Maxim Magazine & Britney Spears

Objectification of women has never been as blatant as in Maxim, FHM, and Stuff magazines. Women are billed alongside Sex, Toys, Gadgets, Cars and Sports for the entertainment of men. This marketing objectifies women and reduces them to nothing more than a gadget to play with and discard at whim. Half-naked women in come-hither positions pasted on the front covers of these magazines signals a green light to society. The message these magazines are selling is that it's okay to view women as [willing] sexual objects.

Not only men's magazines are guilty. Another culprit is a well-known women's magazine--Cosmopolitan. Famous for its sexual content and entertaining tidbits for women about men, sex and fashion, Cosmo's weakness is exactly the same as Maxim's--objectification. The irony is that Cosmopolitan also treats women, not men, as sex objects. Sure, there are a few pictures with nearly nude men, but at the same time (and in the same photos) there's always plenty of naked female flesh. Open a Maxim and find a nearly nude woman (or, more likely, three nearly nude women) draped over a fully-dressed man. See the imbalance?

Cosmopolitan, claims that it's promoting women's empowerment. But what they are actually doing is, in some ways, far worse than the men's publications. Women and girls seeing themselves portrayed as sexual objects--and nothing more--is a betrayal of their trust in reading something supposedly written by women for women. Women turn to Cosmopolitan to feel better about themselves, but the odds are they'll end up feeling much worse.

In Cosmo, perfectly proportioned glamazons in itsy-bitsy bikinis get all the guys. Women feel obliged to accept this notion and are taught ever so subtly that they aren't good enough. Women and teenagers can, and will, derive the same ideas from either genre of magazine--the men's version just happens to be a bit more obvious and raw.

"[Britney Spears] just about bares it all for the September issue of British Elle, wearing nothing but the shortest shorts imaginable, unless you also count the jewels in her pierced belly button.

Inside the pages [of Elle], Britney's backside is revealed by photographer Mark Abrahams. Spears sports a little angel tattoo on her lower back and, as beautiful as Britney looks in the spread, Elle admitted the photos were retouched. This not uncommon for magazines, what is uncommon is that the publication is not covering up that fact."

- Access Hollywood reporting on Britney's topless photoshoot for British Elle.