Amy Schumer and Blake Lively Don’t Approve of This Sexist Magazine Cover

A few weeks ago, mother of five Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll took to Facebook to point out an alarming difference between the covers of Girls’ Life and Boys’ Life magazines. “Your cover has a lovely young lady with a full face of makeup and you invite your readers to ‘steal her secrets,’” she wrote, referring to Girls’ Life. “The Boys’ Life cover has in bold letters: Explore Your Future surrounded by all kinds of awesome gear for different professions — doctor, explorer, pilot, chemist, engineer, etc., subheading — Here’s How to Be What You Want to Be.” Keats-Jaskoll then asks, “Could there possibly be two more divergent messages?”

Her post went viral, even inspiring graphic artist Katherine Young to redo the cover of Girls’ Life with more empowering headlines such as “Your Dream Career” instead of “Your Dream Hair” and “Quiz! Are you ready for AP class?” instead of “Quiz! Are you ready for a BF?” As Young wrote on her site: “We need to do better.”

Now, Amy Schumer is adding her two cents. Yesterday on Instagram, Schumer shared a photo of the two magazines side by side with the simple caption that says it all: “No.”

Then, Blake Lively regrammed Schumer’s post, adding, “Wow. @amyschumer I second that emotion. Ladies, let’s not let this happen anymore…”

The attention that Keats-Jaskoll’s post received also prompted a response from the magazine. Karen Bokram, publisher and founding editor of Girls’ Life, said: “It’s okay to like lip gloss or be interested in fashion… I don’t know how [the problem] became ‘either you like lip gloss and clothes or you like being an astronaut.'”

But some experts say that covers like these help perpetuate the notion that a girl’s value lies in her looks. “Our society places vastly different gender expectations upon kids,” Kristin Carothers, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute in New York City, tells Yahoo Style. “Girls often receive messages encouraging them to focus on their physical appearance or attributes in order to gain success, while boys receive messages espousing achievement because, from a historical perspective in Western culture, the male gender role was to earn income and hold leadership roles. This vast discrepancy in messaging is stereotypical and has negative effects on boys and girls.”

Carothers adds: “Girls should be encouraged to prepare for their futures and achieve in the same ways as boys. While it is important to maintain your physical appearance, it is also important to focus on other aspects of your life that will enable you to live a full and happy life. Additionally, marketing beauty products is a huge industry, and placing a focus on external beauty for girls allows that market to thrive at the expense of girls’ self-esteem and well being.”

“Girls may feel pressure to achieve a standard of beauty that is unrealistic,” she continues, “and negate other areas of their lives which are equally if not more important. It is time that as a society, we encourage boys and girls both to achieve and place less emphasis on physical attributes.”

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