Men's and Women's Magazines

[56]	[57]	[58]	[60]
Playboy	Better Homes and Gardens	Cosmopolitan	Helen Gurley Brown

      "One way the magazine industry competed with television was to reach niche audiences that were not being served by the new medium, creating magazines focused on more adult subject matter. Women's magazines ad long demonstrated that gender-based magazines were highly marketable, but during the era of specialization the magazine industry aggressively sought the enormous market of magazine-reading women even more."_[11]

     "Magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal, and Women's Day focused on cultivating the image of women as homemakers and consumers. In the early 1950's and 1960's this proved to be very successful.However, the women's advancement in the 1970's caused magazines to become more contemporary and sophisticated, incorporating content related to feminism, women's sexuality, and career and politics (topics that were originally geared primarily towards men)._"[11]

     "Helen Gurley Brown was an influential figure in the magazine industry because she created dissonance, she changed the way the world works and transformed Cosmopolitan magazine into something new and spectacular and controversial, which allowed the magazine to not only stay in business, but flourish and stay in business for over fifty more years and counting. She was bold and “outspoken when speaking up was not a lady-like thing to do.” She changed not only the world of magazines, but women’s social standings and behaviors as well. She was a controversial figure that created a reaction in the world that caused people to be curious and buy the magazine. Today its contents are socially acceptable, but the popularity of the magazine is still very much there. She saved the magazine and helped lead women into wanting a change and wanting a cultural revolution. Her legacy is debated because she preached feminism but concentrated on vanity and sex. She was a powerful force in the industry and will be remembered as such, whether in a positive or negative light." _[59]

     "She was the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine for roughly 50 years. She was a feminist with a progressive and also retrogressive approach to women’s social roles. She fought for women’s liberation but with a strong focus on sex. She is the author of “Sex and the Single Girl” and transformed Cosmopolitan magazine from its original form as a house wife magazine into one that empowers women and encourages them to be free and not be ashamed of sex and being strong and independent.Source:
Sports, Entertainment, and Leisure Magazines."_[59]