Cosmopolitan has been removed from the checkouts at Walmart in the US, which the chain has attributed to a business decision, although it accepts that “concerns raised were heard”. The conservative anti-pornography group, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, has claimed this as a victory, following a long campaign against the magazine. According to the group’s executive director, Dawn Hawkins, Cosmo “places women’s value primarily on their ability to sexually satisfy a man and therefore plays into the same culture where men view and treat women as inanimate sex objects”.
The NCOSE, formerly known as Morality in Media, produces an annual “Dirty Dozen” list “to name and shame the mainstream players in America that perpetuate sexual exploitation”. Oddly, this year, it found no room for the current president of the United States. Instead, it’s a roll call of what you might call “the internet”. It calls out Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube, in addition to Amazon and iBooks. As history has taught us, the censorship of literature, burning books, that sort of thing, is usually a surefire sign that there’s nothing at all to panic about in any political climate.
The current US issue of Cosmo, now relegated to “designated magazine areas” of the stores, promises to “Heat Up Sex!” I think it’s referring to more than just turning on the electric blanket. There is probably not that much need to consider “sizzling foreplay” and “warm toys for hot spots” when stocking up on bread and milk, but Walmart sells firearms and ammunition, too, and I’d rather drift into a land of sex tips by women for women than think about what those bullets are going to do. The NCOSE claims the magazine targets young women and encourages male sexual entitlement; outrageously, it has couched this in the language of resistance. “This is what real change looks like in our #MeToo culture,” said Hawkins.
While I realise that pornography is a divisive area within feminism, to say the least, let’s not pretend that this particular shuffle towards puritanism is a feminist decision. Cosmopolitan is not a perfect magazine, but it is aimed at women, not at men, not at kids. It may be sexually explicit at times, but compared with the internet, which is where kids actually learn about sex now, it’s relatively benign; at its best, it’s a frank big sister telling it like it is.
When I was at school, we had More! magazine’s “Position of the Fortnight” passed around like sweets, and I am happy to report that, like many women of my age, I emerged unscathed from seeing these illustrations. To put women talking about sex between themselves on the wrong side of #MeToo is troubling. Under his eye, indeed.
• Rebecca Nicholson is an Observer columnist