I recently learned that Cosmopolitan started out as a “serious” magazine that published some speculative fiction.

Comments

1. 

   December 19, 2016

   Samantha Dunaway Bryant

   Young women ARE political creatures, especially now. My daughter is in this target demographic and she and her friends are passionate about social justice issues. Teen Vogue is really just writing fof their readers. Go them!

   Reply
2. 

   December 19, 2016

   Samantha Dunaway Bryant

   Young women ARE political creatures, especially now. My daughter is in this target demographic and she and her friends are passionate about social justice issues. Teen Vogue is really just writing fof their readers. Go them!

   Reply
3. 

   December 19, 2016

   Steve Turnbull

   My daughter is incredibly political – even joined a political party.

   Reply
4. 

   December 19, 2016

   Steve Turnbull

   My daughter is incredibly political – even joined a political party.

   Reply
5. 

   December 19, 2016

   Mike Reeves-McMillan

   For more context, I learned that fact about Cosmopolitan because I’m reading an ARC of Brian Stableford’s new anthology, Scientific Romance, which is early spec-fic. One of the pieces, which appeared in Cosmopolitan in the late 19th century, has a bit where the future person is explaining to the traveller from the 19th century that in 1993 nobody, even women, follows fashion any more; they’ve all settled on a rational, hygienic style of dress. Stableford has a footnote in which he notes the irony that Cosmopolitan is now a glossy women’s magazine. I think his subtext is “it’s ironic because the author assumed that people, even women, in the future would be more rational than they are,” but another way to look at it is, “this author really underestimated the cultural importance of clothing”.

   Reply
6. 

   December 19, 2016

   Mike Reeves-McMillan

   For more context, I learned that fact about Cosmopolitan because I’m reading an ARC of Brian Stableford’s new anthology, Scientific Romance, which is early spec-fic. One of the pieces, which appeared in Cosmopolitan in the late 19th century, has a bit where the future person is explaining to the traveller from the 19th century that in 1993 nobody, even women, follows fashion any more; they’ve all settled on a rational, hygienic style of dress. Stableford has a footnote in which he notes the irony that Cosmopolitan is now a glossy women’s magazine. I think his subtext is “it’s ironic because the author assumed that people, even women, in the future would be more rational than they are,” but another way to look at it is, “this author really underestimated the cultural importance of clothing”.

   Reply