“Master your Johnson”: Sexual rhetoric in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Maxim</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Stuff</Emphasis> magazines

This article reports the results of a content analysis of sexual rhetoric in editorial photographs (N=994) in 2001 issues of Maxim and Stuff magazines. Goffman’s (1979) classifications of gender in advertisements were used to examine how this new generation of “lad” magazines uses images to provide readers with cues about sexuality and sexual practice. The findings reveal that both magazines construct sexuality in similar ways. However, as expected, the overall message about sexuality in the photos is different for men than for women. Women are more likely than men to be portrayed as sex objects, such as the common practice of photographing them in contorting or demeaning positions. Both magazines also depict white people as sexier than other races and assume heterosexuality.     

Boxing Helena and Corseting Eunice: Sexual Rhetoric in Cosmopolitan and Playboy Magazines

This paper analyzes the sexual rhetorics of Cosmopolitan and Playboy magazines to consider how sexuality is constructed in similar ways by sources directed to men and women. We use Goffman's classifications of gender in advertisements to compare how each magazine uses its pictures to provide cues to readers about sexuality and sexual relationships and to trace changes within each magazine over time. We conclude that both magazines converge on a single construction of sexuality for women. Playboy addresses men and Cosmopolitan addresses women, yet the visual rhetorics of both magazines reflect the male gaze and promote the idea that women should primarily concern themselves with attracting and sexually satisfying men.