A Historical Look at the Cover Imagery of Cosmopolitan

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A Historical Look at the Cover Imagery of
Cosmopolitan
Cassie Williams J387 Communication History March
12, 2008 Kathleen Ryan
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Research Question

• Looking at the cover of Cosmopolitan, how has the
  imagery transformed over the past century?

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In order to analyze and understand the changes
the cover of Cosmopolitan has gone through over
the last century, one must analyze the changes
inside the magazine, as well as the events going
on in America over the last century. This
includes the womens sexual freedom movement
during the 60s as well as change in societys
standards for sexual and seductive art forms,
including photography and literature.
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Fiction in Womens Magazines

• From the turn of the century until the mid-1960s,
  women's magazines had a specific mission.
• Women's magazines were meant to be women's
  companions. It was a different time, a
  pre-television era. They'd talk about all of the
  housekeeping problems and so on. Women were all
  at home in those days. It helped them with their
  problems and entertained them with stories.
• Originally, Cosmopolitan was a family magazine.
• Before Helen Gurley Brown reinvented
  Cosmopolitan, the magazine was often compared to
  the Saturday Evening Post, receiving Henry Awards
  for stories by Booth Tarkington, Anne Tyler,
  Joyce Carol Oates and Gail Godwin.

-Eileen Schnurr, a former Redbook editor and
Mademoiselles last fiction editor
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Cosmopolitan cover from December 1926 Seductive
without overexposure A Novel of Intense
Emotion More focused on novel inside
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The Disappearance of Fiction from Womens
Magazines

• The disappearance of fiction from womens
  magazines, such as Mademoiselle, Harpers Bazaar,
  Redbook and Cosmopolitan marked the end of an
  era in which these magazines published some of
  the countrys best fiction writers.
• Often, these fiction writers had not been
  published anywhere else other than womens
  magazines.
• As women left home to join the workforce, editors
  of women's magazines felt compelled to adapt to
  their readers' new lifestyles.
• This not only changed the content inside the
  magazine but the visual imagery on the cover as
  well.

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Cosmopolitan cover from February
1941 Pre-Cosmopolitan Revamp Promoting sport
and independence not sex
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Helen Gurley Brown

• In 1965, Helen Gurley Brown, author of "Sex and
  the Single Girl," became the editor of
  Cosmopolitan and revamped the magazine
  completely.
• At the time, Cosmopolitan was believed to be
  losing relevance with the modern woman.
• Brown transformed the genteel and writerly
  publication by introducing readers to the "Cosmo
  girl," a sexy, sassy and savvy woman who knew
  what she wanted and how to get it at work and at
  (fore) play.
• The transformation of Cosmopolitan forever
  changed the face of women's magazines.
• The self-conscious, sexually liberated voice
  became very popular with readers, and advertisers
  and photographers took note.
• Cosmopolitan's circulation went from 800,000
  readers to more than 3 million.

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Helen Gurley Brown
"Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go
everywhere."
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The Cosmo Girl

• There are girls who read Cosmopolitan and enjoy
  it as voyeurs. They dont want to be that
  driven, to have that many affairs they dont
  want more than one man or one dress at a time.
  They dont care about jewelry and they dont want
  a sable coat or Paris for the weekend. They
  dont want to work as hard as I do. But my
  girl wants it. She is on the make. Her nose is
  pressed to the glass and she does get my message.
  These girls are like my children all over the
  country. Oh, I have so much advice for them, and
  its fun. Helen Gurley Brown

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• Cosmopolitan cover from January 1969
• The image is reinforced with the seductive
  headlines
• This is also a form of marketing
• The text has to complement the advertisements
  inside the magazine

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Transformation of Female Roles Over the Last
Century

• Cosmopolitan went from promoting the society
  girl to supermodel.
• The society girl represented the pristine, high
  class, high society woman who was not a
  celebrity.
• Since Helen Gurley Browns remodel of the
  magazine, the female on the cover is most often
  an actress or supermodel who is more sexualized.
• However, the sexuality seen on the covers is
  simply more acceptable in our society today.

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Twiggy
Twiggy is an iconic female who became famous in
the 1960s and transformed the female image from a
more average look to stick-model thin. However,
she also had a flat chest which is common for
thin girls. Now, the image has transformed to
super skinny women with large breasts, which is
unrealistic for most. Also, women seen on the
covers of magazines used to be slightly smaller
than the average woman and now they are a lot
smaller.
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Effects from the Remodel of Cosmo

• Brown knew what was going on with the womens
  movement involving sexual liberation and sexual
  freedom.
• The remodel of Cosmo was one avenue that allowed
  the promotion of sexuality and she was able to
  push it into the market but using a magazine as
  the source.
• Cosmo is a magazine for sexual freedom however,
  a lot of its messages are how to get the guy
  rather than finding an equal balance of womens
  needs as well.
• Brown promoted a sexuality that was more liberal
  than what the generation at the time was getting.
  
• At the same time, the sexuality that she was
  promoting was directed toward different classes
  between men and women.

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How the Cosmo Today Compares with the Cosmo
Recreated in the 60s

• Since Helen Gurley Brown stepped down from the
  editor of Cosmo in 1996, there have been a few
  major changes.
• The magazine under my aegis was not as sexy as
  it is now. It was the sexiest woman's magazines
  there wasthere wasn't any sex in women's
  magazines at that time. And everybody copied us
  and did what we were doing, but even so, I was
  reasonably conservative. Whereas now, virtually
  every article in Cosmo has something to do with
  men and women, and the cover blurbs are highly
  provocative. There's a lot of "Five Places to
  Touch Him," or "Twelve Places You Didn't Know You
  Had." It's a much more sexual creation than under
  my aegis. Helen Gurley Brown

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1938
1970
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Female Roles Portrayed in Cosmo

• When looking back at older issues of
  Cosmopolitan, the females on the covers are often
  viewed as more submissive while they are now seen
  as more powerful.
• However, while the submissive or powerless poses
  are not seen on the cover of the magazine, they
  are still seen throughout the advertisements
  inside the magazine.
• The main question is where does womens power lie
  and should it be in appearance?

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Primary

• Brown, Helen Gurley. Im Wild Again. Warner
  Books. 2001.
• Cosmopolitan. March 2008.
• Cosmopolitan Magazine Covers. Nostalgiaville.
  http//www.gono.com/adart/Cosmopolitan/Cosmopoli
  tan201938-1.jpg, accessed on 28 Jan 2008.
• Cosmopolitan Magazine Covers. Nostalgiaville.
  http//www.gono.com/adart/Cosmopolitan/Cosmopoli
  tan201941-1.jpg, accessed on 28 Jan 2008.
• Cosmopolitan Magazine Covers. Nostalgiaville.
  http//www.gono.com/adart/Cosmopolitan/Cosmopoli
  tan201970-1.jpg, accessed on 28 Jan 2008.
• Joes Paper Shack. http//www.tias.com/11384/Pict
  Page/1922605651.html, accessed on 28 Jan 2008.
• Macey, Deborah. In person interview. 19 Feb.
  2008. dmacey_at_uoregon.edu.
• Magazine Cover Art from Cosmopolitan. Ellis
  Parker Butler. http//www.ellisparkerbutler.info
  /epb/pic/v07/cosmopolitan_1926_12_a.jpg, accessed
  on 28 Jan 2008.
• Stott, Catherine. The Iron Butterfly Helen
  Gurley Brown. Guardian. 11 April 1968.
• The Cosmopolitan. Vol. 60. Pg. 781. 1910.

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Secondary

• Bolonik, Kera. How Low Can They Go? Salon.com.
  10 Dec. 2001. http//dir.salon.com/story/mwt/sty
  le/2001/12/10/women_s_mags/, accessed on 18 Feb.
  2008.
• Singer, Jill. So What Do You Do, Helen Gurley
  Brown? Mediabistro.com. 15 June 2004.
  http//www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a1782.
  asp, accessed on 5 Mar. 2008.
• Ouellette, Laurie. Inventing the Cosmo Girl.
  Media, Culture Society. Vol. 21. Pg 359-383.
  May 1999.