Walmart hiding Cosmo? Aren’t there better targets? | Rebecca Nicholson

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s annual ‘dirty dozen’ list misses some obvious targets

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

Contributor

Rebecca Nicholson

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
Arlo Lippiatt's Pint-Sized Punk brings hope to bereft Q readers | Rebecca Nicholson
The 10-year-old’s lockdown project could just spearhead a new generation of music mags

Rebecca Nicholson

25, Jul, 2020 @3:30 PM

Article image
Samantha Bee doesn’t pussyfoot around, does she? | Rebecca Nicholson
Using foul language about Ivanka Trump left the talkshow host vulnerable to the far-right outrage

Rebecca Nicholson

02, Jun, 2018 @5:59 PM

Article image
Declaring war on Cosmo? It feels like we're back in the 1980s | Jamie Peck
After pressure from a rightwing religious group, Walmart pulled the magazine from its coveted spot in the checkout aisle – to protect the kids, you see

Jamie Peck

30, Mar, 2018 @3:03 PM

Article image
Billie JD Porter revealed the dark side of cool and edgy workplaces | Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff
She said that the aftermath of her time at Vice was worse than incidents themselves

Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff

25, Mar, 2018 @6:00 AM

Article image
National Geographic’s righting of its racist wrongs is well meant but slow in coming | David Olusoga
The highly influential magazine has at last owned up to decades of reinforcing readers’ colonial attitudes

David Olusoga

01, Apr, 2018 @5:00 AM

Article image
Julia Roberts: No Met ball bubbly? There's always the bath
With New York’s glitziest fashion event in lockdown, people rose to the occasion on social media

Rebecca Nicholson

09, May, 2020 @3:00 PM

Article image
Walmart removes Cosmopolitan from checkouts as conservative lobbyists celebrate
National Center on Sexual Exploitation calls Walmart a ‘trailblazer in corporate responsibility’ for pulling magazine from checkout aisles

Guardian staff and agencies

28, Mar, 2018 @2:46 PM

Article image
Don’t take liberties with Francis Lee's director’s cut | Rebecca Nicholson
Lee sought out the culprit who’d cut the gay sex in his film God’s Own Country on its US Amazon debut

Rebecca Nicholson

23, May, 2020 @3:00 PM

Article image
Is the idea of ‘real women’ just another way of selling stuff? | Yvonne Roberts
Magazines are making promises – and progress – but they’re still selling impossible dreams

Yvonne Roberts

18, May, 2019 @4:00 PM

Article image
Tammie Jo Shults was a hero long before she saved lives of 148 people | Rebecca Nicholson
If Julia Roberts isn’t already on the phone about playing her in a movie, I’d be amazed

Rebecca Nicholson

22, Apr, 2018 @5:00 AM