Bitch Magazine And Cosmopolitan

1246 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Feminism impact on society

This essay will be comparing and contrasting two magazines aimed at the female readership, and they are called Bitch Magazine and Cosmopolitan, with regards to their front pages, content and articles, their ideals of beauty, and feminism. With this essay, we will learn the extreme differences between two magazines
Bitch is a Portland based independent, quarterly magazine, with a touting a tagline of a “feminist response to pop culture.” Founded in 1996, Bitch is published by Bitch Media, a non-profit multimedia organization. This magazine offers a feminist perspective and analysis of social and cultural trends, current political events, as well as forms of media such as television, movies, music, books, artwork, and advertising. Bitch magazine has around 50,000 readers.
Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women, and is the best-selling women’s magazine for decades. The notoriously risqué magazine says it is “by women for women.” Also referred as Cosmo, the magazine was published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, and eventually became what we know of as a women’s magazine during the late 1960’s. This magazine is published by a for-profit organization called Hearst Magazine and has 64 international editions. It is currently being printed in 35 languages and is being distributed in more than 100 countries. Its boasts more than 3 million in paid circulation each and every month, and 115,000 paid subscribers.
To begin with, I will be comparing the magazines front page’s headlines. Cosmopolitan is ridiculously formulaic and right from the get go you can tell from a comparison of previous front page headlines. Each issue meticulously follows the same predetermined formula. Their headlines are trashy and des...

... middle of paper ...

...ncourages and instills the idea that women are amazingly great without changing themselves or suppressing their unique identities.
This essay has compared and contrasted two magazines aimed at the female readership, and they are called Bitch Magazine and Cosmopolitan, with regards to their front pages, content and articles, their ideals of beauty, and feminism. Cosmopolitan is a magazine that gives harmful ideas to women about their sexuality, their health and happiness, and how it is supposedly dependent upon whether or not they fit into the unrealistic beauty standards that this magazine possesses. In divergence, Bitch Magazine teaches women to love themselves and to support each other no matter what. Bitch encourages women to understand that they are absolutely perfect just the way they are and that there is no need to change or suppress their given identities.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Kenon Breazeale's In Spire Of Women

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before men’s magazines became a part of popular culture, this realm was dedicated to the female consumer, but in 1933 Esquire set out to change that stereotype. Kenon Breazeale’s purpose in writing ‘In Spire of Women’ is to make people understand that men’s magazines, specifically Esquire, promote a sexualized image of women solely for a man’s satisfaction. In doing so, Brezeale argues that Esquire contributed to the growth of the male consumer by making women an object of the male fetish that serves as only an annoyance to society. Breazeale is able to argue that Esquire is a rejection to the power of femininity by explaining how Esquire adapts to a consumer-based culture where it emphasizes the difference between masculinity and femininity and focuses on pin-ups of women.

    Read More

  • Beauty: The Media Profits by Making Girls Hate Themselves

    1166 Words  | 3 Pages

    Female beauty ideals are an overwhelming force in teen media. Approximately 37% of articles in leading magazines for teen girls emphasize a focus on physical appearance. This is none to surprising considering two of the top contenders in this media genre are Seventeen and Teen Vogue. CosmoGIRL and Elle Girl were among the ranks of popular teen magazines, but in recent years have become exclusively online publications. Add in a dash of publications Tiger Beat and Bop, and it becomes glaringly obvious that girls are charged with the prime directive of looking good to get the guy. The story becomes more disturbing when the actual audience, which includes girls at least as young as eleven years old, is considered. In a stage when girls are trying for the first time to establish their identities, top selling publications are telling them that their exteriors should be their primary concern of focus. Of course, this trend doesn’t stop with magazines. A study conducted in 1996 found a direct correlation between the “amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos” a...

    Read More

  • The Use Of Advertising In Foules Advertising's Fifteenth Appeals By Fowles

    1198 Words  | 3 Pages

    Advertising is form of communicating and using methods into getting the buyers to purchase a product. Cosmopolitan has done a good job in determining what readers and listeners want and need. Cosmopolitan is a magazine directed toward young people who have low self- confidence and low self-esteem and also who care about health and appearance. As Fowles said, “By giving form to people’s deep-lying desires and picturing states of being that individuals privately yearn for.” (Fowles, 137). All advertisers know who and what readers wish or long for.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in the 1950's Compared to Gender Roles Portrayed in Rebel Without a Cause

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ed. Katherine E. Kurzman, Kate Sheehan Roach, and Stasia Zomkowski. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 1998. 242,243. Print.

    Read More

  • Women's Misleading Magazines

    1606 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ce in society. And the effects of the ideals behind these magazines are all the more powerful because of their subtlety." Women walk away from these magazines with an empty feeling and feelings of many inadequacies and they really don't know exactly why. The subtle undermining of women's intelligence and cause strips away their sense of worth ever so slowly and leaves them feeling depressed and in search of something that really can't exist together. Growing old while staying young takes many years of complete and internal happiness not many years of collagen injections and the added stress of having to stay unattainably perfect. While some consider these journalists for women's magazines talented writers, I consider them horrendous displays of talent in which they sell out the naturally beautiful women of the world for a quick buck and a popular magazine.

    Read More

  • Summary Of In Spite Of Women By Kenon Breazeale

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    Much of society’s perception of women today, according to Kenon Breazeale in the piece, “In Spite of Women: Esquire Magazine and the Construction of the Male Consumer”, is based upon the attempts to construct women as consumers. Breazeale claims that much of society’s one-dimensional view of women has everything to do with how consumerism has been viewed primarily as a feminine attribute. Using an in-depth analysis of the early years of Esquire Magazine, Breazeale uses an academic, stoic tone in an effort to remain impartial, although it is rather apparent that she feels strongly against the magazine and all it stood for during this time period. Breazeale effectively convinces the audience that society’s perception of women today has been significantly swayed by their constant portrayal as consumers through an in-depth look at Esquire Magazine and how it not only portrayed women as extravagant, unintelligent spenders, but simply as objects of male desire.

    Read More

  • Annotated Bibliography: Media Representation Research

    1909 Words  | 4 Pages

    Firminger examines the ways these magazines represent young males and females. She reveals that these magazines talks about the physical appearance of young girls but also their sexuality, emotions, and love life. The author informs how the advice given by the magazines is negative. The author also argues that these magazines focus more on their social life than how their academic performance

    Read More

  • The, Killing Us Softly 4

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    I chose these four journal writings because I believe they are the strongest pieces I have written from the second half of the semester. The main focus of these journals was based on readings under the women as objects topic. The oppression of women has led to females being objectified and used as gratification for men. A woman’s body and appearance have become a commodity, especially in the media. Films, television shows, music and advertisements use women’s bodies to attract their audience and sell products. The movie watched in class “Killing Us Softly 4,” highlights this fact while presenting how women are represented throughout the media. The media has set and perpetuated a particular standard of beauty that is restrictive, but for some many women completely unattainable. The women represented in the media are young, thin and have western or European characteristics. Where does that leave the majority of women that do not fall under this category? This leads to women developing eating disorders to achieve an ideal body image that is manufactured through Photoshop and other picture editing systems. Women of color, women with disabilities or any woman that does not follow this standard is not represented within the media. When a few women do break this mold and become famous, they are set at a different standard. These women’s differences become the highlighted feature of their fame. However, the one constant in the media when it comes to women is the objectification and sexualization of women. This sexualization can lead to aggression or violence against women and the perpetuation of rape culture. The images viewed in the media directly impact how women view themselves and how others view women. By examining the issues women f...

    Read More

  • Pros and Cons of Birth Control

    1635 Words  | 4 Pages

    "Birth-Control Secrets Your Gyno Hasn't Told You - Cosmopolitan.com." The Online Women's Magazine for Fashion, Sex Advice, Dating Tips, and Celebrity News - Cosmopolitan. 04 June 2010. Web. 08 June 2010. .

    Read More

  • Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media by Susan Douglas

    647 Words  | 2 Pages

    In "Where the girls are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media," Susan Douglas analyses the effects of mass media on women of the nineteen fifties, and more importantly on the teenage girls of the baby boom era. Douglas explains why women have been torn in conflicting directions and are still struggling today to identify themselves and their roles. Douglas recounts and dissects the ambiguous messages imprinted on the feminine psyche via the media. Douglas maintains that feminism is a direct result of the realization that mass media is a deliberate and calculated aggression against women. While the media seemingly begins to acknowledge the power of women, it purposely sets out to redefine women and the qualities by which they should define themselves. The contradictory messages received by women leave women not only in a love/hate relationship with the media, but also in a love/hate relationship with themselves.

    Read More

  • Who is the Target Audience for People Magazine?

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    Have you ever looked through a magazine and found it to be really interesting? That is because you are part of its target audience. You are part of a group of people that the magazine is trying to appeal to. There is a reason Sports Illustrated is more of a man’s magazine and Family Circle is more of a woman’s magazine. The people that run that magazine put certain things in those magazines to attract their audience. More commonly, men are interested in sports and anything to do with sports. In Sports Illustrated, the reader would find sports, and that is it. The reader would not find an article titled “How working women balance their careers and home lives.” An article such as that would be found in a magazine like Family Circle, as it is targeted more towards women who have a family. For the purpose of this audience visual analysis, I will be discussing the October 8th, 2012 issue of People magazine. Looking at this issue and reading through the magazine, it is evident that the publishers do have a target audience in mind. This visual analysis will discuss who its target audience is and how the reader can tell. Also, the essay will discuss how the magazine makes the advertisements relevant to its audience.

    Read More

  • When We Dead Awaken: Writing As Re-Vision

    664 Words  | 2 Pages

    I can recall a time when the media was influencing my life and actions. The week after I graduated high school, my girlfriends and I took a trip to Cancun, Mexico, where the MTV beach house was located that summer. As I look back on the week of drunken partying and sexy guys, I can only wonder how I made it home alive. How could any young woman find this behavior acceptable? Every young woman there was flaunting their bodies to the young men around them. They were proud to be sexual objects. Where did they learn such debauchery? This is the kind of woman that is portrayed throughout MTV and various other aspects of the media. They have even coined the term “midriff”—the highly sexual character pitched at teenage girls that increasingly populates today’s television shows—in order to hook the teen customer. Teenage women increasingly look to the media to provide them with a ready-made identity predicated on today’s version of what’s “cool.” The media is always telling us that we are not thin enough, we’re not pretty enough, we don’t have the right friends, or we have the wrong friends… we’re losers unless we’re cool. We must follow their example and show as much skin as possible. The type of imagery depicted by MTV-- as well as people like Howard Stern, the famous “Girls Gone Wild” videos, and various Hip Hop songs—glorifies sex and the provocative woman.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Society Expressed in a Magazine

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    this magazine is aimed at women in their late 20’s as the woman on the

    Read More

  • Analysis of Women's Rights Articles

    526 Words  | 2 Pages

    All of the articles have the same audience, women. Each article was published in different feminist magazines however; the age target was different. For example, The Moderator, was an online magazine directed toward the older generations. Bitch, directed to the younger crowd, is a magazine dealing with the feminist response to pop which prides its self by being devoted to incisive commentary on our media-driven world. Then, Ms. Magazine markets the middle age crowds and is discussed more traditional issues. However, even though each has a common interest, educating the public on the different discriminations against women, they took a different approach to do so.

    Read More

  • The Objectification of Women

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    16.)Utt, Jamie. "Navigating The Difference Between The Appreciation of Beauty and Sexual Objectification." Everyday Feminism 18 Apr. 2013: n. pag. Web. 19 Apr. 2014. .

    Read More

More about Bitch Magazine And Cosmopolitan

Open Document