{"id":181075,"date":"2018-03-30T14:56:58","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T18:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=181075"},"modified":"2018-03-30T23:16:56","modified_gmt":"2018-03-31T03:16:56","slug":"walmart-cosmopolitan-magazine-checkout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/walmart-cosmopolitan-magazine-checkout\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart pulls Cosmopolitan magazine from store checkout stands"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On March 28, 2018, retailer-giant Walmart announced<\/a> its decision to pull Cosmopolitan magazine from its checkouts across the nation. Walmart called this a “business decision,” but also revealed it had heard its customers’ continuing concerns over Cosmo.<\/p>\n

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation called this a “family-friendly decision” and “sexploitation-free” in a public statement<\/a> praising Walmart’s move:<\/p>\n

Walmart is using its platform to take a stand against sexual exploitation, by instituting a broad sweep of all Walmart stores, removing Cosmopolitan Magazine<\/a> from each and every checkout aisle. This unprecedented effort will impact more than 5,000 stores across our nation.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s over 5,000 stores where families and individuals will no longer be automatically exposed to Cosmo\u2019s hypersexualized and degrading article titles that regularly promote pornography, sexting, BDSM, group sex, anal sex, and more, all while marketing toward young teens with Disney star cover models.<\/p>\n

Nationally representative surveys<\/a> show that the majority of Americans believe that Cosmopolitan\u2019s graphic headlines are not appropriate for all ages, and young girls and boys alike have often reached out to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation reporting how the magazine\u2019s normalization of sexual objectification and pornography compound peer-pressure to engage in more risky sex, which has negatively impacted them.<\/p>\n

We at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation have been working behind the scenes with Walmart for months regarding this policy improvement, and applaud Walmart for making their checkout aisles family-friendly and sexploitation-free.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition to pushing risky sexual behaviors and hyper sexualized photos of women on anyone standing in a checkout lane — men, teens, women, and children — Cosmo is also known for its abortion advocacy.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Amy Odell, editor of Cosmopolitan.com led the magazine’s political efforts, which included endorsing candidates. Odell flat-out stated<\/a>, “We\u2019re not going to endorse someone who is pro-life because that\u2019s not in our readers\u2019 best interest.” She went on to describe that young women in particular might need to “terminate[] a pregnancy,” all while failing to mention that what they really need in modern society is support to give life to their children, even in less than ideal circumstances.<\/p>\n

For decades, Cosmo’s agenda has been nearly identical to Planned Parenthood’s: objectify women as sex objects, claim sex is the most important part of a woman’s life, and push abortion on them. When women called Planned Parenthood<\/a> to ask about their pregnancy options, a Live Action investigative journalism effort uncovered the abortion corporation leaving women high and dry:<\/p>\n