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Cosmopolitan_(magazine)
Cosmopolitan_(magazine)

Cosmopolitan (magazine)

Cosmopolitan is the best-selling young women's magazine in the world. The content includes articles on relationships and sex, health, careers, self-improvement, celebrities, as well as fashion and beauty . Published by Hearst Magazines, Cosmopolitan has 58 international editions, is printed in 34 languages and is distributed in more than 100 countries .

History

Cosmopolitan 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, Willa Cather 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 The First Men 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 (approximately $11,000,000 in 2007 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, A. J. Cronin, 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, a time when magazines were overshadowed during the rise of paperbacks and television. The Golden Age of magazines came to an end as consumer magazine|mass market, general interest publications gave way to special interest magazines targeting specialized audiences.

Helen Gurley Brown arrives

Cosmopolitan's circulation continued to decline for another decade until Helen Gurley Brown became chief editor in 1965 and remodeled the magazine as New Cosmopolitan. The magazine was renamed back to Cosmopolitan in 1967. In the early 1970s, 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 then little-known actor Burt Reynolds in April 1972. It was a scandalous move for the time. The issue created great controversy, propelling both Cosmopolitan and Reynolds to the forefront of American popular culture.

In April 1978, a single edition of Cosmopolitan Man was published as a trial, targeted to appeal to men. Its cover featured Jack Nicholson and Aurore Clément. It was published twice in 1989 as a supplement to Cosmopolitan.

Cosmopolitan today

In recent years the magazine and in particular its cover stories have become more sexually explicit in tone. The UK edition 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 international readership.

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 topics such as sex, makeup and hair tips. 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. Articles presented on the cover of the magazine as how to improve sexual activity usually feature nothing more than tips on how to make the experience more pleasurable for the male partner, rather than how to make sex more enjoyable for the woman. Of course others would respond to this feminist stance by saying that they are just bitter and don't know how to read for enjoyment rather than turning everything into an attack on womens' rights.

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 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 34 languages, including Spanish, Korean, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Swedish, Hebrew, Estonian, Romanian, Georgian, Russian, German, Italian, French, Greek, Malaysian and Indonesian. 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 readers' 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. Many women would say that Cosmopolitan has improved communication between women and men. By reading articles together, the uncertainty as to what the expectations of the opposite sex truly are and can open the door for more fulfilling and collaborative relationships.

Cosmopolitan Television

Cosmopolitan Television consists of three television networks, two Spanish language channels, one in Spain and one in Latin America, and an English language channel in Canada, in partnership with Corus Entertainment, which launched on February 14, 2008. They broadcast programs targeted at an audience of women age 18 to 34.

For a few months in 1951, the magazine sponsored Cosmopolitan Theater, a TV series which aired on the now defunct DuMont Television Network.

Awards and Features

Fun, Fearless Male and Female of the Year: For more than a decade, Cosmo has saluted intriguing women and men with its Fun Fearless Awards, featured annually in the February issue. In 2008, John Mayer received the magazine's Fun Fearless Male of the Year Award, joining past honorees Nick Lachey (2007), Patrick Dempsey (2006), Josh Duhamel (2005), Matthew Perry (2004), and Jon Bon Jovi (2003). Katherine Heigl received the 2008 Fun, Fearless Female of the Year honor, a title that has been previously awarded to Eva Mendes (2007), Beyonce (2006), Ashlee Simpson (2005), Alicia Silverstone (2004), Sandra Bullock (2003), and Britney Spears (2002).

Bachelor of the Year: Cosmopolitan's November issue features the hottest bachelors from all 50 states. Pictures and profiles of all the Bachelors are posted on www.cosmopolitan.com, where readers view and vote for their favorite, narrowing it down to six finalists. A team of Cosmopolitan editors then selects the Bachelor of the Year, who is announced at an annual party and media event in New York. The 50 bachelors generally appear on programs such as The Today Show.

Practice Safe Sun: In the May 2006 issue of Cosmopolitan, the magazine launched the Practice Safe Sun campaign, an initiative aimed at fighting skin cancer by asking readers to stop all forms of tanning other than tanning from a bottle . In conjunction with the campaign, Cosmo's editor-in-chief, Kate White, approached Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), known for her support of women's health issues, with concerns that women weren't fully aware of the dangers of indoor tanning and the effectiveness of the current warning labels. After careful review, the Congresswoman agreed that it was necessary to recommend that the FDA take a closer look. She and Representative Ginny Brown-Waite (R-FL) introduced the Tanning Accountability and Notification Act (TAN Act - H.R. 4767) on February 16, 2006. President Bush signed the act in September 2007, and the new federal law requires the FDA to scrutinize the warning labels on tanning beds and issue a report by September 2008 .

Books

Cosmo in Popular Culture

  • In an episode of Rules of Engagement aired in 2007, David Spade's character says he likes to read Cosmo because it's like having "the other team's playbook."
  • In Legally Blonde 2 (2003), when Elle Woods tells Paulette she's going to work where a voice is given to the people, Paulette asks if she's going to the headquarters of Cosmopolitan magazine.
  • In the movie Legally Blonde (2001), Elle Woods says in her closing arguments, "The rules of hair care are simple and finite. Any Cosmo girl would have known."
  • In the movie Legally Blonde (2001), Elle Woods holds up an issue of Cosmo and announces that it's "the bible."
  • In a 2005 episode of The O.C., Seth draws a female superhero that he calls "Cosmo Girl" who he says has a "passion for fashion."
  • In an episode of Third Watch (1999), Jimmy tells Kim that Cosmo says she should make a man feel important to her, to which she replies, "You read Cosmo?"
  • Will Truman on Will and Grace says in a 1998 episode, "Oh, you girls are going to have a ball, braiding each other's hair and talking about boys and doing the Cosmo quiz."
  • In a 1997 episode of Just Shoot Me, the emcee of the of the "Femmy" magazine award ceremony says, "Do we really have to sit here for three hours, or we can we just give all the awards to Cosmo?"
  • In an episode of Friends that aired in 1994, Chandler admits to taking a Cosmo quiz.
  • In an episode of That 70's Show. Jackie and Kelso read Cosmopolitan to resolve their relationship troubles

References

External links

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia © 2001-2006 Wikipedia contributors (Disclaimer)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday October 09, 2008 at 19:30:34 PDT (GMT -0700)
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