In a surprise move yesterday, the retail giant Walmart announced that it will stop selling the controversial magazine Cosmopolitan at the checkout shelves in over 5,000 of its stores.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company will still continue to carry the magazine, but it’ll be housed in a less prominent part of the store.
Meggan Kring, a spokesperson for Walmart, said, “While this was primarily a business decision, the concerns raised were heard.”
Over the years, those concerns came from plenty of frustrated parents and organizations like Focus on the Family, but most recently from the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE).
Reflecting on the decision, Haley Halverson, NCOSE’s vice president of advocacy and outreach, said, “You can go though and buy your groceries with your family knowing you don’t have to be exposed to this graphic and often degrading and offensive material.”
I applaud Walmart’s decision and extend our thanks to our friends at NCOSE for their persistence and tireless advocacy.
Sexually explicit magazine covers at supermarket checkout lines have long been the bane of many parents. In fact, I wrote about this ongoing challenge in a blog nearly three years ago. I suggested then that when moms and dads encounter them, they really have two options, depending on the child’s age. For younger children, they can redirect their attention. For older children, they might want to consider using the situation as a teaching opportunity to discuss God’s plan for human sexuality.
In many ways, the ongoing bad taste of many popular magazines is what inspired us to relaunch Brio, our own magazine for teenage girls.
A wholesome and positive alternative to other competitors in that space, the magazine’s mission is to help young women grow in their faith, encourage healthy relationships, and address real-life topics that will help them (and their parents) navigate the teen years. Articles regularly address culture, body image, social media – and boys, to name just a few popular topics.
This coming May will be the one-year anniversary of Brio’s relaunch. I’m delighted to report that it’s going gangbusters! If there is a teen girl in your life, whether a daughter, granddaughter or your friend’s daughter, I hope you’ll consider signing them up for a subscription. It would make a terrific and positive gift for a young woman.
And just as an aside, now that Walmart has some extra space at the checkout line, wouldn’t it be great if they carried Brio? 🙂
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