Walmart is making an attempt to join the #MeToo movement by removing Cosmopolitan from its checkout lines.
On Tuesday, March 26, the retail chain and The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) announced in a statement that together they have instigated a policy change in 5,000 Walmart stores across the country that will involve removing Cosmopolitan magazines from checkout lines. The move is an effort to protect minors from the “sexually explicit” material of Cosmo, the statement claiming that “this is what real change looks like in our #MeToo culture,” which gained momentum in 2017 when actress Alyssa Milano began using the Me Too hashtag prominently to crusade against sexual abuse, assault, harassment and misconduct.
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“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,” NCOSE Executive Director Dawn Hawkins said in the statement.
The statement goes on to say that the popular women’s magazine “targets young girls” by putting former Disney stars on the cover and that customers are “forced to be exposed” to the content of the magazine, though the statement fails to acknowledge the magazine’s personal essays, style and beauty suggestions, and informative sexual health and relationship tips.
“Walmart’s removal of Cosmo from checkout lines is an incremental but significant step toward creating a culture where women and girls are valued as whole persons, rather than as sexual objects…Walmart’s decision makes it a leader and trailblazer in corporate responsibility,” the statement continues.
This isn’t the only big change that Walmart has enacted in recent months. In a public statement released in January, the big box store announced that it would be raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21.
“Going forward, we are raising the age restriction for purchase of firearms and ammunition to 21 years of age. We will update our processes as quickly as possible to implement this change,” the statement said.
The firearm policy change came on the heels of the deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which resulted in 17 deaths and more than a dozen injuries. The shooting prompted several other stores to change their firearm policies, including Dick’s Sporting Goods and Kroger.
