All for Him: Articles About Sex in American Lad Magazines

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RESULTS

Main Topics of Articles About Sex

Only a handful of the topics coded were represented as main topics of articles in the sample. The most common topic was what women like (37 articles or 41%); this was followed by unorthodox sexual behaviors or positions (18 articles or 20%) and improving sex life (17 articles or 19%). Articles focused on unorthodox locations for sex (6 articles or 7%), improving women's orgasms (3 articles or 3%), men's sexual health issues, and sexual satisfaction (1 article or 1% each) were also identified. Eight articles did not have an identifiable main topic that fit the coding scheme.

Perhaps as relevant as what is present is what is missing; there were no articles focused on alternative sexualities (gay men, lesbians) whatsoever. There was also an absence of any articles focused on risks associated with pregnancy (pregnancy, abortion, STDs, HIV/AIDS) or the prevention of those risks (safe sex, vasectomy, condoms). The sole article focused on sexual health consisted entirely of trivia that pertained to sexual functioning and health, such as the effect of zinc on sperm motility and reasons used to justify circumcision.

Secondary Topics

In addition to coding for a single, dominant topic for each article, coders also indicated all topics that received substantial mention within each article. A substantial mention was one that was considered to be clear and relatively unambiguous. For example, in an article whose main topic is what women like, an explicit statement about group sex would be coded as a substantial mention of unorthodox sexual behaviors; a veiled reference to the same behavior such as a reference to "heading down the hall together" would not be coded.

The most common secondary topic was improving sex life, present in 47 of 91 articles (52%). This was followed closely by unorthodox sexual behaviors (39 articles or 43%), unorthodox sexual locations (35 articles or 38%), drugs or alcohol (34 articles or 37%), and what women like (33 articles or 36%) (for all frequencies, see Table II). Of these, only drugs and alcohol were not among the most frequent main topics as well. Clearly, a few topics overwhelmingly dominate articles about sex in American lad magazines. If young men are using these magazines as sources of sex education, they are learning about a very limited range of topics.

Intersections Between Topics

Several intersections exist between the more common main and secondary topics that may shed additional light onto the content of articles about sex in these magazines. For example, articles that are principally focused on what women like are also very likely to contain messages about improving men's sex life (25 of 37); in fact, chi-square analysis suggests that they were significantly more likely to contain such messages than expected by chance, even given the overall frequency of such messages in articles on all topics, [chi square] = 18.64, p < .001. Articles principally focused on what women want were also more likely to contain mention of unorthodox sexual practices than would be expected by chance, [chi square] = 16.62, p = .002, but no more likely to mention unorthodox sexual locations, [chi square] = 4.50, n.s.

There were insufficient mentions of sexual health topics to conduct any sort of statistical analysis, but it is interesting to note where these mentions did occur. Three of the five mentions of safe sex occurred in articles focused on unorthodox sexual behaviors; the other two were in articles with no identifiable main topic. There were no mentions of safe sex in articles primarily about what women want, and only two such articles mentioned condoms. On the other hand, nearly one-half of all articles that mentioned condoms were primarily about unorthodox sexual behaviors or locations; specific examples of such articles concern the convenience of having sex in public places where condom machines are located and deride the masculinity of a man who opens a box of condoms in front of a new sexual partner. Articles that included mentions of other men's sexual health topics were predominantly focused on improving readers' sex lives or on unorthodox sexual practices, and they often took the form of unusual trivia, such as the percentage of sperm that are fertile in the average man.

Relationship States

Of 91 articles about sex, 73 were coded as stating or clearly implying a single dominant relationship state presumed to be the context for sexual activity. The most common relationship state was serious dating (44 articles). These articles often made explicit references to committed relationship roles by referring to "your girlfriend" or "your girl." Others implied such a relationship with a combination of mentions of longer relationships and expectations of sexual exclusivity. The next most common relationship state was strangers (17 articles). The first date (3 articles), a casual dating relationship (3 articles), and nonromantic acquaintances (4 articles) also received some attention. Only one article presumed engagement or marriage as a context for sex.

Most articles that depicted serious dating as the context for sexual activity portrayed it ambivalently. Only 15 articles in this group were coded as strictly positive or negative toward the serious dating relationship; the rest conveyed a combination of both. Most of the articles (27 of 44 or 61%) were moderately positive about serious dating relationships; of these, 10 were also moderately negative, and 8 were mildly negative. Only two articles were rated as highly positive toward serious dating relationships, and only two were rated as highly negative. Relationship positivity overall was mild to moderate (M = 1.52, SD = .73); relationship negativity was just slightly lower (M = 1.27, SD = .84).

Similar patterns emerged for articles that depicted strangers as the relationship context for sex. None of these articles portrayed this context as extremely positive or negative, and most articles were ambivalent (11 of 17, or 65%). Scores for positivity seem to be slightly higher than scores for negativity (M = 1.53, SD = .80 and M = 1.00, SD = .70, respectively).

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The one article that featured married sex was also ambivalent. The article discussed the practice of married couples inviting another individual to join them in group sex as both an enlightened practice for the most sincerely committed and as an attempt to breathe life into the impractical, unrealistic sexual world that is marriage.

Images

All articles in the sample were accompanied by at least one photograph, and so all were included in the following analysis. Of the 91 articles in the sample, 89 were accompanied by a picture of a woman; the median explicitness was 2, or "begin disrobing." This was also the modal category (43 articles), followed by discreet nudity (21 articles), and suggestive appearance (17 articles). Only one article was accompanied by an image that met the description of nudity. Nearly one-half of the articles in the sample (45) included a picture of a man, although the median explicitness was much lower than that for women (Md = .40). Most images (25) were not explicit; nine articles included an image of a man suggestively attired, 10 were partially disrobed, and one exhibited discreet male nudity.

Thirty-seven articles included photographs of men and women together; of these, 17 included a depiction of intimate contact, and five included a depiction of very intimate contact. Simple contact occurred in nine articles, and no contact in six.

Articles accompanied by images of multiple women were also fairly common (33 articles). Most of these depicted no contact (9) or simple contact (14) between or among the women in the photograph; a few (9) depicted intimate contact, and one depicted very intimate contact between two women. Only nine articles in the sample included more than one man; of these, seven depicted no contact between the men, and the other two depicted simple contact.

DISCUSSION

The most common topics of articles about sex in American lad magazines are what women want, how to improve one's sex life, and unorthodox sexual positions and locations. The last three of this group were expected and consistent with cultural norms that describe sex in generally androcentric terms and male sexuality as oriented toward maximizing variety. The fact that the most common topic, what women want, seems, at first glance, to be inconsistent with this pattern will be taken up later.

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Written in: 2/05. Last reviewed 11/05.

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