The Propagandizing of Megan Agnew
How Agnew's portrayal of Ballerina Farm is a taint of American life
A few summers back, on a family beach trip, I read Sue Ellen Browder’s book, “Sex and the Catholic Feminist.” In it, Sue details her time as a writer for Cosmopolitan Magazine in the 1970s and shares about the propagandizing that the publication did to impact readers’ opinions on topics around sex, including the use of artificial hormonal birth control.
It’s a fascinating read. Beyond breaking down her own experiences inside of the sexual revolution (and, ultimately, her conversion to Catholicism many years later), Sue provides a glimpse into the mind of city-dwelling publications like Cosmo, who have a vested interest in, well, selling – more specifically, selling the products of their pharmaceutical funders.
Browder’s pull-back of the curtain at Cosmo is scathing. According to her account, writers at the magazine (herself, included) went so far as to fabricate stories about women in middle America devastatingly oppressed by marriage and family life and in need of the respite that artificial hormonal birth control could provide them. In the book, Sue says:
“Through the imaginary parables we told, we taught girls that selfishness is a desirable end and a moral good. In answer to the essential existential question, “To whom do I belong?” the Christian woman replies, “I belong to the God who created me – and to others.” The selfist answers, “I belong only to me. I create myself.””
Of course, the primary difference between the 1970s and now with reference to media propaganda is that Google exists. It wouldn’t take long for women across America to discover that magazines like Cosmo – or, in this case, The Times of London – are fabricating stories and inventing authorities (“Unless you are recognized authority on a subject, profound statements must be attributed to somebody appropriate (even if the writer has to invent the authority),” was one of former Cosmo Editor-in-Chief Helen Gurley Brown’s infamous rules, according to Browder).
How, then, do liberal anti-life, anti-family publications propagandize Americans? By telling real stories and tearing them to pieces.
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