Fashion (western) sexuality for sale : the case of sex and fashion articles in Cosmpolitan Hong Kong

Theories of sexuality and consumption are increasingly entwined in the critical discourse of women\u27s magazines. This reflects the growing importance of sexuality in the shifting representation of femininity. Women\u27s magazines are seen as pivotal, not only in charting women\u27s lives, but also in asserting the importance of consumption in constructing femininity. Contemporary women\u27s magazines in Western societies feature the dominance of sexual images, from sexy models to the discussion of sex. Underpinning this trend is the notion that sexuality sells. Sexuality thus becomes a dominant phenomenon in the commodification of Western femininity. In this paper, I want to question the universality of this phenomenon in the context of franchised magazines. The result of internationalization has precipitated the flow of images across overseas editions. Imported into the local editions, do these images of sexuality and sex necessarily sell in the same way as they do in the parent titles? Existing research around women\u27s magazines concentrates on the sale of sexuality in the Western culture, without questioning its relevance to overseas editions. As a result, it neglects the importance of social and cultural specificities which affect the reading of women\u27s magazines. Using Cosmopolitan Hong Kong as an example, I will redress this monolithic view by examining how a non-Western culture responds to the inflow of Western elements. Positing sexuality as a site for cultural debate, I will investigate the extent to which sexy images and sex articles pose a problem for the local edition, and how the edition has to repackage these images to cater for local readership. The analysis of images in the Hong Kong edition seems particularly urgent, as it is situated in a society which is under-going rapid political and economic changes. In so doing, I will also demonstrate the dynamism of women\u27s magazines as a form of business as well as cultural commodity