With thanks to Quick Meme – this is the disturbing post from Cosmo. Don’t they stand for women’s rights?
Is the heading a little bit strong? Some would say maybe but after spending some time conducting some research into Cosmo – I think there is at least some anti-female sentiment coming from them.
On Facebook, I saw a very disturbing post come through in relation to Cosmo (Cosmopolitan Magazine). According to their Facebook Page as I write this article they claim to be:
“Cosmopolitan is the best-selling young women’s magazine in the U.S., a bible for fun, fearless females that reaches more than 18 million readers a month. We deliver the latest news on men and love, sex, fashion and beauty, women’s health and self-improvement, and entertainment…”
I am sure they are a top selling magazine but this disturbing post found at Quick Meme most certainly suggests otherwise. If you look at the image from Quick Meme and posted with this article I think we can all agree we see a great beautiful woman. I think she looks quite healthy and normal – like any lovely woman I would see working out at Anytime Fitness Gym or say going for a jog down the street.
I have shown this to a lot of my friends and they agree – but what is interesting here is what Cosmo said about her in this image:
– “Plus-size supermodel”.
What? I actually shared this post on my own Facebook Community condemning such behaviour and many of my friends were quick to agree with me and share this content. We finally have a “Decent & Healthy” looking woman and trying to make people feel good about themselves. BUT OH NO, Cosmo is here to say that a normal person is “Plus-size” implying they are fat.
There are several obvious things going on here. First thing to make commentary on is the whole Fashion Industry who seem to behave in a way demonstrating that they enjoy destroying the self-esteem of girls / women of all ages. They have used starving 16 year olds in their model shoots posing as 35 year olds with the obvious intent of creating a deliberate “Insecurity” in women justifying them to purchase their products.
After all these companies care only about money. If they convince women are beautiful, then why would they purchase their products? I don’t actually agree with that argument, I think women are beautiful of all sizes and when it comes to ethical marketing they should only be sold too on the basis of decency and not by making them feel insecure about themselves.
What I really like about this post is how Social Media / Facebook has held Cosmo to account. In the old days of TV running the world, they could get away with it – but now with a “2-Way Social Media Channel” people can return fire to a company which in my view has very low opinion of women.
I would so love Cosmo to read this article and respond to us on this one. While I was scrolling through their Facebook Page just then, I saw other posts of Cosmo speaking poorly of curves and awesome people responding to them with the hostility they deserve.
Preying on women’s insecurities and contributing to teenage girls self-esteem issues I think anyone reading this article would agree with is BAD and Cosmo certainly don’t appear to be respecting this delicate societal issue based on their language. In addition to questionable ethics and just talking “Marketing Success and Management” – how on earth do Cosmo think they are going to succeed with this strategy?
How does alienating their target market and attacking women make them look good? How will this sell more subscriptions? They must have some very interesting conversations in their board meetings and this whole discussion makes me think about us Small Business Owners and how it relates to us.
From the Cosmo appearing to certainly “Hate” women at some level through their Facebook posts, it makes me think of several things we must do in Marketing for our own business:
– Conduct Marketing based on ethics and treat our clients / the market with respect.
– Be very clear as to what we are saying so it can’t be misinterpreted.
– Be aware of our Social Conscience.
– Make sure our Marketing builds up awesome people and not brings them down.
Sure, in my own blog I may be critical at times – but I know it’s to people that deserve it and have done the wrong thing (for example, I would imagine most readers except staff of Cosmo would find this article a reasonable critique).
I really think Cosmo has crossed the line here and deep down they have a resentment of woman. I think women are great of all sizes! I have dated plenty of so called “Plus-Size” women and they are great and amazing.
What do Cosmo say about “Plus-Size women” behind closed doors? Do they really think this little of the average woman? Surely they are aware of the issues facing women’s mental health these days? Why are they ignoring this? Whey are those choosing to degrade women like this?
I think that despite the public health issue many players in the fashion industry still collectively targeting the “Normal Woman” with what I think is a deliberate and targeted means of creating a deliberate insecurity. This is for a commercial motive to make women think less of themselves with a belief they will purchase more products.
Women deserve respect and fair treatment – and I am a guy stepping in and arguing that! Sure, I am a Middle-Eastern man living in Inner-West Sydney that is a strong capitalist, but it has to be done in a win / win right way!
We all need to be marketing from an ethical viewpoint especially us as Small Business Owners – especially when it comes to sensitive areas where peoples lives are at stake. The fashion industry knows better than this and I think they have taken little attention to the public cry and outrage at there.
When it comes to my own Marketing and advice I give to clients – do it all the right way! Ethical, Proper, Straight Up, Fair – and have fun doing it!
Thank you for the great read, I wonder what Cosmo has to say about this and when they decided picking on women was a good idea? My mother was an active feminist in her days, so I am sure she will love this article I have written.
Edward Zia – Marketing Mentor, Pro-Women of all sizes!
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[…] Facebook about Cosmo saying a really fit and healthy looking woman was “Plus Size”. I wrote an article of it right here that generated a massive response of disgust at what appears to be a magazine purely driven by […]