Boxing Helena and Corseting Eunice: Sexual Rhetoric in Cosmopolitan and Playboy Magazines

This paper analyzes the sexual rhetorics of Cosmopolitan and Playboy magazines to consider how sexuality is constructed in similar ways by sources directed to men and women. We use Goffman's classifications of gender in advertisements to compare how each magazine uses its pictures to provide cues to readers about sexuality and sexual relationships and to trace changes within each magazine over time. We conclude that both magazines converge on a single construction of sexuality for women. Playboy addresses men and Cosmopolitan addresses women, yet the visual rhetorics of both magazines reflect the male gaze and promote the idea that women should primarily concern themselves with attracting and sexually satisfying men.