Cierra Abstract Race, Sex, Power Panel Proposal 9-8-07
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Social Memory and American Cosmopolitan Sexuality in South African Policy and Practice by Cierra Olivia Thomas-Willi ams This project explores the global (re)production of Americanized, racialized, and sexualized subjectivities through consumer practices, which are traceable transnationally using, as artifacts, magazine issues of Cosmopolitan South Africa. A discourse analysis is contextualized by an analysis of U.S. involvement with the implementation of current African national policies dealing with women’s health and well being in correlation to how directly or indirectly these issues are dealt with in the magazine. Further, in order to historically contextualize the South African Cosmo woman, this research project examines Cosmo U.S. during the period of 1948-1968, when the U.S. was actively involved w ith apartheid policy. Taking into consideration Diaspora theory and social memory, this project will consider where, exactly, South African women fit into the Diaspora of imagined black subjectivities that make up the global Cosmo woman. The Cosmo woman South Africa—produced by the largest globalized women’s magazine publisher and Communications Corporation—is symbolic of a transnationally mass produced ideal of womanhood whose sexual behaviors and racialized subjectivities are mediated through popular culture. Since the early 1970s Cosmo has been extending its empire to the far reaches of the earth picking up “developing” economies along the way; Hearst Magazines International could be romanticized as an American success story if the magazine’s global success did not reflect the insidious reality of empire building—corporate mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, and monopoly— resulting in the globalization of a distinct class of womanhood. While Cosmo is creating “imagined” subjectivities, it is literally creating and legitimizing “real” world cities (and by extension nations) that are able to participate in this lucrative endeavor of publishing and distributing Cosmopolitan. It is in this way that Cosmo has become a globalized brand and a lifestyle for metropolitan women whose ideas, ideals, and identities circulate in global cities making the Cosmo woman a citizen of the world. This research paper will explore globalization theory as it relates to consumerism and the sexual practices in advertising and content in a historically American women’s lifestyle magazine, which now boasts that it is the world’s largest women’s m agazine. This project will also survey of the kinds of cultural production that occurs through one of the largest transnational media outlets in relation to South African health and wellness policies.
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Transcript of Cierra Abstract Race, Sex, Power Panel Proposal 9-8-07
8/6/2019 Cierra Abstract Race, Sex, Power Panel Proposal 9-8-07
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Social Memory and American Cosmopolitan Sexuality in SouthAfrican Policy and Practiceby Cierra Olivia Thomas-Williams
This project explores the global (re)production of Americanized, racialized, andsexualized subjectivities through consumer practices, which are traceable
transnationally using, as artifacts, magazine issues of Cosmopolitan South Africa. Adiscourse analysis is contextualized by an analysis of U.S. involvement with theimplementation of current African national policies dealing with women’s health and wellbeing in correlation to how directly or indirectly these issues are dealt with in themagazine. Further, in order to historically contextualize the South African Cosmowoman, this research project examines Cosmo U.S. during the period of 1948-1968,when the U.S. was actively involved with apartheid policy. Taking into considerationDiaspora theory and social memory, this project will consider where, exactly, SouthAfrican women fit into the Diaspora of imagined black subjectivities that make up theglobal Cosmo woman.
The Cosmo woman South Africa—produced by the largest globalized women’s
magazine publisher and Communications Corporation—is symbolic of a transnationallymass produced ideal of womanhood whose sexual behaviors and racializedsubjectivities are mediated through popular culture. Since the early 1970s Cosmo hasbeen extending its empire to the far reaches of the earth picking up “developing”economies along the way; Hearst Magazines International could be romanticized as anAmerican success story if the magazine’s global success did not reflect the insidiousreality of empire building—corporate mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, and monopoly—resulting in the globalization of a distinct class of womanhood. While Cosmo is creating“imagined” subjectivities, it is literally creating and legitimizing “real” world cities (and byextension nations) that are able to participate in this lucrative endeavor of publishingand distributing Cosmopolitan.
It is in this way that Cosmo has become a globalized brand and a lifestyle for metropolitan women whose ideas, ideals, and identities circulate in global cities makingthe Cosmo woman a citizen of the world. This research paper will explore globalizationtheory as it relates to consumerism and the sexual practices in advertising and contentin a historically American women’s lifestyle magazine, which now boasts that it is theworld’s largest women’s magazine. This project will also survey of the kinds of culturalproduction that occurs through one of the largest transnational media outlets in relationto South African health and wellness policies.
