LETTER: Cosmo Girl Blues

Well, in the past few weeks I've seen it all. Debra Pickett has demonstrated that all little boys will grow up to be rapists and conclusively affirmed that all feminist women who show off their bodies in feminist magazines are objects of this overwhelmingly male chauvinist society (DP 4/6/92). How many men read Cosmopolitan? I sure don't. Or how many men read Vogue? I sure don't. Perhaps Pickett would have a case if she found these "sexist" articles in Sports Illustrated or Playboy, which are magazines read mostly by men, but here she has no grounds to complain. Sorry. How can a woman be exploited by a man if she is featured in a woman's magazine printed by a female editor? Ever wonder if these cover women represent a beauty that female readers want to shoot for? Something in Pickett's train of thought just doesn't click there. Perhaps it is just my oozing brain and male mentality that prevents me from following such pure logical operations as described in your article, but you keep on adding one and one to get three. But, perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps this exploitation is just the beginning of the subversive plot by all men to jettison the society into the stone ages when men dragged their wives by their hair. Perhaps this is yet another attempt to promote political correctness. Bzzzt! Lame flame alert! Lame flame alert! Perhaps there's just no sexism or exploitation of women by men or women in those articles at all. I don't know. I didn't read it. Men don't usually read magazines designed for women. KEVIN WELCH Engineering '95