Cosmo Marginalizes Pro-Life Women in a Demeaning Way
Ericka Andersen /
Cosmopolitan magazine is getting serious this year. For the first time ever, the racy women’s reader will be endorsing candidates for office in their #CosmoVotes campaign.
.@Cosmopolitan spits in the face of democracy & insults readers’ intelligence.
As a dedicated subscriber of women’s magazines from Marie Claire to Women’s Health, I’m well aware of how they cover politics – usually focusing on one primary issue: abortion.
Will Cosmo buck the trend and cover issues fairly with opinions from both sides of the aisle? No, ma’am. They’ll be thumbing their noses at anyone who dares oppose the one issue they define all women by.
cosmopolitan.com/politics
In an interview with Politico, Cosmo online editor Amy Odell said, “We’re not going to endorse someone who is pro-life because that’s not in our readers’ best interest.”
It’s ironic that a women’s magazine downsizes the female sex into a monolithic group that votes and thinks the same way on an issue as controversial as this. In reality, the country — including women — is split down the middle.
Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that a magazine that regularly portrays females as sex objects has almost cartoonishly thrown women into a tiny voting box labeled “birth control and abortion.” I just didn’t realize that civil discussion of the issues would completely disappear.
Advertisements used to promote the #CosmoVotes campaign.
On the #CosmoVotes website, abortion access is the very first thing mentioned under the “issues that matter to us most.” It reads: “We know that the decision to have a child is one that shapes the rest of a woman’s life and that reproductive freedom is a fundamental human right, a cornerstone of gender equality, and a key to financial and personal stability.”
“We’re not going to endorse someone who is pro-life because that’s not in our readers’ best interest,” says @Cosmopolitan.
Rather than confront the very serious, controversial nature of abortion, and open the floor to debate to different opinions that woman across the country hold on abortion, Cosmopolitan would rather shut their opponents up.
Contrary to Cosmo editor Joanna Cole’s beliefs, pro-lifers are much more diverse than “a bunch of old white guys sitting in D.C.” They include millions of Cosmo readers as well!
The reality is that these issues aren’t black and white – and they deserve a real conversation, a conversation Cosmopolitan is unwilling to engage.
On Friday, politics editor Jill Filipovic tweeted, “Q for those criticizing @Cosmopolitan for endorsing pro-choicers: Are there pols who are anti-choice but GREAT on all other womens’ issues?”
Q for those criticizing @Cosmopolitan for endorsing pro-choicers: Are there pols who are anti-choice but GREAT on all other women’s issues?
— Jill Filipovic (@JillFilipovic) September 4, 2014
Sadly, she’ll never know the answer to her own question if she and her colleagues silence the politicians they disagree with on this one issue. Women aren’t one-issue voters – and some may care a lot more about what’s going on in Iraq or Ukraine right now than what’s going on at your gynecologists’ office. Or they may even disagree with Cosmo on the matter of abortion.
Cosmo can have editors of any political ideology they choose – but they spit in the face of democracy and insult their readers’ intelligence by excluding serious candidates in the name of their own bias.