by Cassandra J. Carlson

Two young girls, both 22, simultaneously lick a phallic pink melting ice cream cone while their eyes focus steadily on the camera.

It’s no surprise that the Rolling Stone has provocative and sexist covers.

Controversial covers such as Brittany Spears and Rosario Dawson have exhibited how close Rolling Stone can get to a Playboy cover.

The girls on the cover of the April 2 issue are the main characters from the CW’s Gossip Girls based on a “teen” book series. What does it teach the girls in our nation and world for that matter who read and/or watch the series?

No matter how suggestive the front cover is of the “art and entertainment” magazine, it tells no reality of the actual content that lies within the pages. The cover not only devalues women, it goes against the credibility of content that lies with the pages.

In this particular issue, the only “tease” on the cover is the Gossip Girls who grace (sense my sarcasm) the cover with their tongues oozing of ice cream instead of a tease to the in-depth, innovative piece by Matt Taibbi, describing the status on the economy and more importantly, the article Rolling Stone’s 100: Agents of Change.

In the age where publications are dying, newspapers and magazines have to create new concepts and strategies whether it’s through advertising or new concepts on covers. The use of women’s sexuality is becoming redundant and cliche. Yes, this an old concept and it’s the second-wave feminism argument all over again.

Instead of highlighting the “100 Agents of Change” on their cover, they tease the consumer with women’s sexuality. This is the magazine who crusaded for Obama’s message of change setting him on the cover as a iconic figure twice last year.

The activism within the magazine is overlooked by women licking melting ice cream cones, satisfying the male pleasure instead of adding to the change they wish to inspire with the 100 chosen innovators, writers, singers, politicians and television icons that are making a change in the world whether it is through technology, legislation, or activism.

The editorial control of Rolling Stone and magazines around the country need to reassess what message they want to be sent to their audiences.

Imagine this: Tina Fey, Naiomi Klein, Rachel Maddow, Carol Browner, M.I.A., Arianna Huffington, Angela Belcher, Samantha Power, Lisa Randall, Jessy Tolkan, Kate Winslet, Anna Barker, Wafaa El-Sadr, Melanie Sloan, Taylor Swift – all the women who were part of the RS 100 Agents of Change – on the cover of the Rolling Stone. Now that is sexy. No ice cream needed.

And maybe include all the RS male feminists of change. Would that sell some magazines?

Cassandra J. Carlson is a journalism senior and women’s and gender studies minor at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo. She is also an intern for Women’s Press.