“Sex, Lies, and Women’s Magazines”

By: Steve Huston

"… One Marie Claire writer says that very often, after interviewing couples in intimate detail about their sex life, her editors will ask her to go back to her sources and ask them to change their answers. 'It's totally unethical,' she says, 'and puts me as a writer in an uncomfortable, awkward position.' Still, she admits, she complies. .." [Taken from a article written by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism]Personal note: In 2002, Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism produced a compelling article on "Sex, Lies, and Women's Magazines." I've pulled out a few quotes from this article to – at the least – whet your appetite to read it in its entirety, and, more importantly to engage you in realizing that those magazines at the checkout displaying scantily clad women and sexual themes – drawing millions upon millions of readers seeking answers pertaining to their insecurities regarding sex, how to dress, how to undress, how to have sex with a stranger, etc… It's about selling magazines! So what if the "advise" is based upon LIES? It should matter a lot! As I'm flying on an airplane and I see some (usually) young woman glued to a Cosmopolitan Magazine, I cringe and feel so sad inside. Sad for that young person and sad for so many that are so dumbed down – that in their foolishness they can't see that they are under the tutelage of fools all for money grubbers. "Standing on line at the grocery store almost anywhere in America, the hapless shopper is bombarded with insistent exhortatory headlines: blow his mind; sexual bliss secrets!; get his sexual attention instantly; what he's thinking about you . . . naked. Perhaps she stands in front of them to prevent her mother or her kid from reading them aloud. Or she skims the copy to see if it might deliver the promised ecstasy. Whether or not she actually buys women's magazines, she can't escape their sexual anxieties, enthusiasms, and obsessions. …" "… these articles are full of lies. …" "… It is the life-style magazines like Mademoiselle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Marie Claire, and others that most often run the most features dedicated to sex and relationship conundrums. Within these service-oriented magazines, the worst abuses seem to occur in a specific genre — the relationship/advice story (opposites attract, the seven-year itch), which is usually illustrated by ebullient quotes from supposedly real women ('Marisa, a 26-year-old executive secretary'). Just about everyone interviewed for this story said that these stories were embellished. …" "… A woman who works for Glamour acknowledges that quotes are routinely rewritten. 'They get people to interview people — or purport to interview people,' but quotes are then re-phrased to sound as silly and perky as the magazine's copy. 'No one talks like that,' she says. Former Glamour fact-checker Amy Feitelberg is even blunter: 'Quotes were totally changeable.'…" '… Even more oddly, many of the people discussed in these stories simply do not exist. The former Cosmo editor says that when the qualifier 'Names have been changed' appeared, the characters in the story were composites. But a fact-checker at another top-circulation women's magazine says, 'Composite' gives it too much credit. It's much more invented than that. 'Names have been changed' can mean anything, including 'Totally made up.'…" "… Does any of this matter? Editors' opinions vary. 'Hey, it ain't The New York Times' the Cosmo loyalist says in her former employer's defense. 'We should not be in the business of misinforming people, but we are publishing an entertaining, popular magazine that people want to read'…." "… 'Frankly, I think the really good journalists get frustrated writing for women's magazines,' she said. 'Why should they spend their life writing Seven Tips for Greater Sex? It may be something you do sometimes to pay the bills. But I mean, come on, this cannot be the height of someone's journalistic career.'…" http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2002/2/sex-featherstone.asp Action Points: Speak up consistently. Go to the manager. Ask him/her to place a blinder over such magazines or put them back in the magazine rack. Keep on until they do it and hold to it! Here is an example of what one leading mid-west corporation has done. https://americandecency.org/main.php?f=updates_new/2008/January/01.16a.08 Hearst Publishing is one of the major publishers of magazines such as Cosmopolitan, CosmoGirl, Seventeen, Teen. CosmoGIRL! Cosmopolitan Country Living Esquire Good Housekeeping Harper's Bazaar House Beautiful Marie Claire O at Home O, The Oprah Magazine Popular Mechanics Quick & Simple Redbook Seventeen SmartMoney (with Dow Jones) Teen Town & Country Town & Country TRAVEL Veranda I'm, of course, not saying that these magazines above are all based upon lies, but certainly there are a number of them (above) that are. May we labor to teach those who come after us the difference between the holy and the profane. And may they have hearts, minds and spirits that are capable of receiving wisdom and fleeing from lies. "They have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, and they have not taught the difference between the unclean and the clean. " Ezekiel 22:26 ============================================================= "…It is light: if it exists, it will show itself. It is salt: if it exists, its savour will be perceived. It is a precious ointment: if it exists, its presence cannot be hid. …" =========================================================== If you think our efforts are worthy, would you please support us with a small gift? Thank you for caring enough to get involved. https://americandecency.org/folder.php?f=donate ============================================================= "…It is light: if it exists, it will show itself. It is salt: if it exists, its savour will be perceived. It is a precious ointment: if it exists, its presence cannot be hid. …" =========================================================== American Decency Association Bill Johnson, President P.O. Box 202 Fremont, MI 49412 ph: 231-924-4050 https://americandecency.org

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