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The present study set out to better understand how sexual entertainment media may be related to college students' heteronormative beliefs about sexuality and how these beliefs may be related to college students' hesitance toward resisting unwanted hookups. In a 2-month two-panel survey, cross-lagged models found 292 U.S. college women's sexual media habits were related to higher endorsement of heteronormative scripts, and their endorsement of heteronormative scripts were related to a hesitance toward resisting unwanted hookups. In addition, a half longitudinal mediation model found college women's sexual media habits were indirectly related to a greater hesitance toward resisting unwanted hookups through their endorsement of heteronormative scripts. The same analyses involving 88 U.S. college men were not significant, although the sample size for men did not reach the level needed for statistical power. These results provide some initial evidence that college women's, but not men's, hesitance toward resisting unwanted hookups could be related to beliefs reinforced by their habits regarding sexual entertainment media, which suggests the importance of educating young adult women about sexual agency, consent, and how to combat the role to which they are relegated within heteronormative scripts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In academic and popular debates about sexualisation, the “mainstreaming of sex in the West” is a common catchphrase. As noted by post-colonial and critical race scholars, categories such as “the West” remain powerful discursive ideas shaping how both researchers and researched border and construct race, difference, and sexuality. However, there is very little research that employs a post-colonial analysis of young people’s negotiations of sexualised media, most particularly studies that elucidate how the oppositional frameworks of colonial discourse sets up normative and “othered” subjectivities. In order to address this gap, I turn to Stuart Hall’s classic paper The West and the Rest to reflect on a project undertaken in South Australia with young people from a broad range of cultural backgrounds. In a fascinating set of reflections, the young people present a powerful set of challenges to the binary of the West and the Rest through their narratives on sexualised media. Taken together, these complex and sometimes contradictory narratives remind us of the problems associated with talking in generalised and universalising ways about “sexualisation in the West.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how mainstream print media polices sexuality through framings of HIV-positive male athletes. We analyze the HIV-positive announcements of Magic Johnson, Greg Louganis, and Tommy Morrison. Specifically, we discuss differences between the framing of gay men (Louganis) and self-identified heterosexual men (Johnson and Morrison). First, there is an extensive search for the ways Magic Johnson and Tommy Morrison contracted HIV/AIDS. Media coverage emphasizes that "straights can get it too" through promiscuity and a "fast lane'" lifestyle. Consistent with the historically automatic conflation of HIV/AIDS with gay identity, the media pose no inquiries into the cause of Louganis' HIV transmission, We close our discussion by focusing on the meaning of extending the signifier of HIV/AIDS beyond gay bodies to include working class and black male bodies. Media surveillance of sexual identity and the body reinforces hegemonic masculinity in sport while feeding into the current sexual hierarchy in U.S. culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a sector of professional amateur work for women in the digital industry for adult entertainment known as “adult webcam modeling” (AWM). Through a selection of narratives, this paper explores the gendered meanings of AWM and the values women derive from their “amateur” sexual content creation. I draw particular attention to the complex union of professional and amateur roles and relations in the strategies women adopt to succeed in these spaces. On one level, they describe the technical skills and institutionalized knowledge needed to successfully perform professionalized duties of hosting and animating site users’ sexual and emotional fantasies. Still, they do not solely view their work in professional terms, highlighting the usefulness of enacting their amateurism by performing authenticity and developing ongoing friendships with site users for succeeding in this line of work. Framing this work as reliant on both “professional” and “amateur” strategies builds ambiguity into the AWM persona, which has implications for social and historical constructions of sexuality and gender. It also demands rethinking conceptual frameworks that create dualities between professional/amateur, public/private, and commercial/authentic. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although mounting evidence in Western nations indicates that entertainment media influence young people’s sexual socialisation, virtually no research has addressed the topic in sub-Saharan Africa. The present study employed 14 focus groups of Ugandan high school students to identify media through which they were exposed to sexual content, how they interpreted and evaluated that content, and how they compared its influence with that of parents, schools and religious institutions. Participants most often mentioned TV, followed by print media and Internet as sources of sexual material. Media were said to present discrepant messages regarding the timing of sexual debut, with international programming urging early sexual debut and local programming described as urging young people to delay sex. Young people spoke of turning tossengasandkojjasfor sexual advice, and a number of boys suggested pornography could also be educational. Both local and international programming was interpreted as conveying views of men as sex driven and women as submissive in sex and relationships. Participants expressed the belief that sexual media content had a negative impact on young people. Most nevertheless assessed these messages as more influential than other sources of sexual socialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent research shows that young people list media entertainment as one of the sources where they find information about what they really want to know about sex and what is not taught through the school curriculum – namely, relationships and eroticism. This paper addresses the potential role that may be played by small independent alternative feature films such as52 Tuesdaysin the sexual education of young people. While52 Tuesdays’purpose was never explicitly pedagogic, the subject matter – family relationships, sexual experimentation, sexual identity and agency, and transgender experience – situates it firmly within the concerns of contemporary young people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study tested the double-edged desirability hypothesis to investigate whether a lack of reduction in desirability perceptions signified failure of a media literacy intervention to reduce the appeal of sexual portrayals or whether it instead represented an improved awareness of message-design techniques and, therefore, a successful intervention. Data from two media literacy curriculum evaluations, both pretest–posttest quasi-experiments with control groups (N1 = 922,M =14.13,SD = 1.07;N2 = 1,098,M = 14.26,SD = 1.06) showed that the media literacy treatment in both studies eliminated the effect of desirability on participants’ attitudes, reduced the effect of message desirability on participants’ expectancies, and reduced the effect of message desirability on participants’ efficacy in one of the evaluations. The results supported the double-edged desirability hypothesis, which holds that media literacy education can diminish the influence of desirable but unrealistic sexual media messages on adolescents’ decision making concerning sex, regardless of whether it decreases their affinity for the messages. This approach appears to represent a more effective alternative to demonizing media messages teens find desirable. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The goal of this two-part study was to identify the perceived influence of sexuality messages from parents, peers, school and the media – four microsystems within the Ecological Model – on emerging adult US college women's sexual attitudes. Findings suggest that parents were the most likely source of the message to ‘remain abstinent until marriage’, and participants reported this message as being more influential when coming from school than from the media. The school and the media were the most likely sources of the messages to ‘be safe and use protection’ and to ‘use birth control so you don't get pregnant’. College women reported that the message to ‘use protection’ influenced their sexual behaviour more, however, when it came from their parents than from school, and more when it came from school than from the media. These results have implications for future prevention programming. Specifically, with respect to these messages, and without generalising beyond these data, parents and school appear to be more influential than peers and the media, and thus should be leveraged in development of new sex education and safer sex programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sexually explicit material (SEM) (including Internet, video, and print) may play a key role in the lives of Black same-sex sexually active youth by providing the only information to learn about sexual development. There is limited school- and/or family-based sex education to serve as models for sexual behaviors for Black youth. We describe the role SEM plays in the sexual development of a sample of Black same-sex attracted (SSA) young adolescent males ages 15-19. Adolescents recruited from clinics, social networking sites, and through snowball sampling were invited to participate in a 90-min, semi-structured qualitative interview. Most participants described using SEM prior to their first same-sex sexual experience. Participants described using SEM primarily for sexual development, including learning about sexual organs and function, the mechanics of same-gender sex, and to negotiate one's sexual identity. Secondary functions were to determine readiness for sex; to learn about sexual performance, including understanding sexual roles and responsibilities (e.g., 'top' or 'bottom'); to introduce sexual performance scripts; and to develop models for how sex should feel (e.g., pleasure and pain). Youth also described engaging in sexual behaviors (including condom non-use and/or swallowing ejaculate) that were modeled on SEM. Comprehensive sexuality education programs should be designed to address the unmet needs of young, Black SSA men, with explicit focus on sexual roles and behaviors that may be inaccurately portrayed and/or involve sexual risk-taking (such as unprotected anal intercourse and swallowing ejaculate) in SEM. This work also calls for development of Internet-based HIV/STI prevention strategies targeting young Black SSA men who may be accessing SEM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined whether the development of sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes would be more strongly interrelated when adolescents perceived sexualized media images as highly realistic. We used data from a three-wave longitudinal sample of 444 Dutch adolescents aged 13-16 years at baseline. Results from parallel process latent growth modeling multigroup analyses showed that higher initial levels of sexualized media consumption were associated with higher initial level of permissive sexual attitudes. Moreover, increases of sexualized media consumption over time were associated with increases of permissive sexual attitudes over time. Considering the moderation by perceived realism, we found these effects only for those who perceived sexualized media as more realistic. Findings for male and female adolescents were similar except for the relations between initial levels and subsequent development. Among male adolescents who perceived sexualized media images to be realistic, higher initial levels of permissive sexual attitudes were related to subsequent less rapid development of sexualized media consumption. For male adolescents who perceived sexualized media to be less realistic, higher initial levels of sexualized media consumption were related to a subsequent less rapid development of permissive sexual attitudes. These relations were not found for female adolescents. Overall, our results suggest that, in male and female adolescents, those with a high level of perceived realism showed a correlated development of sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes. These findings point to a need for extended information on how to guide adolescents in interpreting and handling sexualized media in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing new HIV/STD infections among at-risk adolescents requires developing and evaluating evidence-based health communication approaches. Research overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that early sexual initiation is associated with STDs and other negative outcomes in later years (e.g., unintended pregnancy). The authors' research group secured funding from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop, implement, and rigorously evaluate televised mass media campaigns to delay initiation of sexual intercourse among African American and White adolescents in two cities in the Southeastern United States. The focus of the present study is on the development and implementation of the campaigns, including (a) rationale and theoretical underpinnings; (b) collection, screening, and assessment of existing public service announcements; (c) development of new public service announcements; (d) study design and campaign airing plan; and (e) message exposure achieved in the campaigns. Health communication campaigns hold much promise in reaching at-risk adolescent populations with targeted, timely, and relevant risk-reduction messages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers a report from an October 24-26, 2013 conference in Kassel, Germany on the relationship between gender and mass media. Topics of presentations delivered included the role of television in subjectivizing gender relations, philosophical aspects of gender in writings on dance, and sexuality in a music video by Lady Bitch Ray.

Exposure to highly sexualized television programs has been correlated with emerging adults' sexual attitudes and behaviors. However, little is known about the variables that may mediate these relationships. The studies presented here investigated wishful identification and parasocial relationships withJersey Shorecast members as mediators in the relationship between exposure toJersey Shoreand permissive sexual attitudes. In Study 1, a secondary examination of content analysis data suggested that sex was pervasive onJersey Shore.Analyses revealed that, on average, one sexual instance occurred every minute onJersey Shore.The frequency of sexual instances onJersey Shorewas significantly higher than the frequency of sexual instances in other popular primetime television programs. In Study 2, data collected from a sample of emerging adults revealed a positive relationship betweenJersey Shoreexposure and permissive sexual attitudes mediated by participants' wishful identification and parasocial relationships withJersey Shorecast members. Permissive sexual attitudes were positively correlated with sexual activity. Results are consistent with predictions made by cultivation and social cognitive theory. The relationships between television exposure, wishful identification, parasocial relationships, and emerging adults' sexual attitudes and behaviors are the focus of the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the success and widespread discussion of kinky sex practices in EL James’s book Fifty Shades of Grey in the broader context of legal developments in the UK around ‘obscene’ and ‘extreme’ sexual representations and practices. It examines how the legislation of sexual media is changing and in particular the relations between legislation and an apparent mainstreaming of both pornography and BDSM/kink. The article outlines the main legal provisions used to regulate sex media in English criminal law, and situates Fifty Shades in relation to these and to four key cases in which ‘obscene’ and ‘extreme’ materials came under scrutiny. What do these, taken together, suggest about the way that sex and sex media are regulated in the UK, and what are the key issues that emerge in public discussions about them? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents the results of survey data from readers of the Fifty Shades novel series. It is almost 30 years since Janice Radway’s (1984) Reading the Romance was published and audience studies have burgeoned. However, public discourse about E L James’s trilogy was couched in assumptions about ‘formulaic’ genre fiction, alongside debates about its ‘mainstreaming’ of BDSM, and little of this discussion drew upon the voices of readers. Our research reveals readers’ complex, often contradictory, responses to the novels. For these readers, the acts of reading and discussing the novels offer a range of (dis)pleasures, from erotic enjoyment to the amusements of critique; from self-gratification to participation in cultural dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the evolutionary theories of sexual development, feminism and sexualisation of girls. According to the author, the mass media and consumer objects such as sex toys and fashion have made girls potential sexual victims. Topics discussed are theories of sexual development describing pubertal timing and stress, reproductive behaviors of girls and contemporary cultural theories on sexualisation of girls.

An estimated 34 million people globally are living with HIV, with Sub-Saharan Africa being the most severely affected area, with nearly 1 in every 20 adults diagnosed (UNAIDS, 2012). Botswana experiences one of the highest adult prevalence rates in Sub- Saharan Africa, with almost 100,000 children, in a country of only two million people, having lost a parent to the virus (Botswana Country Report, 2010). Makgabaneng is a serial radio soap drama that addresses critical HIV/AIDS awareness and behaviour change issues in Botswana. This study aims to understand how fans of the programme understand the storyline that presents narratives where female characters are portrayed as educated, independent and confident individuals. Results of 42 in-depth interviews with self-defined fans of the drama show that males are constructed as uneducated, irresponsible and dependent in society. It is recommended that Makgabaneng address this inequity by creating a more balanced number of positive and negative female and male characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the intersection between mass media, human sexuality and identity.

Using the Integrated Model of Behavioral Prediction, this study examines the effects of exposure to sexual content on television by genre, specifically looking at comedy, drama, cartoon, and reality programs, on adolescents’ sex-related cognitions and behaviors. Additionally, we compared the amount and explicitness of sexual content as well as the frequency of risk and responsibility messages in these four genres. Findings show that overall exposure to sexual content on television was not related to teens’ engagement in sexual intercourse the following year. When examined by genre, exposure to sexual content in comedies was positively associated while exposure to sexual content in dramas was negatively associated with attitudes regarding sex, perceived normative pressure, and ultimately engaging in sex 1 year later. Implications of adolescent exposure to various types of content and for using genre categories to examine exposure and effects are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study analyses the gender stereotypes, sex and violence in advertisements in all media except radio, from Portugal and Spain. We have conducted this study after ascertaining that gender stereotypes, as well as sexual and violent scenes, are embedded in advertisement as a formula to increase the possibility of remembering them. This advertisement analysis explores gender stereotyping, sex and violence, both for the Portuguese and Spanish advertisement market. We used a sample of 245 messages from Portuguese and Spanish advertising and a specific grid for this analysis from. We used all media, except radio, between July and November of 2008. The messages were selected from the following categories of products: foods and non-alcoholic beverages, cars and accessories, restaurants and commercial spaces, financial services and insurance, household products, electronic devices and communications, clothes and alcoholic beverages. These ads messages were select with a criterion of the characters. All messages must have at least one character, male or female. The messages were selected from the following categories of products: foods and non-alcoholic beverages, cars and accessories, restaurants and commercial spaces, financial services and insurance, household products, electronic devices and communications, clothes and alcoholic beverages. These ads messages were select with a criterion of the characters. All messages must have at least one character, male or female. The results in Portugal and Spain about gender stereotypes are in line with previous advertising studies from different countries across the years, showing that it prevails despite the change in women's role in the world. However, there were practically no situations of discrimination of women or placing them in subordinate roles to men. The results also show us that sex and violence are in a lower level in the advertising of Portugal and Spain. advertising messages from (all) media -- Television 83 -- Press -- 149 -- Outdoor 9 -- Internet 4. The TV ads were found from 200 hours watched in prime time, (between July and November of 2008 in all broadcast in open signal in Portugal, and Spain, the press ads were found from 300 titles consulted, between July and November of 2008, 22 mensal review, 5 weekly review like, and diary and weekly press, the Internet ads were found from 90 visits to the sites with more visits in Portugal and Spain, between July 2008 and November 2008. Finally the messages from Outdoor came from 50 visits to locations where they were placed between July 2008 and November 2008 in Lisbon and Badajoz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between exposure to sexually objectifying music television, primetime television programs, fashion magazines, and social networking sites and the internalization of beauty ideals, self-objectification, and body surveillance was examined among adolescent girls ( N = 558). A structural equation model showed direct relationships between sexually objectifying media and the internalization of beauty ideals, and indirect relationships between sexually objectifying media and self-objectification, and body surveillance through the internalization of beauty ideals. The direct relationships between sexually objectifying media and the internalization of beauty ideals, self-objectification, and body surveillance differed across the types of sexually objectifying media. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings to explain self-objectification among girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much debate has focused on the potential negative role of sexualized violent media on viewer attitudes toward women. One potential issue in previous literature is that depictions of sexuality and violence were confounded with subordinate depictions of female characters. The current study addressed this by randomly assigning young adults to watch either neutral media or sexually violent media with either subordinate or strong female characters. Women who watched sexually violent media were more anxious, and males who watched sexually violent media had more negative attitudes toward women, but only when female characters were subordinate. Sexual and violent content had no influence on viewer attitudes when strong female characters were present, suggesting these are not the crucial influence variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1965, Helen Gurley Brown (1922-2012) assumed the top editing job at Cosmopolitan and transformed it from a failing title into one of magazine publishing's greatest successes. During an era of increasing publication specialization, Cosmopolitan was one of the few magazines to target and celebrate women's growing economic and social independence. Much of the scholarship on and critical appraisals of Brown and Cosmopolitan have focused on sexual politics and issues of taste. This paper takes an institutional approach by examining Brown's professional practices and how they contributed to Cosmopolitan's growth, profitability, and popularity: know your reader and always keep her in mind, prioritize good writing, and accommodate corporate and advertiser interests. In addition, it acknowledges Brown's role as a visionary editor and businesswoman, as well as Cosmopolitan's importance in magazine history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effect of exposure to varying media representations of partner availability on the traits women found desirable in potential romantic and sexual partners. In each study, after watching media narratives featuring either an abundance or scarcity of male prospective sexual partners, women indicated their interest in hypothetical sexual partners with characteristics typical of the Cad (e.g., aggressive, promiscuous) or Dad (e.g. devoted, upright) for long-term and short-term relationships. Viewing any romantic narrative caused a decline in interest in a partner with Cad traits, particularly for a short-term relationship. Viewing romantic narratives in which romantic relationships were framed in terms of male abundance caused women with short-term relationship goals to be less interested in a partner with Dad traits; viewing the male scarcity trailers caused a similar reduction for women with long-term relationship goals. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines contemporary debates about the 'sexualisation of culture'. It sets out the context for claims that Western societies are becoming more sexualised and it explores a number of competing perspectives about sexualisation. It then looks in more detail at the nature of claims about sexualisation as they emerge from the different disciplinary perspectives of Psychology and Media and Cultural Studies, contrasting the strengths and weaknesses of each, and raising criticisms of both. In a final discussion section, the article considers the usefulness or otherwise of the notion of 'sexualisation' as analytic category and points to the need to go beyond polarised positions. It advocates a psychosocial approach that takes seriously differences and power in considering the contemporary proliferation of 'sexualised' images, practices and media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings of an online survey (N = 707) that assessed the predictive power of media use on sexual excitation and inhibition, as conceived by the dual control model (Janssen, Vorst, Finn, & Bancroft, 2002). Media use explained more variance in sexual excitation than inhibition. Moreover, excitation was statistically associated with several media variables (music, network programming, films, Web sites) while inhibition had a statistically robust relationship with music consumption only. In fact, exposure to religious/devotional music was positively and rap/hip-hop was negatively related to sexual inhibition. Advantages of employing the dual control model to media sex research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including Lisa Downing's collection of academic articles that responds on sex blog "Bitchy Jones's Diary," a collection of project related to sexuality and blogging by Feona Attwood, and a media debate in Great Britain regarding complains on the business of academic publishing such as academic publications cost.

In the first half of the twentieth century, birth control advocates used the mass media to reframe contraception from a private, secret matter to an acceptable part of life fit for public discussion. Although their campaign began in print, they quickly embraced the more far-reaching medium of film to deliver their message. This article argues that birth control advocates circumvented the Comstock Act in the early decades of the twentieth century by taking up this new medium as part of a long-running strategy to publicize the birth control movement. Their efforts shaped both the public debate on the topic and the development of motion picture censorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sexualization of the female body in contemporary media has created considerable anxiety about its impact on girls. Much of the resulting research focuses on the influence of visual media on body image and the flow-on effects for girls' health. Rather less attention is paid to the pedagogical role of popular romance fiction in teaching girls about their sexuality. Given the pronounced increase in eroticized fiction for girls over the past decade, this is a significant oversight. This article applies Hakim's (2010) concept of erotic capital to two chick lit novels for girls. The elements of erotic capital-assets additional to economic, cultural and social capital-are used to explore the lessons these novels teach about girl sexual subjectivities and sociality in a sexualized culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little research has investigated males' reactions to non-objectified media images of women, including those that depict women in instrumental activities like playing a sport. Using a survey methodology, this study examined U.S. adolescent boys' open-ended responses to images of performance athletes, sexualized athletes, and sexualized models. Participants were 104 adolescent boys from California (ages 12-17, primarily European-American). They remarked on the performance athletes' physical competence and focused on the athletic context depicted in the photograph. In contrast, participants focused on the physical appearance and attractiveness of the sexualized athletes and sexualized models. Overall, findings suggest that performance images of women evoke instrumental evaluations of women from male viewers, while sexualized images induce objectified appraisals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes key findings of a study exploring how a cohort of 16 rural Australian women aged over 60 years think, feel and respond to the prevalence of sexualised imagery in the media. The qualitative research framework was informed by Feminist Standpoint Theory. Participants in three focus groups responded to semi-structured questions and prompts, interspersed with viewing examples of sexualised images. Five strong thematic categories emerged: concern for the harmful impacts of sexualised images on the vulnerable, the media's portrayal of sexual content with a focus on physical appearance and youth, descriptions of the impact of viewing sexualised images, moderators of the impact of sexualised images on well-being, and marginalisation of women in the media. Findings from this research indicate that sexualised images in the media do have an impact on older women's self image and mental health in numerous ways and in a range of situations. Emotional impacts included sadness, anger, concern, envy, desensitisation, marginalisation, and discomfort that their appearance was being judged by others. A strong sense of self apart from appearance, feeling valued by family and community, ignoring or overlooking media content, and being aware that media images are not real and attainable helped buffer the link between sexualised images and well-being. Another important finding is that the impact is variable: women may experience different responses to similar sexualised content depending on a range of social, health and lifestyle factors affecting them at any given time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

number of journalists and scholars have pointed to the sexual objectification of women and men in popular media to argue that Western culture has become 'sexualized' or even 'pornified.' Yet it is not clear whether men or women have become more frequently-or more intensely sexualized-over time. In a longitudinal content analysis of images of women and men on more than four decades of Rolling Stone magazine covers (1967-2009), we begin to answer such questions. Using a unique analytical framework that allows us to measure both the frequency and intensity of sexualization, we find that sexualized images of men and women have increased, though women continue to be more frequently sexualized than men. Yet our most striking finding is the change in how women-but not men-are sexualized. Women are increasingly likely to be 'hypersexualized,' but men are not. These findings not only document changes in the sexualization of men and women in popular culture over time, they also point to a narrowing of the culturally acceptable ways for 'doing' femininity as presented in popular media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on how British and German sex surveys were developed and analyzed during the 1940s and 1950s. Several topics are discussed, including how the American biologist and human sexuality researcher Dr. Alfred Charles Kinsey first generated interest in sex surveys after he published his controversial findings on male and female sexuality, how several newspapers in Great Britain and Western Germany began doing the first national sex surveys in Europe as a marketing tool to generate reader attention, and how the surveys of these newspapers focused on emotional dispositions and the behavior of those surveyed and drew conclusions as to how they pertained to the country's national characteristics.

Individuals often avoid discussing sexual history and safer sex with sexual partners, increasing the likelihood of negative health consequences. Research and theorizing on narrative influence suggest that television programs in which characters model conversations about safer sex may provide social scripts to viewers and influence behavior. This experiment tested this effect and examined the underlying mechanisms. Participants were randomly assigned to view a program that either did or did not depict characters modeling sexual discussion. Exposure to the modeled behavior motivated viewers to engage in sexual discussions over the next 2 weeks. Greater identification with these characters facilitated this effect by enhancing viewers' self-efficacy and reducing counterarguing. Implications for research on narrative influence more generally are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the phenomena of child pornography created by children themselves, with specific focus given to these children's use of digital technology. The author explains how the Internet and mobile phones and other devices allow children to send erotic images between themselves. Particular focus is given to the case of pornographer Justin Berry, who ran a pornographic website as a teenager, with the author analyzing the validity of Berry's self-confessed innocence and victimization by sexual predators. The relationship between such pornography and cyberbullying is also detailed.

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