en-turquoise asked: Just wanted to say I love your blog. As someone who's realizing herself as a feminist and studying beauty advertising from a feminist philosophical perspective, I totally appreciate your commentary on Cosmo's articles. I actually think satirizing like you do can help women realize the psychologically erosive effects of women's magazines' prevailing ideologies--of course, that is, if they listen.

Wow, thank you so much. I think it can be really, really difficult to understand just how deeply rooted a lot of the negative messages we get on a daily basis really are.

Cosmo does a particularly good job of masking their sexism by pretending that they’re helping women out and I just find that mentality so troubling. You’re helping me by telling me that I’m gross and everything about me is wrong? They do it so subtly, though, that it makes it really seem like maybe they’re right. And, of course, I remember reading these magazines as a teenager (which, let’s be honest, is when a lot of people start getting into Cosmo) and thinking that everything they were saying was so accurate and I needed to change who I was just to be “normal.”

As much as, at 17 or 18, I thought I was a budding feminist, I was still incredibly naive about a lot of things, so I felt like I did need to listen to Cosmo because they were much older, more mature and more experienced than I was. It wasn’t until I started to take Women’s Studies classes in college that I really began to look at things with a critical eye and see just how much bullshit we’re fed on a daily basis. It changed the way I read everything forever, really, in a good way.

All that to say: thank you, sincerely. I appreciate the comment! :)