The other day I gave a presentation for another class, and in the powerpoint we had a picture of the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. I didn't really look at the cover or read any of the headlines at all, but a friend asked me if I had seen one of the articles that was on the cover. I hadn't because I was so focused on giving the presentation. But the cover read "The #1 thing men are good for besides you know". My friend was laughing at it until she said, "Imagine if that was on a men's magazine and it read 'the #1 thing women are good for besides you know'. People would absolutely freak out if that was on a men's magazine.
People would say that men were once again objectifying women and viewing them as a sexual object rather than human beings. The magazine would suffer because of the outcry it would cause, and the writer would likely be out of a job.
My point here is, it's funny when it's on a women's magazine cover, but it's awful if men were to say the exact same thing about us. We talk about there being double standards all the time and how things need to be different. But how is this double standard okay?
This makes me pretty angry actually. We talk all the time about how men view us and how awful they are. But in reality, we are no different than they are, and because we are women objectifying men it's perfectly okay and funny.
I'm not trying to argue that men should be allowed to objectify women, but with covers like the one I'm referring to, how can we say anything at all. When we are doing these stupid things, we have no right to get upset if and when they do the same things. Yet, I guarantee the same women that were laughing at this cover would be the first ones to get upset and make a big deal out of it if it were on a men's magazine.
We talk a lot about how things should change in this class, but from my point of view, it's not at all one sided. Sure, there are problems, but I have to argue that all of these problems do not come from a bunch of "white males who are in charge of everything". I guarantee a man didn't make that Cosmopolitan cover.
I guess I am playing devil’s advocate here, and I’m sure a lot of people see nothing wrong with the cover. I didn’t until I really started to think about how much of a double standard was there. I think we women should be held accountable for what we say about men just as much as we try to hold men accountable for the things they say about us.
I just think that people need to be more objective about the things that they get offended about. Yes, I think it would be offensive to see a title like this on a men's magazine. But it should offend me just as much to see it on a women's magazine if I want anything to change at all.
