I love Cosmopolitan magazine. For about a year I have been buying Cosmo every month and reading through it with my girlfriend. It’s great fun: articles about sex, pictures of hot girls, lots of lingerie ads. Hell, it’s better than a lot of men’s magazines. On the late, great, FDDC I used to tell shy guys to check out Cosmo for living proof that women love sex and want plenty of it. It’s one of the few magazines that openly admits women enjoy being turned on.

Case in point, let’s review the cover of this month’s edition: SEX Uncensored, Bedside Astrologer 2027, Your Sexiest Haircut Ever, Chick Behavior that Baffles the Hell out of Guys, Carmen Electra: Bouncing Back From Heartache, Hot New Sex Trick, How to Decode Your Body’s Signs That Something’s Wrong, plus fashion tips to make your legs look a mile long. It’s a nonstop parade of desire, style, and the occasional token health tip.

What is interesting about Cosmo is the reaction it provokes from women when you mention it to them. Most women swear they don’t read it, but somehow they always seem to know what a recent article said. My girlfriend is the same way: she’ll dismiss it in public, then light up when I bring a copy home and sit down with me to read it together. It’s a guilty pleasure they pretend not to have. That little performance is half the fun, because everyone knows the truth anyway.

As far as I am concerned Cosmo serves the highly useful purpose of teaching girls how to look better and be kinkier in bed. As such, I hope women learn to publicly embrace their now clandestine love of Cosmo. Wanting to look hotter and please better can only make the world a better place. If a magazine can improve style and sex at the same time, then it is doing something right. More honesty, more effort, and more fun in the bedroom sounds like a decent trade to me.