How Evie Magazine is Packaging Sex for the New Right
The Sexual Revolution Comes to Right-Wing Politics
About 10 years ago, I was talking to a Republican operative I knew from work, the right-hand man to one of the now-architects of the Trump era. We were chatting about the culture war and the power of Hollywood and mainstream media to shape American political mores. About how dominant cultural hegemony contributed to votes not through Hollywood actors telling people whom to vote for, but rather by establishing a set of progressive social prescriptions that were realized through law.
We - shockingly presciently - talked about Cosmo magazine and how it shaped the sexual revolution in which I came of age.
How a glossy monthly filled with quizzes, fashion and tips normalized a worldview where female sexual autonomy was assumed, birth control was basic, and workplace ambition was aspirational (why else would you need all those day to night tricks!). No one needed to say “vote Democrat.” Law follows culture, but culture leads first.
The right’s response, he told me, would be to “just build it o…