ABSTRACT
From “How to catch a bachelor” (1973) to “Limp-biscuit alert: 5 sex things we do that freak him out” (2003), it is no secret that women’s magazines are overwhelmingly heterosexual. But how does magazine content work in practice to weave a seemingly naturally heterosexual world for readers, and exclude non-heterosexual readers? Has this changed over the decades as female–female sexuality has become more prominent and socially acceptable? Through the lens of feminist theory on compulsory heterosexuality, this chapter argues that despite outward changes in the sexual content of Cosmopolitan and Cleo between the 1970s and 2010s, the underlying heterosexual paradigm endures. This paradigm, based on the perpetuation of problematic sex-role stereotypes that render women inferior, represents heterosexuality as the natural coming together of two complementary halves. Language within the contemporary magazines that explicitly identifies the female reader’s partner using masculine pronouns—and that remains prominent across the decades—functions to actively exclude the possibility of lesbian sexuality, thus problematising the notion that magazine content exhibits more diversity and acceptance in recent decades. The comprehensive critique of heteronormativity in women’s magazines is a welcome addition to the literature, revealing that the increased acceptance of same-sex sexuality since the 1970s has not translated into sexual pluralism between the pages.
