Uncovering American Beauty
How does the United States’ leading fashion magazine define “beauty”? One way to explore this question is by critically analyzing the covers of Cosmopolitan.
1 DESCRIPTION. If you review a number of Cosmopolitan covers, you’ll notice that they typically feature a body shot of a female model surrounded by blaring headlines often featuring the words Hot and Sex to usher a reader inside the magazine. The cover model is dressed provocatively and is positioned against a solid-color background. She looks confident. Everything about the cover is loud and brassy.
2 ANALYSIS. Looking at the covers over the last decade, and then the decade before it, what are some significant patterns? One thing you’ll notice is that all of these models look incredibly alike, particularly when it comes to race: There is a disproportionate number of white cover models. But you’ll notice that things are improving somewhat in this regard; Cosmo has used several Hispanic and African American cover models in recent years, but still they are few and far between. However, there is an even more consistent pattern regarding body type. Of cover model Hilary Duff, Cosmo said, “with long honey-colored locks, a smokin’ bod, and killer confidence, Hilary’s looking every bit the hot Hollywood starlet.” In Cosmo-speak, “smokin’ bod” means ultrathin (sometimes made even more so with digital modifications).
3 INTERPRETATION. What does this mean? Although Cosmo doesn’t provide height and weight figures for its models, it’s likely that it’s selling an unhealthy body weight (in fact, photos can be digitally altered to make the models look even more thin). In its guidelines for the fashion industry, the Academy for Eating Disorders suggests “for women and men over the age of 18, adoption of a minimum body mass index threshold of 18.5 kg/m2 (e.g., a female model who is 5’9” [1.75 m] must weigh more than 126 pounds [57.3 kg]), which recognizes that weight below this is considered underweight by the World Health Organization.”1
4 EVALUATION. Cosmopolitan uses thin cover models as aspirational objects for its readers—that is, as women its readers would like to look like. Thus, these cover models become the image of what a “terrific” body is for its readers, who—by Cosmopolitan’s own account—are women age eighteen to twenty-four. Cosmo also notes that it’s been the best-selling women’s magazine in college bookstores for twenty-five years. But that target audience also happens to be the one most susceptible to body issues. As the Academy for Eating Disorders notes, “at any given time 10 percent or more of late adolescent and adult women report symptoms of eating disorders.”2
5 ENGAGEMENT. Contact Cosmo’s editor in chief, Joanna Coles, and request representation of healthy body types on the magazine’s covers. You can contact her and the editorial department via e-mail (cosmo_letters@hearst.com), telephone (212-649-3570), or U.S. mail: Joanna Coles, Editor, Cosmopolitan, 224 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019. Your voice can be effective: In 2012, a thirteen-year-old girl started a petition on change.org and successfully got Seventeen to respond to the way it Photoshops images of models.