Katie Kennon, a twenty year old journalism student from American University lies in her loft bed. Blonde and petite, she possesses southern femininity with a retro spin. Her roommate, Bethany Gil-bert-Jones, also twenty and studying American Politics, sits in her desk chair with her notebook computer on her lap. Her tall frame rests ca-sually with one leg crossed, leaning forward slightly to view the screen. She accesses the Cosmopolitan Magazines (Cosmo) website to give Katie the February quiz. This month, Cosmo asks: ?What are your roman-tic expectations?? The sarcastic tone is impossible to miss in her voice as she reads off the questions.
If your boyfriend/husband forgot your anniversary, you?d:
a. Feel incredibly ticked. It?s obvi-ously a sign that he?s not prioritizing your relationship.
b. Be a little bugged but give him a chance to make it up to you
c. Shrug it off. You have a hard time remembering the exact date yourself
?There?s never an answer I feel really suits me,? Katie responds. ?There needs to be another option. D should always be ?I?d reim him with a metal bar.??
Bethany suggests one of the ex-isting options and the questioning continues. After eleven or so ques-tions, the scores are tallied with each answer corresponding to a certain point value. The total score fits into one of three categories of romantic expectations: Rabid Romantic, Amo-rous Optimist, or Sap-Free Sister. Katie is crowned amorous optimist, meaning she knows love is a two way street. While her man may not always show-er her with affection, she recognizes this as normal behavior.
?I think I should be the high maintenance one. I want the hope diamond eventually,? she jokes.
Since 1965, when Helen Gurley Brown took over as editor and chief, Cosmopolitan magazine has been advising their tag lined ?fun, fearless, female? on relationships, career, and beauty. Selling close to three million copies in the United States and eight million interna-tionally, it?s apparent the Cosmo philosophy has a faithful following. At first glance, this is just another popular women?s interest magazine. Yet there?s an underlying question that nags its eleven million readers: How can I make myself better?
?As stupid as those quizzes are, they?re so addictive. I could sit on my computer all day and take them even though I know they don?t mean anything,? says Kennon. Echoing these sentiments, another student testifies: ?I have participated in such mindless entertainment, but I think for most of us, that?s all it is. I don?t think I ever took them seriously. At least I hope I didn?t.?
In her article, ?Faking It: Sex, Lies, and Women?s Magazines,? media journalist Liza Featherstone chal-lenges the authenticity of women?s magazines. Particularly, she focuses on misinformation and white lies in articles for entertainment purposes. She refers to these mock exposés as ?a formidable cultural force, shaping and reinforcing our attitudes about men and women, orgasms and relationships.? In an email discus-sion, Featherstone responds to the element of improvement prevalent in women?s interest magazines like Cosmo: ?The pervasive premise of women?s media is that the reader [is] always striving to be prettier, sexier, more popular, thinner, better able to get and keep a man.? The Cosmo quiz is just one way magazines are getting the word out?if you want to be successful in love, life, and career, you need to change.
In a review of I?m Wild Again, the memoir of Helen Gurley Brown, international editor for Cosmo, Da-vid Plotz hits on reasons for the ?be better? vibe of the magazine. For in-stance, Brown?s office-wall motto is ?Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go Everywhere.? Brown?s feminist battle cry encourages women to be sexier, better lovers, and to gain the upper hand in their relationships. Effectively, she encourages women to be sex objects. She quips: ?A little sexual tension in the office never hurt anyone.? The twenty to thirty year old crowd loved her bawdy independence and readership grew at tremendous rates under Brown’s United States editorship. Subscrip-tions went from under one million in circulation to three million. Subse-quent editors carry on her tradition while subscriptions remain high (currently, circulation in the US is about 2.7 million).
The independent, sexually liber-ated formula works. Featherstone later comments in her email on the media?s successful emphasis on this formula. An emotional link to personal enhancement fuels the magazine slant as much as its staff. ?There is a lot of research showing that women are much more likely to blame themselves when things go wrong in their lives. That is part of the reason that women are some-what more susceptible to depression and anxiety. So, there is a downside to our relentless self-criticism, and the way it is encouraged by these websites and by the media.?
Magazines, with their high rates of circulation, are known for their ability to advise. However, the web offers a similar, quiz related experi-ence. Queendom.com, founded in 1996, aims to ?provide an interactive avenue for self-exploration.? Over 80% of their users are women, a telling bit of evidence as far as determining the desire women have for self improvement. The top four quizzes, classic IQ, self esteem, emotional IQ, and communication