Women... when did you outgrow Cosmo mag?

[nadine_mn]

Now before someone comes ranting on here about how Cosmo demeans women and if you ever read you should be ashamed blah blah..
calm yourself... its not about that

I think I can speak for many women and say that Cosmo (and to an extent Glamour) was a rite of passage for me into 'womanhood'. I am 36, I remember putting aside my Tiger Beats and reading Seventeen... when I was only 14! Shocking I know... but always coveting my mom's Cosmo.. it was so sophisticated and talked about sex!

I used to sneak and read hers and had no clue what things meant (once at dinner with my mom and her latest boytoy I asked what 69 meant.... ahh good times)

I remember seeing that Burt Reynolds centerfold... stashed under my mom's bed...lol

early college years I had my very own subscription and well-worn copies were shared and poured over in dorm rooms. We tried dating tips, make-up ideas, and of course shuddered over the rape warnings and swore never to leave a girlfriend alone at a party. Rape was always the one 'serious' article in every other issue... however it was more of a how scary and how vulnerable women are type of thing.

I think I was in my late 20's when I realized I was reading the same thing over and over again and it just seemed so dated.

My mom (now 57) still reads it faithfully...although she complains that all the hunks are babies. When I visit I flip through it (ok I admit.. I read the confessions but so does my hubby). Its weird I remember when Cindy Crawford was on the cover... seeing Amanda Bynes on it made me feel so OLD (and I am not old).

Now I read Bitch and Bust but you know there really isn't anything like Cosmo (for better or for worse).

Women's magazines presume you are hetero, married with kids (Good Housekeeping, Redbook, etc), young and sex-crazed - hetero only-(Cosmo), obsessed with your wedding day and/or fashion, or obsessed with celebs.

[KitchenWitch]

1. I have bought ONE copy of Cosmo in my life

Never really understood the charm of it.

[Left Is Write]

2. When their advice columnist defected to Glamour.

I don't know when that was - quite a few years ago.

I still read Glamour once or twice a year, because I get a charge out of the Do's and Don'ts. Cosmo is just too precious for me.

[tigereye]

3. when I became a feminist, I think

probably the late 70s...

[mnhtnbb]

4. In my early 30's (1980ish)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

15. Me, too,

early thirties. I read it because my mother always had it, among lots of ladies' magazines around and I grew up with them.

[no name no slogan]

5. I'm a guy, but speaking for my mom...

I remember being in high school, and my mom saying how Cosmo was just a joke and she only read it now when it was on a plane or in a waiting room. She used to be a loyal reader when I was a kid, but now didn't read it.

My mom turned 40 when I was a college freshman, so by doing the math I'd say she was probably in her early to mid 30s when she quit reading it.

[ogneopasno]

6. When I got married: 25. About when it talked about how the best sex advice EVVURRRR was to make

eye-contact while giving oral sex. I mean, who doesn't?

[Blue Dog Dominion]

11. The last time I sprayed her in the eye she punched me

:evilgrin:

[Orrex]

20. For that answer, see the OP's question to her mom and her mom's boyfriend...

[Z_I_Peevey]

7. Long before age 21, I think.

Like you, I went through the Tiger Beat-Seventeen-Glamour-Cosmo progression.

I did have a slight flirtation with Apartment Life/Metropolitan Home in the early 80s, I must confess.

[Drunken Girlfriend]

8. Cosmo

By the time I was about 19,I found Cosmo to be a bunch a bullshit.

It always talks about pleasing the guy,which I am all for.

But never ever mentions how a man can help make a woman feel good.

Honestly,I feel this mag sets the womans movement back a good
20 or 30 yrs.

Just my personal opinion.

[nadine_mn]

27. That it does... however

there is something to be said for 10 new hot positions you have to try tonight!

It did embolden me to go to a sex store and actually purchase things for my pleasure... which I am eternally grateful for

[meow2u3]

9. I was about 35

Now I like to read More mag. Great for 40+ women. I'm on the e-mailing list of www.more.com

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. A very long time ago

when I realized that the topics they addressed were limited almost entirely to the following:

Dieting
How to please your man sexually
How to acquire a boyfriend if you didn't have one
How to deal with catty female co-workers
Lingerie
Hair and makeup
Horoscopes

It never changed. There was always some trollopy-looking young woman on the front cover whom you were supposed to want to look like, and there was always an article about how to make a man go mad with lust over you.

I never looked like the women on the cover, and I was not very successful in inspiring fits of lust, so I started reading stuff like Mother Jones instead. I look more like Mother Jones anyhow.

[LeftyMom]

12. Never really found any of those magazines interesting.

I don't care about clothes or makeup and definitely don't need any "eight ways to drive him wild in bed!" nonsense.

[carlyhippy]

13. after I had kids

taking the quizzes for some reason lost their lustre after I got married and had kids, didn't have the time or interest anymore.

[redqueen]

14. I was never interested in any of those magazines...

not the teen ones or the others either.

[Genevieve]

16. It always seemed to be a dumb mag by the articles on the cover, so I have

never had any interest to buy it.

[mzteris]

17. never bought one

never intend to.

[LadyoftheRabbits]

18. I... haven't outgrown it

It often has good comedic value, and it's a guilty pleasure. :P

[nadine_mn]

28. Its true.. I still read Confessions

but its more of what you say... guilty pleasure, but I remember a time when I thought of it as a real manual for being a woman

[applegrove]

19. I was more into fashion magazines. I'd read Cosmo if it was available

at the doctor's office or dentist's or something. It was always the same articles in all those magazines so I rarely read the articles...just looked at the pictures of beautiful clothes and makeup. Was like going to an art gallery for me. I remember my first vogue.

[susanna]

21. About 23 or so.

I saw what you saw; same articles repeated endlessly. It no longer interested me once I saw the pattern. I read for new ideas, not recycled ones. :-)

[crimsonblue]

22. You're sexist. n/t

[nadine_mn]

26. LOL... why?

[Silver Swan]

23. I read Cosmopolitan back in the early 1960's

Before Helen Gurley Brown turned it onto a sleaze guide. Back then, it actually had interesting articles, and published a lot of fiction. There was a monthly condensed mystery novel.

Even after HGB took over, there were many humorous articles and advice that made the magazine worth reading. I probably stopped reading it in the 1970's when I married and had children.

I sent my daughter a subscription, courtesy of Coke points. Looking at the current version, I am appalled. I guess it is assumed that no one now has the attention span to read more than bulleted items. There are no real articles--just multiple suggestions.

I remember my mother saying that my grandmother read Cosmopolitan way back when. Too bad it is not the quality publication it used to be.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

24. I'm gay and I LOVE Cosmo

Seriously, I often buy Cosmo and Maxim together.

[underpants]

25. Back in 1997 I was told that there was an issue that told you EVERYTHING you needed to know

EVERYTHING you needed to know

don't know the issue

I have done okay without it

finger to the first knuckle- back at my nose and all that

[Kat45]

29. It was never among the magazines I got.

I was reading 16, Teen and Tiger Beat when I was around 12, Seventeen on occasion a couple of years later. (I remember seeing Cheryl Tiegs in those mags back then.) I can't remember what I was reading when I was in high school or even if I was getting any magazines then. The next magazine was probably Rolling Stone, then I went to politics, with Mother Jones.

I never really had any real interest in women's magazines. Even now, I'll bring my own book or magazine to the hairdresser's rather than reading their fashion and beauty magazines.

[madeline_con]

30. The hetero comment is interesting.

But true. A lot of the decorating mags feature gay male couples who've redone their bungalows. Why no lesbian couples? :shrug:

[TrogL]

31. I read Cosmo and I'm over 50 and male

[nadine_mn]

32. You missed the point of my OP... its not about WHO reads cosmo

Its about a magazine that I feel is marketed towards women of a certain demographic (twenties, white, hetero) that sets out an ideal - to be a Cosmo Girl - Fierce Fearless Female I think was a phrase for awhile

And I, like many others, bought into this - that being a woman meant looking sexy at work (don't work too hard) and at home, to get a man and please a man, to wear the latest fashions, etc etc etc

And then one day I realized I was perfectly happy and I was a real woman - not some unrealistic, unattainable goal. That said, it doesn't mean I don't read the magazine for entertainment... I just no longer read it as a how-to.

That's why I said for me it was a rite of passage...