Muriel Dimen looks at Cosmopolitan magazine deconstructing it’s image as the liberated woman’s magazine. While Cosmo first offered a discourse that differed from the 1950’s concept of women’s only roles as wife and mother, it idealized and stereotyped a concept of femininity based on a willingness to withstand and receive the male gaze. The freedom of not being a housewife is the freedom to search for a man, to be eternally thin and to pretend never going to the bathroom. Quotes from Cosmo’s editor at the time such as “having an orgasm is saying thank you” reinforce the idea that the magazine’s message is that it’s ok to be dominated, as a woman and in general.

Muriel Dimen is a professor at CUNY, psychoanalyst and author of “Surviving Sexual Contradictions.”