'It Sends Same Messages as Playboy': Walmart Removes Cosmopolitan Magazine from Check-Out Line Shelves

Walmart is removing Cosmopolitan magazines from the shelves of their check out lines.

 

The retail giant said in a statement that the decision was primarily a business one, but concerns from the public about the magazine's sexual content were taken into consideration.

 

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) who helped initiate the change, said in a Facebook live that now families won't have to worry about seeing the material while waiting in line.

 

NCOSE Vice President of Advocacy and Outreach Haley Halverson said Tuesday, "You can go through and buy your groceries with your family knowing you don't have to be exposed to this graphic and often degrading and offensive material. Instead, all of these magazines will be moved, in isolation, to the magazine racks."

 

According to NPR, the NCOSE has been behind several efforts to cover or remove Cosmo from store shelves for years, deeming it porn.

 

In 2015, the group successfully was able to get the magazine placed behind blinders in stores owned by Rite Aid and Delhaize America.

 

The NCOSE's statement said Cosmo "sends the same messages about female sexuality as Playboy."

 

"It places women's value primarily on their ability to sexually satisfy a man and therefore plays into the same culture where men view and treat women as inanimate sex objects. Further, Cosmo targets young girls by placing former Disney stars on its covers, despite the enclosed sexually erotic articles which describe risky sexual acts like public, intoxicated, or anal sex in detail," the statement read. " Customers should not be forced to be exposed to this content when they are trying to check-out at the store."

 

The magazine was first published in 1886 and was re-branded in 1965 as a women's magazine.

 

Halverson said the move by Walmart represents "one less drop of hyper-sexualized media that is going to be bombarding people in their everyday lives."