I couldn't stop laughing at the irony of you coming out to your Mom. Hugs

    Shirley Anne xxx

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  5. I have read and enjoyed woman's magazines about as far back as I can remember, when I used to sneak peaks at my mother's magazines.

    Here in the States, there is a satellite radio station I listen to often in my car...Cosmo Radio. It's full of girl talk, fashion hints, etc., and quite entertaining.

    Calie xxx

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  6. I did buy a glossy women's magazine to while away a train journey either things had changed or they always were full of advertising or ads hiding as articles. With modern versions of the old how to please your man. It seemed so different when I read my sister's which was sometimes written In what seemed a different language.
    I do flick though Stylist magazine on Tuesday's, mainly because its handed out free.

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