Temptation greets everyone in the supermarket checkout line. For children, candy bars in various shapes and sizes offer sweet and relatively harmless pleasure. Meanwhile, the suggestive headlines printed above are what catch the eyes of teenagers and adults.
Vital information or tasteless smut? Dartmouth students have distinct opinions on magazines such as Elle, Cosmopolitan, Maxim and Redbook. With a strong focus on sexual relationships, young adults often look to these publications for examples of popular physical ideals, sex advice and sometimes, a good laugh at the outrageous situations described.
Longtime Cosmo subscriber Carolyn Steinmetz '05 said, "[The information presented] is all stuff you already know, so it's believable ... it's definitely informational, and they really don't show anything too racy."
Steinmetz questioned the magazine's portrayal of the young women who fall in its target age group. A representative at Hearst Magazines told The Dartmouth that the target age was between 20 and 35.
"It's sometimes funny," she said, "that [Cosmo] assumes that all its readers are wealthy and go out on the town every night."
Others found such periodicals to have less allure. Lavinia Weizel '04, an occasional reader of Glamour, Mademoiselle and Cosmo said, "I only read [these magazines] in the summer ... they're always around at work, so I end up reading them."
Weizel reads the somewhat graphic Cosmo for pleasure, rather than to seek advice on sexual relationships.
"I would never try to find it if I was having a relationship problem," she said. "I only consider the beauty and fashion tips."
On the explicit nature of many magazine covers, Weizel said. "I find them horribly offensive for those not wishing to see them they're especially [inappropriate] for kids."
While most magazines that discuss sexual issues are aimed at college students and recent graduates, others appeal more to the younger reader.
Seventeen, a magazine that features pop stars such as *NSYNC and Britney Spears on its cover, is read religiously by many preteen and teenage girls. Offering advice on how to snag a crush and avoid getting a "sunken chest," Seventeen and other so-called "teenybopper" magazines are often met with the ire of parents.
"When I was younger, I definitely read YM and Seventeen," Weizel said, "but it's ridiculous that it's called Seventeen, when there are a lot of articles on sex and sexually transmitted diseases."
Weizel believes that these magazines offer "way too much" information on sex while placing relatively little emphasis on abstinence.
While love and sex do dominate the large part of these periodicals, a variety of topics are discussed. Maxim, a men's magazine whose popularity has soared since its U.S. debut in 1997, entertains its readers with jokes, medical advice and sports news, along with many pages of fashion ads and scantily clad female models.
For Dartmouth students interested in flipping through a few pages of these magazines for free, Baker Library offers hard copies of Maxim and Playboy. To be accessed, a short form must be filled out at the circulation desk. Other magazines, including Cosmo, are available online on Proquest Direct.
"[The library] is afraid that people might cut up pictures if the magazines were on the shelf," library employee Jordan Kovnot '04 said. "I've been working there for a week so far, no one's asked to view them."
