On the topic of these sorts of magazines providing decent articles - one of the best articles I’d read about the Taliban in the early 1990s came from Cosmo (which I never read - unless I’m getting my hair done or something). Its been a long time since I read Seventeen, but they always tried to have one good piece of journalism in there every month - often world events.
You know what always annoys me about this stuff - you want your kid to grow up in a bubble - fine. I don’t think its best, but do it. But you are making it more difficult for my daughter to be raised outside a bubble. I want her to check out books from the school library with challenging ideas - not be limited because you don’t want your kid exposed to those ideas. I want her to know what a yeast infection is and how to treat it - I don’t think I can absolutely trust she’ll come to me - and if she’s seen it in Seventeen it might be better information than she gets from her friends.
I can think of two reasons to defend Albertson’s actions. Both border on lame.
For one, they are selling pictures of vaginas to minors. In this age of pedophilic witch hunts, one could hardly blame them for wanting to cover their asses from all sorts of legal action. Even the accusation of peddling smut to minors could cause irreparable harm to the chain.
Even so, that’s a pretty weak defense.
Secondly,
I haven’t seen the artilcle, but I’ll take people’s word for it that it was informative.
But have you seen the “How To” sex articles in magazines for grownups? Magazines like Cosmo and Women’s Day? Do yourself a favor and pick up one of these stupid rags sometime. Select one that on the cover advertises an article such as “How to give your man the best orgasm he’s ever had” or “Drive your submissive goat wild in the hay” or something. Read the article. Think to yourself how much actual useful information you gleaned from it, as opposed to how much of your life you just wasted reading twee fluff. Then consider whether the article imparted anything educational whatsoever. Think to yourself why such magazines give out “The only sex information you’ll ever need”–Every month!
Of course, I doubt this latter is the reason Abertsons pulled the magazine.
While both fall under “hot-to,” I don’t think an essentially medical article on “How to Tell if You Have Yeast Infection” (the subject of the article as I understand it) can be compared to sex tips articles along the lines “How to Drive Your Man Wild in 5 Easy Steps.” JMHO.
Sure, which is why I’ll give the former the benefit of the doubt. But I still remain healthily skeptical.
Perhaps if I knew who wrote the article I could make a better judgement. Often enough, those things are not written by qualified people.
Years ago, my girlfriend used to write articles for Psychology Today. She lost that source of income when that magazine dropped psychologists and instead got journalists to write the articles. To me that’s still junk reporting.
[tangent]
Cite? I know of nothing in the works of Paul where he says/implies that women are “inherently more sinful and dirty.” Unfortunately, there have been Christian (and nonchristian) writers who taught this, but I don’t see Paul as being one of them.
[/tangent]
Not quite so tangentially, you, the OP, and a few other posters have seen this as a gender issue, so that got me to wondering:
Is Seventeen read primarily, or exclusively, by girls?
Are there magazines like Seventeen that are aimed at teenage male readers?
If so, what kind of reaction would they get if they showed photos of male genitalia in an educational context (for example, showing the effects of sexually transmitted diseases)?
This reminds me of an article I once read about nurses who went into some Bible Belt community to educate women on checking themselves for breast cancer. The nurses ran into some difficulty because some of the women thought it was wrong to touch that area of their bodies.
Many, many rolleyes. :rolleyes:, lather, rinse, repeat.
Which, to close the circle, brings me on to a female friend of mine (Platonic, alas) who lent at least one woman friend of hers a skin mag or two just so that the friend could see what other women’s snatches looked like, and be a little less worried about her own.
I’ve never really understood that concern either. Has any man in the history of the universe ever rejected a woman sexually because “her snatch was too ugly”?
Alternately, I’ve heard of girls who have poor hygiene because they think even washing “down there” is dirty and wrong.
tdn, SEVENTEEN may be frivolous, but some of their articles on serious issues were pretty informative-they did try to educate young women. I think an article on vaginal health would be routine for them.
It’s about as common among guys to make disparaging comments about a woman’s bits as it is for women to make jokes about inadequate penis size. I’ve had guys say things to me, before getting a view of the lands down south, about dislikes for particular features; sure, it was only a “prefer A to B” thing, but it’s still hard not to take personally when you happen to have a B.
Sure, and I give them props for that. And I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that the article was written by an OB/Gyn. A female one. Who knew what she was talking about.
Still, it’s amazing how many educational books and articles on the subject there are out there that are written by unqualified people. A few years back, my girlfriend was doing a sex research project, and I volunteered to help, in my own unprofessional way. (This was not nearly as much fun as you might think.) It was appalling how much junk on the subject was published.
Don’t believe me? Put on a floppy hat and some sunglasses and take a stroll through the sexuality section of your local bookstore. Look on the back flaps of a few books to read about the authors. You’ll find a whole lot more Doctors Laura than Doctors Kinsey.
So my girlfriend and her collegue decided to write a factual and informative book on the subject. Granted, it was mostly a money-making effort, with much prodding from their publisher, but they at least tried to back up their findings with solid science. Naively, they assumed that the buying public would be hungry for such factual knowledge.
How wrong they were. People don’t want the facts. They want what appeals to prurient interests, and they want quick fixes. They don’t want satisfying orgasms with someone they love, they want 3-hour long Earth-shattering orgasms that involve a bisexual donkey, chocolate pudding, and a trampoline. That’s what sells.
So my girlfriend’s book was pulled from store shelves due to no sales. It’s out of print.
In the US, at least. And in most English speaking countries. Want to know where it’s still selling well? Here’s a hint: If you wear a yarmulke, a fez, or a burqua, you can still find it in hardcover.
Please, you’ve never heard anyone joke that female genitalia smells like fish? Never? Never heard the term “bearded clam” to describe a vagina? I find that hard to believe.
