Under the spell of far-right nonprofit, Walmart stops selling Cosmopolitan at checkout line

The deeply conservative organization is led by an anti-feminist, anti-abortion-touting man

By Nicole Karlis

Senior Writer

Published March 28, 2018 6:58PM (EDT)

 (AP/Mark Lennihan)
(AP/Mark Lennihan)

Walmart announced Tuesday that it will be removing Cosmopolitan magazines from checkout lines across the country — a decision influenced by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), a nonprofit run by Patrick Trueman, a pro-life hardliner with quizzical views on human sexuality. While the NCOSE tried to link Walmart's decision positively to the #MeToo movement, the company's actions will only serve to isolate young women from literature that may empower them to embrace their sexuality. Indeed, Walmart's decision unfortunately appears to be spurred by conservative social dogma.

“As with all products in our store, we continue to evaluate our assortment and make changes,” Walmart said in a statement. “Walmart will continue to offer Cosmopolitan to customers that wish to purchase the magazine, but it will no longer be located in the checkout aisles. While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised were heard.”

Most stores have already moved the magazines or are in the process of doing so, Tara Aston, Walmart's senior manager of national media relations, told Salon. The retail conglomerate isn't the first to make a similar move after engaging in "collaborative dialogue" with the NCOSE either: an Ohio chain, Marsh Supermarkets, also removed the women's magazine from checkout shelves in 2016. 

Previously known as Morality in Media, the NCOSE claims to advocate for (in their own words) “a world free from all forms of sexual exploitation.”

“This is what real change looks like in our #MeToo culture, and NCOSE is proud to work with a major corporation like Walmart to combat sexually exploitative influences in our society. Women, men, and children are bombarded daily with sexually objectifying and explicit materials, not only online, but in the checkout line at the store,” said Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, in a statement about Walmart’s move.

Hawkins also thanked Walmart for their “cooperation,” and applauded the company for doing their part as a corporation to change the “#MeToo culture.”

Anyone with access to a search engine can observe that NCOSE is run by conservatives with regressive social views about women. Indeed, in their attempt to combat sexual exploitation, they are merely preserving gender stereotypes and stigmatizing female sexuality. The idea that Cosmo targets young girls, exploits them and objectifies them on their covers — and the push to censor the public from this — is just as preposterous as a conservative Missouri senator claiming that the 1960s sexual revolution perpetuated human trafficking.

Trueman, the organization’s CEO and president, once said in an interview that there should be surgeon general's warnings before porn. He also previously served as the Executive Director and General Counsel to Americans United for Life — an anti-abortion nonprofit law and policy organization. Hawkins has long been advocating for reform on the “growing public health crisis resulting from pornography” too — and the attack against Cosmopolitan is just another part of that which the organization has been championing for years.

But as most readers know, Cosmo isn’t a porn magazine. It's a women's magazine that empowers women to embrace their sexuality and frequently encourages women to enjoy sex because it’s pleasurable and because women are deserving of that pleasure — sending the message that sex is not merely an act done to please men. Yes, Cosmo has been criticized for its suggestive and sometimes oblivious headlines. The magazine does not have clean hands when it comes to the way in which it depicts women's bodies. Still, as a women's magazine, the heart of Cosmo is women's empowerment, as it has been since iconic editor-in-chief Helen Gurley Brown took the helm in 1965.

Once criticized by prominent feminists such as Betty Friedan in the 1960s, the current iteration of Cosmo is far more sex-positive and feminist. The modern magazine doesn't only offer advice on how to have good sex, it also offers health advice (like stories about having endometriosis) and shares intimate stories about the female experience — like what it's like being sexually harassed as a flight attendant, or the experience of getting an abortion.

Perhaps the most disconcerting part of this saga is how NCOSE claimed the mantle of the #MeToo movement in an attempt to convince the public that Walmart's move was in the best interest of women. If you thought the #MeToo movement was immune to being weaponized, think again: the movement was spurred by the left, intent on bringing to light the magnitude of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace faced by women of all political stripes. This move by Walmart and NCOSE corrupts #MeToo's purpose to the right’s advantage.

When asked if Walmart agrees with NCOSE’s argument, Aston, the aforementioned Walmart spokesperson, said the company didn’t have “anything further to add.”

If Walmart really wanted to do its part in the #MeToo movement, it could promote more women to executive positions, pay women and men equal wages, provide healthcare for working mothers, and perhaps support and protect its women employees who experience harassment — rather than advocate against a magazine that gives women sex advice. It amounts to an attack on a woman’s right to have good sex, which is sadly par for the course for the American right these days.


By Nicole Karlis

Nicole Karlis is a senior writer at Salon, specializing in health and science. Tweet her @nicolekarlis.

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