THE MAIL V COSMO

Carol Sarler in the Mail this morning makes an attack on Cosmopolitan Magazine which celebrates its 35th Birthday this week.

She describes it as peddling nothing but sex and as an insult to modern women.This is an example of what she thinks:

The cover sets the tone, with a doggedly relentless string of provocative words and phrases. We have 'sex boosters' and 'being thin' and 'loving your bum' and 'Kylie's boyfriend', we have another boyfriend who 'beats the beautiful', we have 'real men', 'guys who grab', 'turn-on tricks' and who 'demands' what in bed.
It's like a gynaecological conference without the brains to match - and, yes, you may judge this book by its cover, because 193 more pages keep up the good work with 'seriously seductive lingerie', 'stay-sexy diets', 'sex-life must haves', 'flirty lashes' and 'max your sex appeal'.

Working for Honey Magazine in the 70's and 80's the author holds up Cosmo as a competitor to aspire to but its fall can be summed up as

would Helen Gurley Brown - now a doughty 84-year-old and discreetly tight-lipped on what has happened to her vision.
Love, sex and money, she said. And now it's down to just the one: sex wins, money be damned and love - who needs it?

And it readers of who he acknowledges there are many

learns that in the glam world of Cosmopolitan, to which she presumably aspires by dint of buying it, it is thoroughly modern to fly to Ibiza or Faliraki, to drink herself under the taverna table and to fall into bed with local young Lotharios, who can't believe their luck at what's handed to them on a semi-naked plate.

Not suprisingly Cosmo fights back quickly.Editor Louise Court writing on Guardian Unlimited that:

Yes Cosmo is about sex. No news there - it always has been. But it is also about love, happiness, self-respect and being the best you can be. It reflects the true dreams, desires and aspirations of 1.7 million readers every month. Today's young women may be far more forthright in the way they talk about sex, and what they expect from it than when Carol Sarler was in her twenties. But times change and the brilliance of Cosmo is its ability to stay forever young. Carol Sarler is a great writer, but she admits she started working on women's magazines almost 40 years ago - when she was a young woman. If Cosmo still rocked her boat now I would be seriously worried.