Cosmo Is Confusing

In Figuring Out Feminism ~ The First Time, Gracie discusses the cognitive dissonance of growing up in the 70's, comparing feminism to a faith by saying, "Equality was as much a belief and faith as any religion back then, for as much as you heard, there was little to actually see."

Just one example:

I didn't go to any of the meetings, but Phil Donahue and copies of Cosmo (magazines left lying around in everyone's home, while the Playboys were hidden) told me of such groups. Some women gathered with mirrors to look at their vaginas and tell themselves how beautiful they were ~ a grown-up version of Free to Be... You and Me. Others, who presumably had already done the mirror thing, met to discuss sex as power, how women had it and that it was OK to use it ~ and if he didn't respond to it, he was likely gay. And that was OK too. As was the fact that you might not only find women succumbing to your sexual power, but you might prefer it. All of this likely sent more than a few women back to the mirror with questions.

But while Donahue wore a skirt (further developing my crush on him), I didn't see any other men following suit. (But three-piece suits were definitely dwindling.) And while Cosmo told us that it was OK to go to an orgy, they did so while telling women what to wear ~ which really seemed to send the message of dressing for others, not of the freedom portended.

Being of a similar age, I agree with the confusion... And the fact that even today, Cosmo mags, with all their sex talk & images, can lay 'round the house -- but for gawd's sake, hide the Playboys!

Gracie credits the Cosmo image from Cosmopolitan & Me: 40 Years Old, a post from which I will be pulling lots of future posts myself. (Just a friendly warning.)