UK vs. American women's mags...
The UK versions of Marie Claire and Cosmo are quite different from the American ones, even though by the time they get over to this side of the pond, the British mags don't still have the free stuff they tend to come with when you get them over there. Compare the differences in the contents of the articles included in every issue...
American Cosmo:
- Horribly gruesome ways you're going to be violently murdered that you now must be constantly on guard for!
- Horribly gruesome new health threats that might be lurking inside you Right Now! and you're going to die of them if you don't buy this issue, even though when you open it up, you find out they're usually things you already knew about and they just blew them way out of proportion for more sensationalism.
- Tips for improving your performance of sexual act of the month like a hooker so he won't leave you. (needless to say, if it's something you just do not want to try at all, he's going to be out of there, so suck it up, girl!)
- How not to act like yourself, because if you do, he'll leave you.
- How to dress and make yourself up like a hooker/actress of the month so he won't leave you for someone sexier.
- Tips on safely dieting to a healthy size 2 (but not become anorexic, of course, because while the line between may be fine, it's still there), so he won't leave you for someone thinner. One issue a year may have a couple token "real women with real bodies" at size 4 or 6, or with merely perky B cups instead of perky Cs or Ds, to pretend they care about your body image.
- Q and A that's blindingly obvious, absolutely stupid, and/or cut and pasted from other issues/mags. Enough about your bloody bikini wax and yes-you-really-do-need-to-get-over-that-gag-reflex-girlfriend already!
- Celebs we were sick of hearing about a long, long time ago, and enough scantily clad perfect women that if a guy's flipping through Glamour or Cosmo, I'm far more likely to assume he's straight than the one looking at Details or GQ.
- Lots of expensive outrageous fashions that only Brits would actually consider wearing.
British Cosmo:
- Token violence, (sometimes with use of guns and unspecified locations and other details that makes you think some of these incidents are American, even) but not typically presented in such a way to make you want to stash a kitchen knife in your purse the next time you leave the house.
- Health advice is, oddly enough, advice, not scares. Maybe causing everyone to run in a panic to their doctor isn't such a good idea in a country with national health insurance.
- You're not made nearly as much to feel that your boyfriend will leave you on the spot if you don't look like a model, act like a porn star, and have little personality of your own, only what he wishes for you to have.
- Q and A has a little more variation, and more sensible answers, though perhaps Americans just tend to ask different questions, or have a shorter memory.
- Women looking significantly closer to normal appear somewhat more often, almost as if it's a vaguely normal thing for a woman not to be a model yet not be in a "before" picture. What a curious concept, that. And apparently, it's not the end of the world if a nipple is not censored out - somebody there realize that we show those things to *babies*, they really shouldn't terrify adults so?
- Celebs that might have something more to talk about than their current diet, or who might have actually done something interesting in their lives, or maybe even just random hotties we don't hear as much about here. (anyone who's read this month's Cosmo, and is reading this journal, knows *exactly* who I'm talking about here!)
- Lots of outrageous expensive fashions that only Brits would actually consider wearing. ;-)
I can't speak for any other UK women's magazines, only what I have local access to here in both editions, my memory on the content of anything I read over there years ago is incredibly hazy, but it is interesting that the indended audience seems to be "human woman" in one location and "terrified fembot advertising target" in the other. Once I've gone through all the Popular Science and MacLife and Scientific American Mind and such for the month, now you know why the Cosmo I'm flipping through may have a different cover than the one you just bought...
American Cosmo:
- Horribly gruesome ways you're going to be violently murdered that you now must be constantly on guard for!
- Horribly gruesome new health threats that might be lurking inside you Right Now! and you're going to die of them if you don't buy this issue, even though when you open it up, you find out they're usually things you already knew about and they just blew them way out of proportion for more sensationalism.
- Tips for improving your performance of sexual act of the month like a hooker so he won't leave you. (needless to say, if it's something you just do not want to try at all, he's going to be out of there, so suck it up, girl!)
- How not to act like yourself, because if you do, he'll leave you.
- How to dress and make yourself up like a hooker/actress of the month so he won't leave you for someone sexier.
- Tips on safely dieting to a healthy size 2 (but not become anorexic, of course, because while the line between may be fine, it's still there), so he won't leave you for someone thinner. One issue a year may have a couple token "real women with real bodies" at size 4 or 6, or with merely perky B cups instead of perky Cs or Ds, to pretend they care about your body image.
- Q and A that's blindingly obvious, absolutely stupid, and/or cut and pasted from other issues/mags. Enough about your bloody bikini wax and yes-you-really-do-need-to-get-over-that-gag-reflex-girlfriend already!
- Celebs we were sick of hearing about a long, long time ago, and enough scantily clad perfect women that if a guy's flipping through Glamour or Cosmo, I'm far more likely to assume he's straight than the one looking at Details or GQ.
- Lots of expensive outrageous fashions that only Brits would actually consider wearing.
British Cosmo:
- Token violence, (sometimes with use of guns and unspecified locations and other details that makes you think some of these incidents are American, even) but not typically presented in such a way to make you want to stash a kitchen knife in your purse the next time you leave the house.
- Health advice is, oddly enough, advice, not scares. Maybe causing everyone to run in a panic to their doctor isn't such a good idea in a country with national health insurance.
- You're not made nearly as much to feel that your boyfriend will leave you on the spot if you don't look like a model, act like a porn star, and have little personality of your own, only what he wishes for you to have.
- Q and A has a little more variation, and more sensible answers, though perhaps Americans just tend to ask different questions, or have a shorter memory.
- Women looking significantly closer to normal appear somewhat more often, almost as if it's a vaguely normal thing for a woman not to be a model yet not be in a "before" picture. What a curious concept, that. And apparently, it's not the end of the world if a nipple is not censored out - somebody there realize that we show those things to *babies*, they really shouldn't terrify adults so?
- Celebs that might have something more to talk about than their current diet, or who might have actually done something interesting in their lives, or maybe even just random hotties we don't hear as much about here. (anyone who's read this month's Cosmo, and is reading this journal, knows *exactly* who I'm talking about here!)
- Lots of outrageous expensive fashions that only Brits would actually consider wearing. ;-)
I can't speak for any other UK women's magazines, only what I have local access to here in both editions, my memory on the content of anything I read over there years ago is incredibly hazy, but it is interesting that the indended audience seems to be "human woman" in one location and "terrified fembot advertising target" in the other. Once I've gone through all the Popular Science and MacLife and Scientific American Mind and such for the month, now you know why the Cosmo I'm flipping through may have a different cover than the one you just bought...