Victoria Hearst Wins Battle Against Smut in Grocery Checkout Lanes
Supermarket chains RiteAid and Delhaize America, owner of Hannaford Stores and Food Lion, have opted to place Cosmopolitan magazines behind blinders in their stores due to the magazine’s inappropriate content and covers. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCSE) and Victoria Hearst, granddaughter of Hearst Corporation (which publishes Cosmopolitan magazine) founder William Randolph Hearst, count this as a major victory for the ongoing campaign to shield Cosmo from minors because of the magazine’s glorification and desensitization of porn and sexual violence.
“I congratulate RiteAid and Delhaize America, owner of Hannaford Stores and Food Lion, for their sincere promise to immediately put Cosmopolitan magazine behind blinders in all of their stores,” says Victoria Hearst. “It will protect underage children from being exposed to the magazine’s sexually explicit covers showing scantily clad female celebrities and article titles …! Since these two companies are now clearly aware of Cosmopolitan’s pornographic content, I pray that they will do the right thing and either stop selling the magazine or obey the Material Harmful To Minors laws in each state which forbid the sale of magazines like Cosmopolitan to anyone under 18 years old.”
In a nationwide poll, conducted by NCSE, the majority of Americans agreed that Cosmo’s front cover is not appropriate for all ages. NCSE has campaigned against Cosmopolitan magazine since 2013 when the publication was listed on NCSE’s Dirty Dozen List, a list of the top twelve organizations contributing to sexual exploitation. Ultimately, NCSE calls for stores to put wrappers on all Cosmo magazines, and to refuse to sell them to minors.
“Cosmopolitan magazine regularly features articles, and occasionally explicit pictures, encouraging girls to participate in [inappropriate activities], and it blatantly targets young girls by displaying teen idols on their covers. Recently, Cosmo even posted an article encouraging readers to visit hardcore porn sites, including one site that is particularly focused on the extremely violent torture of women,” says Dawn Hawkins, Executive Director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. “We are thankful to RiteAid and Delhaize America for not allowing this harmful material to be in plain view of minors at their stores, and we encourage other chains to follow suit, and to refuse to sell this pornographic magazine to minors.”
Victoria Hearst and NCSE invites members of the public to thank RiteAid and Delhaize America on the website CosmoHarmsMinors.Com.
