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Sarah Allen and Maddy Gross

COM 100
Final Paper
3 December 2015
Sexualization of Women on Cosmopolitan Magazine Covers from 2015
Description. Seeing women on magazine covers is not a new trend in the media. Seeing
sexualized women on magazine covers is very common nowadays, especially for fashion
magazines like Cosmopolitan. Cosmo boasts its sex advice and life tips for women, and claims to
empower women to be who they want to be, while propelling her into her fun, fearless future
(Cosmopolitan media kit). Covers feature bright, ageless celebrities with many headlines to grab
the reader's attention. Examples include Hot Summer Sex in the August 2015 edition, The 5Minutes Flat Abs Workout from the April 2015 edition, and #JobGoals: Do What You Love,
Get a Fat Paycheck from the September 2015 edition. Cameron Diaz, Zooey Deschanel, Gwen
Stefani, and the Kardashian-Jenner women are samples of celebrities on the covers. There is not
one woman on the cover of Cosmo that isnt known in popular culture.
The women generally wear clothes that are tight, short, and/or cleavage-baring. The attire
all looks edgy and fashionable, while seeming ethereal because its probably expensive and not
everyone could pull it off. They put on sexy faces, while keeping their eyes as big as
possible. Their skin is airbrushed, and the women look sexy and flawless. On 11 of the 12 2015
covers, the women are white--Nicki Minaj is the only exception on the July edition cover. They
are the role models for many women reading the magazine, and the fantasies for many men. The
oldest woman featured on a cover is Kris Jenner at 60 years old, posed with her daughters. The
youngest woman is Kylie Jenner, the 18-year-old daughter of Kris Jenner. According to the
Cosmo media kit, the average age of readers is 34.7 years old, while the mean age between Kris
and Kylie is 39 years, which is close to the average age of Cosmo readers.

The magazine seems to be focused on sex, as that is the topic of many articles, more than
anything else. Women are sexualized because it attracts the readers attention and helps sell the
writing as much as the magazine. If women are reading articles about sex, they are going to want
to see confident and sexy women on the cover to emulate. Occasionally on the covers, there are
small headlines about job tips, and more frequently tips about losing weight and keeping fit.
These are also tips that readers will want to use because they are framed well on the page. The
main articles are made very large on the page so that they catch the readers observations.
There is an emphasis on staying young and sexy while getting older. Hilary Duff posed
for the April 2015 cover, three years after giving birth to her son and a few months after she
announced her divorce from the husband. In the image she is wearing short, ripped, jean cut-off
shorts and a tight, low-cut, black, cleavage-baring leather jacket. The captions reads, Hilary
Duff Is Back and Kicking Ass. She is sticking her chest forward and pushing her back out as to
accentuate her body. Her facial expression is almost surprised, but excited. On the June 2015
issue, Zooey Deschanel is barely recognizable as herself, but she is dressed almost like a
sexualized schoolgirl, with perfect, childlike skin. She is getting older, but Cosmo argues that her
sex appeal is very prominent.
Analysis. The most obvious pattern among Cosmopolitan covers is the overt sexuality.
Out of the twelve magazine covers Cosmo released in 2015, all twelve featured women. This is
consistent with the breakdown of gender demographics among readers, 14.5 million out of 16.8
million of whom are women (Cosmopolitan media kit). However, every woman on the cover is
making direct eye contact with the camera, and thus the reader, and only the February cover
featured a woman with both her arms/chest and her legs/butt covered up. In terms of covers
articles, the largest text aside from the magazines name was always an article having to do with

sex, whether mentioned in direct terms or with words referencing sex like love and passion.
Ten out of the twelve covers featured the word sex, sexy, or sexual. Additionally, all
twelve covers made references to relationships (either romantic or sexual), but eight out of
twelve specifically used male pronouns or synonyms for the word man; this suggests that
Cosmo aims to appeal predominantly to heterosexual women. The emphasis on sexuality overall
suggests that a womans sexuality is her most important aspect.
The other topics emphasized by the covers of Cosmopolitan were career and fitness,
which both appeared on all twelve covers. Every cover made at least one reference to learning
new workouts or healthy eating, with the most common workouts mentioned being ways to tone
up a womans abs or butt. No cover models for 2015 were overweight. These patterns suggest
that a Cosmo woman is either in shape and thin or must aspire to be. As for career, all but one
cover featured an article about being successful in the workplace. However, the placement of the
related text was usually in the mid-right or bottom-right corner of the cover, which is the last
thing an individual would read if they read the cover like a book (left to right, top to bottom).
This pattern, especially in comparison to the emphasized sexuality pattern, suggests that a
woman should be successful in her career, but that this is not as important as her romantic and
sexual life.
Interpretation. Women are sexualized in the media for many reasons, but historically
men used to be the people with money, so most things were targeted to get men to buy a product
or service. Women became a product because in the past, a main use for a woman to a man
was sex. Many women also see highly-sexualized woman as confident and wanted, so they want
to know how they can be like that too, and how they can get the man. Women strain to be like
these thin, perfect-looking celebrities on magazine covers, but according to a 2008 study done by

Harper and Tiggermann, women who are exposed to thin-idealized magazines showed higher
levels of self-objectification, appearance anxiety, and negative mood. Women who dont look
like these airbrushed, photoshopped celebrities strive to be just like them, with many mentalhealth consequences (Harper and Tiggermann).
In 1997, Fredrickson and Roberts suggested that the largest way sexualization of women
was perpetuated was through the visual media (Fredrickson and Roberts). The Huffington Post
published the article, Don't Blame Girls for Their Own Sexualization, which discussed how it
will take effort from more than just young girls to end sexualization of women. The article ends
with, This is an issue of how much power the media has over all of us and how it's one part of a
destructive, systemic cycle in which certain people profit from women's bodies (Pinsky). The
media should end the sexualiztion of women, but they are not going to stop giving readers what
they want to see.
Sexualization of women also better established gender roles that some are working to
destroy. There is indeed a relationship between the way women are portrayed in advertising and
peoples ideas about how women are supposed to behave and the roles they are supposed to
occupy within society (Lindner, 409). This seems to go against Cosmos goal of empowering
women. When sexualizaed women are also depicted as vistims of aggression, it reinforces the
idea that submission is a coveted trait for a woman (Stankiewicz and Rosselli). Some people see
sexualization as empowerment because women were not allowed by society to dress like this in
the past, but other see it as reinforcing gender roles because the women are dressing for mens
eyes and other womens jealousy.
Evaluation. The sexualization of women in media, particularly in magazines, is not a
new trend; the phrase sex sells is all too familiar. However, this caters mostly to the male gaze.

Therein lies the problem with Cosmopolitan, and with most magazines claiming to be womens
magazines: they depict women as men want to see them, not as women want to see themselves.
Media tells women to value their sexuality above all else, but women have been fighting against
this notion for centuries. Cosmos inclusion of articles on career are a step forward, but it is still
not enough. These covers are more than just magazine covers; they have a real and tangible
effect on how people view women. An article by Dr. Katharina Lindner points out that a study
by Kilbourne (1990) revealed that people, after being exposed to advertisements that depict
women in stereotypical roles, showed significantly more negative attitudes toward women,
especially concerning their managerial skills, than after being exposed to advertisements that
depict women in professional roles that require such skills (Lindner, 409). The trend of
oversexualization is actively keeping women from achieving maximum success.
Engagement. There is nothing inherently wrong with women being proud and in control
of their sexuality. However, the kind of sexuality marketed by Cosmo is far more aimed at men;
the sex articles are often along the lines of how to blow his mind and making him worship
you. For Cosmo to truly empower young women to own who they are and be who they want to
be as their mission statement says, there needs to be more room for women who want to be
something other than hetero- and hyper-sexual. Cosmopolitan makes sex seem like the end-all,
be-all of womanhood, and this stereotype needs to change. This could be done by giving sex and
relationship advice an equal space on the cover as career and fitness advice, rather than letting
sex dominate. Cover models could be more diverse, both in terms of race and body type, and sex
articles could devote more focus to encouraging healthy, mutually beneficial sexual
relationships, rather than just pleasing a man. Additionally, articles on self-acceptance, financial

planning, friendship (especially between women), and general advice for navigating the unique
obstacles of being a woman in a patriarchal society would be welcome.

Works Cited
Cosmopolitan. "Cosmopolitan Media Kit." Cosmopolitan Media Kit. Hearst Corporation, 2015.
Web. 02 Dec. 2015.
Fredrickson, B.L. and Roberts, T. That swimsuit becomes you: sex differences in
self-objectification, restrained eating, and math performance. J Pers Soc. Psychol. 75.1
(1988): 269-84. Online.

Harper, Brit and Marika Tiggemann. "The Effect of Thin Ideal Media Images on
Womens Self-Objectification, Mood, and Body Image." Sex Roles 58.9-10 (2007): 64957. Web.
Lindner, Katharina. "Images of Women in General Interest and Fashion Magazine
Advertisements from 1955 to 2002." Sex Roles 51.7/8 (2004): 409-21. Web.
Pinsky, Paulina. "Don't Blame Girls for Their Own Sexualization." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 3 June 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.
Stankiewicz, Julie M., and Francine Rosselli. "Women as Sex Objects and Victims in
Print Advertisements." Sex Roles 58.7-8 (2008): 579-89. Web.