Fun. Fearless. Female. Metaphor.

Cosmopolitan magazine specifically caters to women between the ages of 18 and 25. The pages of Cosmo are littered with articles giving advice to these women. Within each of the stories, the writers of the magazine use a number of metaphors to make their articles more exciting and more relatable to women of this age group. The use of metaphors is detrimental for these types of magazines because they keep their audience entertained and keep them reading, buying and subscribing to the magazine instead of flipping on the TV to their favorite reality show. After all the title of the magazine Cosmopolitan is a metaphor within itself as it represents the personalities, styles and cultures of all its readers.

Specifically looking at the September 2011 edition of the magazine, there are 3 articles in particular that represent the metaphorical language generally associated with the magazine. In the first article "Is Facebook Bumming you out?" metaphors are used to liven the story up and give it a more interesting read. For instance in the following quote: "We're bombarded with news of our friends' accomplishments." In this quote "bombarded" is used as a metaphor for the influx of information that we receive from various social media outlets, but it is put in a more casual word instead of using a long drawn out explanation.

In the second article "Cool Minded Tricks That Give You An Edge" metaphors are used in the same capacity by using a more broad or generalized word to represent a larger explanation. For example, "Well science has proven that that is a bunch of crap." In the previous quote "science" is used instead of listing out the name of the researcher, the research company, etc. which would bore the audience that Cosmo is trying to reach. 

In the third article "In Defense of the Slacker Dude" metaphors are used to bring a more comical explanation to an article. In this particular article, a male writer is writing from his own prospective which generally is not seen in Cosmo. The male author uses the following quote: "Free from a biological clock, they appear to be flipping the bird at adulthood like never before." Particularly the metaphor of the male "flipping the bird" gives a more casual and comical explanation of not worrying about adulthood. He writes this metaphor to relate to his female audience because by using this metaphor the readers can relate because they have probably heard their male friends or boyfriends use the same type of language. 

As seen above, Cosmo is all about relating to its primary audience and in using metaphor they are better able to relate to said audience. Without the use of metaphor in this type of work, the articles would come across stuffy and boring to those whom the magazine is intended.

Cosmopoliatn. Sep 2011: n. page. Print.