I fell in love with English in my “Consumer Culture” first year seminar. My classmates and I all grew so close together that sharing ideas and/or thoughts started to come as second nature to me. It was incredible to have so many differing opinions in one room, and to begin feeling comfortable arguing with the opinion of a peer. I began to see that other people’s perspectives could help to shape my ideas, and to make me think in an alternative way.
We spoke at length about advertisements and how they demean women. One of my favorite essays compared ads from a 1970 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine to an issue from 2010. In composing this essay, my class went to the archives to collect sources and I found myself overwhelmed with information. The archives are full of beauty and so much history and the feeling is like nothing that can be described. Luckily we had a whole class to discover various magazines ranging from the 1800s until present time. Once I met with my professor and spoke through ideas with her I ventured back to the archives and began my writing frenzy. All the Cosmopolitan magazines from 1930 to 1980 were compiled in a red hardcover book that must have weighed 10 pounds. The book was full of articles, advertisements and photos that I managed to get caught up in for minutes at a time. It was difficult to focus my attention on the task at hand but once I decided upon a topic, the information was right before my eyes. I decided to write about the way in which younger generations’ exposure to advertising impacts them as consumers.
I remember one night sitting in the archives with my 2010 issue of Cosmopolitan magazine next to the red book flipped open. The differences were obvious but I had to dig deep to find the meaning embedded within articles and advertisements and extract from them the audience they were trying to reach. After countless hours of writing in the archives my paper was finished and I was so happy with the end result. This class has opened my eyes to consumerism and ways in which companies try to appeal to certain cultures or age groups. More astonishingly is that companies are not prohibited from publishing some of the demeaning and sexual references, especially when some young girls read these magazines.
Here is the Cosmopolitan essay (which happens to be my favorite paper) that I wrote in her class:
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