"Despite the difference in their audience, both Cosmopolitan and Playboy reflect the male gaze. The focus of the sexual gaze is still the woman, even when the audience is women and the sex is presumed to be heterosexual{...} The reader is therefore encouraged to look upon the bodies of Cosmopolitan's female models as a man would, to evaluate her body by those standard, and in turn, to remake herself according to that model. Femininity is defined by the ability to attract a man - to undergo the male gaze and be judged suitable [...]The male gaze commodifies women, teaching them to regard themselves as erotic objects to be displayed and remade according to the latest fashion."
'Boxing Helena and Corseting Eunice' Krauss, Blaukamp and Wesselink (2001)
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