You know the U.S. has become a puritanical, sexless pit of suffering when the country’s largest retailer starts ripping Cosmopolitan off its checkout aisles.
In a major victory for anti-porn activists, Walmart will no longer display Cosmopolitan’s "hyper-sexualized" covers and content. The ban was in direct response to a petition from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) — which compares Cosmo to porn and has been waging a campaign to get it removed from store shelves for years.
In 2015, the conservative group first started their crusade to get stores to shield Cosmopolitan’s covers behind blinders. Today, they celebrate the magazine’s ban as “what real change looks like in our #MeToo culture.”
"That's over 5,000 stores where families and individuals will no longer be automatically exposed to Cosmo's 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,” the center said in a statement.
Of course, NCOSE has majorly misinterpreted #MeToo movement to suit their moralistic beliefs.
Cosmopolitan magazine is a female-run, female-oriented publication that encourages women to see their sex appeal as something positive and empowering. Its the publication’s encouragement of promiscuity — or even sex positivity — that the group objects to, and has stolen the an anti-assault movement to advance its anti-sex agenda.
Naturally, the group’s perversion of the #MeToo movement has inspired public outcry.
“To blame a publication primarily aimed at and created by women for the systematic harassment and assault many women endure — often at the hands of men— is an embarrassing repurposing of the #MeToo movement,” reads one such criticism.
Walmart will still carry Cosmopolitan, but shoppers looking to buy it will have to search the superstore a little harder. The magazine will be placed on racks elsewhere, hidden in places where customers are less likely to stumble upon its sexualized content.
"Walmart will continue to offer Cosmopolitan to customers that wish to purchase the magazine, but it will no longer be in the checkout aisles," Walmart said in a statement. "While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised were heard."
Walmart might call it a business decision, but women are calling bullshit. This is conservative sexual moralism, plain and simple.
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