I was wrong about Cosmo’s “How to Outsmart a Bitch” article. Shockingly, completely wrong.
I was really interested in proving my point, so I behaved like a penniless teenager and skulked around in the magazine aisle at CVS, furtively flipping to the correct page and speed reading the one page article.
And what I found was pleasantly surprising.
The inside title of the article was not, “How to Outsmart a Bitch” it was “5 Words That Shut a Bitch/Bully Down.” And the article was offering advice on how to address a bully, or bullying behavior. Much less titillating than the cover suggested.
The article specifically talked about how Jennifer Aniston confronted Perez Hilton one night. Apparently she’s been the recipient of some scathing remarks from him. As the article goes, one evening she found herself standing with him, put a smile on her face and asked him, “Why are you so mean?” (The 5 words that will shut a bully down.) Which gave him pause, and now he’s changed his ways. Yay, Jen!
Okay, so that’s good. Talking about how to talk to bullies, or talking about how to stand up for yourself is a really valuable thing. So, good work Cosmo.
Could have done without the cover headline, and the accompanying graphic of someone trying to cover a female model’s mouth with duct tape, and the repeated use of ‘bitch’. But I guess us feminists will never be happy, so…