Magazines Jeopardize and Empower Young Women's Sexuality

A study published in the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly has revealed that women who read sex-related magazine articles from popular women's magazines like Cosmopolitan are less likely to view premarital sex as a risky behavior and those who are exposed to these articles are more supportive of sexual behavior that both empowers women and prioritizes their own sexual pleasure.

Researchers randomly assigned reading to 150 female college students. They were assigned to read either articles about women's roles in sexual relationships or articles about general entertainment unrelated to sexual relationships.

"When exposed to explicit textual messages about female sexual assertiveness in women's magazines, readers regarded women's capacity to experience and act on feelings of sexual desire more favorably," the authors wrote.

The researchers also found that white women in particular viewed premarital sex as less risky and endorsed taking on a more assertive sexual role than women of color.

"Our results suggest that the complex and sometimes conflicting representations of female sexuality proliferating in the mass media and popular culture could potentially have both empowering and problematic effects on women's developing sexual identities," the authors wrote.