According to a study recently conducted in England, most people can’t tell the difference between quotes from British “lad’s mags” and interviews with convicted rapists.
Take a moment to digest just how appalling that is.
The research conducted by psychologists from Middlesex University and the University of Surrey also revealed that most men who took part in the study identified themselves more with the language expressed by the convicted rapists. There’s some insight into the world of men’s magazines that you probably could have done without.
In Australia, the circulation figures for these magazines are dropping. Figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation show that Zoo Weekly lost a quarter of its circulation in a year and FHM’s figures were down over 19%.
Warning: the information contained below may be confronting to some readers. For those who have experienced abuse and need counselling services please visit these national services or the NSW Rape Crisis Centre.
Psychologists presented men between the ages of 18 and 46 with a range of statements taken from magazines and from convicted rapists and gave the men different information about the source of the quotes.
Many of the rapists who were quoted in the study talked about coercing women into sex or having sex with them even though they were unwilling. The men’s magazines did the same. Take a look for yourself. These are the quotes used in the study:
1. There’s a certain way you can tell that a girl wants to have sex . . . The way they dress, they flaunt themselves.
2. Some girls walk around in short-shorts . . . showing their body off . . . It just starts a man thinking that if he gets something like that, what can he do with it?
3. A girl may like anal sex because it makes her feel incredibly naughty and she likes feeling like a dirty slut. If this is the case, you can try all sorts of humiliating acts to help live out her filthy fantasy.
4. Mascara running down the cheeks means they’ve just been crying, and it was probably your fault . . . but you can cheer up the miserable beauty with a bit of the old in and out.
5. What burns me up sometimes about girls is dick-teasers. They lead a man on and then shut him off right there.
6. Filthy talk can be such a turn on for a girl . . . no one wants to be shagged by a mouse . . . A few compliments won’t do any harm either . . . ‘I bet you want it from behind you dirty whore’ . . .
The researchers also asked a separate group of women and men aged between 19 and 30 to rank the quotes on how derogatory they were. Both men and women rated the quotes from men’s magazines as somewhat more derogatory.
Lead researcher from Middlesex University, Dr Miranda Horvath says: “We were surprised that participants identified more with the rapists’ quotes, and we are concerned that the legitimisation strategies that rapists deploy when they talk about women are more familiar to these young men than we had anticipated.”
“These magazines support the legitimisation of sexist attitudes and behaviours and need to be more responsible about their portrayal of women, both in words and images. They give the appearance that sexism is acceptable and normal – when really it should be rejected and challenged. Rapists try to justify their actions, suggesting that women lead men on, or want sex even when they say no, and there is clearly something wrong when people feel the sort of language used in a lads’ mag could have come from a convicted rapist.”
This is just a little bit of what these men’s magazines are offering the Australian reader:
What do you think of men’s magazines? Do you come across them often?
Oh, and those answers for the quotes: 1. Rapist, 2. Rapist, 3. Lad mag, 4. Lad mag, 5. Rapist, 6. Lad mag, 7. Rapist, 8. Lad mag, 9. Rapist, 10. Lad mag, 11. Rapist, 12. Lad mag, 13. Rapist, 14. Rapist, 15. Lad mag, 16. Lad mag
Top Comments
It's actually a nice useful part of info. I'm thankful you shared this beneficial information along with us. Please keep informed like that. Thank you for sharing.
What’s the difference between a men’s magazine and a rapist? Well, nothing, of course. Females have been declaring all men are rapists for 50 years .
I would have thought that anyone who was well and who had any experience with interpreting data would have to come to the conclusion that what a man might think does not make him a rapist. However, you come up with the exact OPPOSITE conclusion.
Something that I find utterly at odds with this is the notion that it’s a lucky thing. The number one female sexual fantasy by far is to be raped. Hahaha. I know you want to know the second; to have sex with multiple men concurrently. Filthy females. Sexually objectifying men and wantonly indulging in aggressive sexual acts which demean the poor men.
Interestingly, according to Cosmo females, 57% of females expect men to buy their drinks if there is the possibility of sex. However, if a man buys a female drinks, then subsequently has sex with her, he is guilty of administering a stupefying drug and RAPE. But females still expect to exchange sex for drinks. Is it any wonder there are few females at the top?
Jayne
My women’s mag collection is extensive. I have NEVER seen comments encouraging rape or about ‘giving it’ to men who are ‘asking for it’.
Oh dear. You haven’t lived life much have you. Let’s start with the society set up by females in the sixties I think it was. It’s called the Society for Cutting Up Men – SCUM. They even have a “manifesto” which I thought was odd. Wouldn’t it be more like a femifesto? There are an infinite number of pages on the net extolling the virtues of females being at WAR with men. Obviously, if you are at war with someone then you fully intend to kill them. If you wish I can list pages and pages of hateful comments made by females against men. The most popular is still the misogynist one though.
"I claim that rape exists any time sexual intercourse occurs when it has not been initiated by the woman, out of her own genuine affection and desire." From Robin Morgan, "Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape" in "Going too Far," 1974. .
"When a woman reaches orgasm with a man she is only collaborating with the patriarchal system, eroticizing her own oppression..." Sheila Jeffrys .
"Heterosexual intercourse is the pure, formalized expression of contempt for women's bodies." Andrea Dworkin
"Sex is the cross on which women are crucified ... Sex can only be adequately defined as universal rape." Hodee Edwards, ‘Rape defines Sex’
"I believe that women have a capacity for understanding and compassion which a man structurally does not have, does not have it because he cannot have it. He's just incapable of it." - Former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
Melbourne City Councilwoman Pat Poole announced her opposition to renaming a street for Martin Luther King: "I wonder if he really accomplished things, or if he just stirred people up and caused a lot of riots."
"Our culture is depicting sex as rape so that men and women will become interested in it." Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth, p. 138..
"Under patriarchy, no woman is safe to live her life, or to love, or to mother children. Under patriarchy, every woman is a victim, past, present, and future. Under patriarchy, every woman's daughter is a victim, past, present, and future. Under patriarchy, every woman's son is her potential betrayer and also the inevitable rapist or exploiter of another woman," Andrea Dworkin, Liberty, p.58..
"Compare victims' reports of rape with women's reports of sex. They look a lot alike....[T]he major distinction between intercourse (normal) and rape (abnormal) is that the normal happens so often that one cannot get anyone to see anything wrong with it." Catherine MacKinnon, quoted in Christina Hoff Sommers, "Hard-Line Feminists Guilty of Ms.-Representation," Wall Street Journal, November 7, 1991.
"The fact is that the process of killing - both rape and battery are steps in that process- is the prime sexual act for men in reality and/or in imagination.". Andrea Dworkin, Letters from a War Zone, p. 22..
"Man's discovery that his genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear must rank as one of the most important discoveries of prehistoric times, along with the use of fire, and the first crude stone axe." Susan Brownmiller, Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, p. 5..
"The newest variations on this distressingly ancient theme center on hormones and DNA: men are biologically aggressive; their fetal brains were awash in androgen; their DNA, in order to perpetuate itself, hurls them into murder and rape." Andrea Dworkin, Letters from a War Zone, p. 114..
When asked: "You [Greer] were once quoted as saying your idea of the ideal man is a woman with a dick. Are you still that way inclined?"
Dr Greer (denying that she said it): "I have a great deal of difficulty with the idea of the ideal man. As far as I'm concerned, men are the product of a damanged gene. They pretend to be normal but what they're doing sitting there with benign smiles on their faces is they're manufacturing sperm. They do it all the time. They never stop. I mean, we women are more reasonable. We pop one follicle every 28 days, whereas they are producing 400 million sperm for each ejaculation, most of which don't take place anywhere near an ovum. I don't know that the ecosphere can tolerate it." Germaine Greer, at a Hilton Hotel literary lunch, promoting her book #34; The Change-- Women, Aging and the Menopause#34; . From a newsreport dated 14/11/91