One of the main reasons I wanted to be part of my own magazine was to improve visibility for girls like me. In current media, I don’t feel I’m represented, and I’m sure there are plenty of women out there who feel the same. The truth is, it’s hard to find people who look like you on TV, in movies, and in magazines, especially when those mediums are populated by celebrities and models who are not only paid to look stunning, but often have their appearances altered by great lighting, Spanx, or Photoshop.
I started to do some research into Cosmopolitan Magazine, one of the biggest names in the industry. I wanted to know just how bad the lack of representation was, especially in a form of media that’s so influential. As much as we may not want to believe it, Cosmo isn’t just read by adults, but young girls. And this is what’s teaching those girls about their bodies, sex, how they should act, and how they should look.
The unfortunate truth is that most magazines depict women who are overwhelmingly thin, perfect, and white, even though their audiences are an eclectic mix of individuals. Cosmo is no exception. While Cosmo’s representation is likely better than some, like, say, Vogue, which frequently does blackface on its covers, it could still use a major overhaul. The magazine industry isn’t truly diverse if it still must differentiate its diversity with a “plus-size” fashion spread once a year, or an “all-black” issue, or a special “Latina” magazine.
So just how many women of color have even been on the cover of Cosmo recently?
In 2012, the models were as follows: Scarlett Johansson; Dakota Fanning; Selena Gomez; Megan Fox; Khloe Kardashian; Pink; Demi Lovato; Ashley Greene; Lucy Hale; Zooey Deschanel; Kate Upton; Taylor Swift. Only three of them were women of color – Selena, Khloe, and Demi. In 2011, Cosmo’s record was the same. Three of the 12 covers featured women of color — Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, and Kim Kardashian. The rest? White.
Where are the Latina women? East Asian women? South Asian women? Plus-size women? Athletic women? Tall women? I decided to take a look at Cosmo’s covers over the span of 10 years (2001-2011) to see whether anything had changed. Here’s what I found.
Total covers analyzed: 132
Note: I didn’t bother analyzing whether the women would be considered plus-size. It goes without saying that none — except Adele in on the Dec. 2011 issue — were.
Hair color
Initial thoughts: I expected most cover models would be blonde, if for no other reason than that whole “blondes have more fun” mentality in Hollywood and society. I based my results solely on what each celebrity/model’s hair color was on the cover — not what they were born with, or the hair color they “normally” may wear.
What I found:
- Blonde: 85 (64.39%)
- Brunette: 39 (29.55%)
- Red: 4 (3.03%)
- Black: 4 (3.03%)
In Hollywood, blonde has overwhelmingly been defined as “better” — sexier and prettier than any other hair color. There’s no real surprise that a lot of the women on the covers had blonde hair, but I don’t think Cosmo specifically chooses women who are blonde for their covers. I think it likely has to do with there being more blonde, white celebrities in U.S. media. Interestingly, some scientists say only around 2% of adults are natural blondes.
Hair Texture
Initial thoughts: What defines the type of hair “texture” we have? Well, that’s sort of hard to say. I couldn’t physically go up to each cover model and touch their hair (also: that would be weird), but I could look at the style of their hair. I went into this thinking most hair would be straight because it’s often known as “white hair” — that silky, “smooth” texture exemplified by women like Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone and Reese Witherspoon.
What I found:
- Straight: 53 (40.15%)
- Curly: 11 (8.33%)
- Wavy/professionally curled: 68 (51.52%)
I was surprised to see how many women had wavy/curly hair — or rather, hair that was professionally curled and given waves. It was very, very rare that naturally curly hair was used on a model. Off the top of my head, I can really only recall Debra Messing and that was in 2001. I sincerely thought most women would have been shown with straight hair, since there is this underlying message in American society that “natural” or “curly” hair is gross or ugly. This article even talks about how curly hair is seen as “less professional” than straight hair.
But I think the point still stands. Despite the majority of the women on the covers having wavy hair, most of them had their hair styled that way — that is, their was straightened FIRST and THEN given big, luscious curls, the kind that can only be achieved with hair product and curling irons and, often, “white” hair.
The message? Unless your hair is straight, don’t bother with your “natural” texture. Your hair should not be frizzy, at all. It should glisten and bounce like an Herbal Essences commercial.
“Race”
Initial thoughts: I put “race” in quotation marks because race is a social construct and I didn’t have a very scientific way of going about categorizing these women. This is based solely off of the embarrassing amount of pop culture knowledge I’ve amassed about these celebrities, combined with something simple — what a person’s skin color looks like. My method is about as scientific as how race is determined in real life because, let’s be real, people are judged entirely on the color of their skin, not whether they look Latino but are actually Italian. Are you light-skinned? Then you’re white. Are you dark-skinned? Black. Somewhere in between? You’re brown.
What I found: There were ZERO East Asian women on Cosmo’s covers. I included South Asian women (like Armenian Kim Kardashian) in “brown.”
- White: 114 (86.36%)
- Brown/Latina: 12 (9.09%)
- Black: 6 (4.55%)
This is the category I cared most about. However, having hard numbers in front of me just made me feel even more disappointed. Nearly 87% of the women who’ve been on the cover of Cosmopolitan Magazine FOR THE PAST 10 YEARS were white.
To be fair, Cosmo IS getting better about this. In 2001, 100% of their covers were white women. In 2011, 75% were white. Less than the average, but not by much. I do recognize that part of the problem is simply that women of color in Hollywood do not exist on the same vast scale as white women.
But how much can we blame on that? Cosmo only has 12 covers per year to fill, usually with celebrities — surely there are SOME women of color suitable for their magazine? Mindy Kaling, Zoe Saldana, Lucy Liu, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Taraji P. Henson, Sara Ramirez, Maggie Q, Katie Leung, Kim Yoon Jin, America Ferrera, Kerry Washington, Rosario Dawson.
Some years, Cosmo even chose to reuse women who’d already been on their cover instead of choosing a woman of color. Julia Stiles and Molly Sims, for example, graced Cosmo’s cover four times over 10 years. Of course, it wasn’t just white women who were on the cover multiple times. Beyonce, Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Eva Longoria were (and I’m very glad!) — but these are all women of color openly accepted in mainstream media. I feel like you’d never see a woman like Tracee Ellis Ross, who starred on BET’s “Girlfriends” for EIGHT years, on the cover of Cosmo, which is really sad.
Conclusion
I knew what I was getting into when I started looking at these magazine covers; I knew that the majority of the women would be light-skinned, heterosexual, smooth-haired, perfect-bodied women. (For a look at all 132 covers, click here and scroll to the bottom of the post.) I could spend days, weeks, months examining these covers, but even just a preliminary look paints a pretty vibrant picture. If Cosmo really wants to diversify, it’ll have to do more than slap one token woman of color on its covers each year.
Thankfully, not all magazines are like Cosmo. In fact, there are some I adore, including Bust, Latina, and Bitch. Which magazines do you think are the best? And the worst?
