{{short description|Magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature}} thumb|Pornographic magazines on shelves in Japan {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
'''Pornographic magazines''' or '''erotic magazines''', sometimes known as '''adult magazines''' or '''sex magazines''',<ref name="Encyclopedia">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture|publisher=Taylor & Francis|author=Peter Childs, Mike Storry |year=1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tlsKXeRt0wgC&pg=PA537|isbn=9781134755554|page=537}}</ref> are magazines that contain content of a sexually explicit nature. Softcore pornography magazines contain images – usually photographs – of fully or partially naked people.<ref name=Encyclopedia/> Hardcore pornography magazines also include explicit depictions of sexual acts such as masturbation, oral sex, manual sex, vaginal sex, or anal sex. Pornographic fetish magazines are also sometimes classified as hardcore.<ref name=Encyclopedia/>
They primarily serve to stimulate sexual arousal and are often used as an aid to masturbation.<ref name=Encyclopedia/> Some magazines are general in their content, while others may be more specific and focus on a particular pornographic niche, part of the anatomy, or model characteristics.<ref name=Encyclopedia/> Examples include ''Asian Babes'' which focuses on Asian women, or ''Leg Show'' which concentrates on women's legs. Well-known adult magazines include ''Playboy'', ''Penthouse'', ''Playgirl'', and ''Hustler''. Magazines may also carry articles on topics including cars, humor, science, computers, culture, and politics. With the continued progression of print media to digital, retailers have also had to adapt. Software such as Apple's discontinued Newsstand enabled the downloading and displaying of digital versions of magazines but did not allow pornographic material. However, there are specific digital newsstands for pornographic magazines.
== History == Pornographic magazines form a part of the history of erotic depictions. It is a form for the display and dissemination of these materials.<ref name=history>{{cite video| people = Marilyn Chambers, John Leslie| title = Pornography: The Secret History of Civilization| url = http://www.kochvision.com/product.aspx?number=741952635291| medium = DVD| publisher = Koch Vision| date = 2005| ISBN = 1-4172-2885-7| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100822002054/http://www.kochvision.com/product.aspx?number=741952635291| archive-date = 22 August 2010}}</ref>
In 1880, halftone printing was used to reproduce photographs inexpensively for the first time.<ref name = timeline>{{cite web| last = Cross| first = J.M.| title = Nineteenth-Century Photography: A Timeline| publisher = the Victorian Web| date = 4 February 2001| url = http://victorianweb.org/photos/chron.html | access-date = 23 August 2006}}</ref> The invention of halftone printing took pornography and erotica in new directions at the beginning of the 20th century. The new printing processes allowed photographic images to be reproduced easily in black and white, whereas printers were previously limited to engravings, woodcuts, and line cuts for illustrations.<ref name="halftone">{{cite web |last=St. John |first=Kristen |author2=Linda Zimmerman |date=June 1997 |title=Guided Tour of Print Processes: Black and White Reproduction |url=http://library.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/print.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070117083838/http://library.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/print.html |archive-date=17 Jan 2007 |access-date=24 August 2006 |publisher=Stanford library}}</ref> It allowed pornography to become mass-market, making it more affordable and more easily acquired than any previous form.<ref name = history />
First appearing in France, the new magazines featured nude and semi-nude photographs on the cover and throughout; often, burlesque actresses were hired as models. While they would later be termed softcore, they were quite shocking for the time. The publications soon either masqueraded as "art magazines" or publications celebrating the new cult of naturism, with titles such as ''Photo Bits'', ''Body in Art'', ''Figure Photography'', ''Nude Living'', and ''Modern Art for Men.''<ref name = history /> The British magazine ''Health & Efficiency'' (now ''H&E naturist'', often known simply as ''H&E'') was first published in 1900, and began to include articles about naturism in the late 1920s.<ref name="H&E">{{cite web|title=About H&E Naturist|publisher=Health and Efficiency Naturist|url=http://www.healthandefficiency.co.uk/aboutus.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060927032027/http://www.healthandefficiency.co.uk/aboutframe.htm|archive-date=27 September 2006 }}</ref> Gradually, this material came to dominate – particularly as other magazines were taken over and absorbed. At times in its post-WWII history, ''H&E'' has catered primarily to the soft-porn market.
Another early form of pornography were comic books known as Tijuana bibles that began appearing in the U.S. in the 1920s and lasted until the publishing of glossy colour men's magazines. They were crude hand-drawn scenes often using popular characters from cartoons and culture.<ref name = tijuana>{{cite book| last = Adelman| first = Bob|author2=Richard Merkin| title = Tijuana Bibles: Art and Wit in America's Forbidden Funnies, 1930s-1950s| publisher = Simon & Schuster| date = 1 September 1997| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-684-83461-0| page = 160}}</ref>
In the 1940s, the word "pinup" was coined to describe pictures torn from men's magazines and calendars and "pinned up" on the wall by U.S. soldiers in World War II. While the 1940s images focused mostly on legs, by the 1950s, the emphasis shifted to breasts. Betty Grable and Marilyn Monroe were two of the most popular pinup models. Monroe continued to be a popular model for the men's magazines in the 1950s.
The 1950s saw the rise of the first mass-market softcore pornographic magazines: ''Modern Man'' in 1952 and ''Playboy'' in 1953.<ref name=oneofive>Kimmel, p.105</ref> Hugh Hefner's ''Playboy'' started a new style of the men's glossy magazine (or girlie magazine).<ref name = girlie>{{cite book| last = Gabor| first = Mark| title = The Illustrated History of Girlie Magazines| publisher = Random House Value Publishing| date = 27 February 1984| location = New York| isbn = 978-0-517-54997-1}}</ref> Hefner coined the term centerfold,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/shows/hefner/profile.html |title=Hugh Hefner Profile |work=People in the News |publisher=CNN |access-date=21 July 2008}}</ref> and in the first edition of his ''Playboy'' used a photograph of a nude Monroe,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.playboy.com/worldofplayboy/faq/firstissue.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607073029/http://www.playboy.com/worldofplayboy/faq/firstissue.html |archive-date=7 June 2011 |title=The Playboy FAQ: The First Issue |work=World of Playboy |publisher=Playboy}}</ref> despite her objections. Another term that became popular with Playboy readers was the "Playboy Playmate". These new-style magazines featured nude or semi-nude women, sometimes simulating masturbation, although their genitals or pubic hair were not actually displayed.
In 1963, ''Lui'' started in France to compete against ''Playboy'', while Bob Guccione did the same in the United Kingdom in 1965 with ''Penthouse''.<ref name=Landrum>{{cite book|title=Entrepreneurial Genius: The Power of Passion|publisher=Brendan Kelly Publishing|author=Gene N. Landrum |year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fRdwUrLj2rgC|isbn=978-1-895997-23-1|pages=156, 157}}</ref> ''Penthouse's'' style was different from other magazines, with women looking indirectly at the camera, as if they were going about their private idylls. This change of emphasis influenced erotic depictions of women. ''Penthouse'' was also the first magazine to publish pictures that included pubic hair and full frontal nudity, both of which were considered beyond the bounds of the erotic and in the realm of pornography at the time. In 1965, ''Mayfair'' was launched in the UK in competition to ''Playboy'' and ''Penthouse''. In September 1969 ''Penthouse'' was launched in the U.S., bringing new competition to ''Playboy''.<ref name=Landrum /> In order to retain its market share ''Playboy'' followed ''Penthouse'' in the display of pubic hair, risking obscenity charges, and launching the "Pubic Wars".<ref name=Landrum /> As competition between the two magazines escalated, their photos became increasingly more explicit.<ref name=Landrum /> In the late 1960s, some magazines began to move into more explicit displays often focusing on the buttocks as standards of what could be legally depicted and what readers wanted to see.
By the 1970s magazines containing images of the pubic area became increasingly common. In the UK, Paul Raymond acquired and then relaunched ''Men Only'' in 1971 as a pornographic magazine, and then launched ''Club International'' in 1972.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7275177.stm |title=UK | Porn baron Raymond dies aged 82 |work=BBC News |date=3 March 2008 |access-date=3 February 2013}}</ref> ''Playboy'' was the first to clearly show visible pubic hair in January 1971. The first full frontal nude centerfold was ''Playboy's'' Miss January 1972. In 1974, Larry Flynt first published ''Hustler'' in the US, which contained more explicit material. Some researchers have detected increasingly violent images in magazines like ''Playboy'' and ''Penthouse'' over the course of the 1970s, with them then returning to their more upscale style by the end of the decade.<ref name=ninetyeight>Kimmel, p.98</ref> Paul Raymond Publications relaunched ''Escort'' in 1980 in the UK, ''Razzle'' in 1983, and ''Men's World'' in 1988.
Sales of pornographic magazines in the U.S. have declined significantly since 1979,<ref>Kimmel, p.116</ref> with a nearly 50% reduction in circulation between 1980 and 1989.<ref name=onetwothree>Kimmel, p.123</ref> The fact that the U.S. incidence of rape had increased over the same period has cast doubt on any correlation between magazine sales and sex crimes.<ref>Kimmel, p.122</ref> Studies from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s nearly all confirmed that pornographic magazines contained significantly less violent imagery than pornographic films.<ref name=ninetyeight />
In the 1990s, magazines such as ''Hustler'' began to feature more hardcore material such as sexual penetration, lesbianism and homosexuality, group sex, masturbation, and fetishes.<ref name=Encyclopedia /><ref name = history /><ref name = girlie /> In the late 1990s and 2000s the pornographic magazines market declined, as they were challenged by new "lad mags" such as ''FHM'' and ''Loaded'', which featured softcore photos.<ref name=Encyclopedia /> The availability of pornographic DVDs and internet pornography also led to a decline in magazine sales.<ref name=Encyclopedia /><ref name=guardian /> Many magazines developed their own websites which also show pornographic films.<ref name=Encyclopedia /> Despite falling sales, the top-selling U.S. adult magazines still maintain high circulations compared to most mainstream magazines, and are amongst the top-selling magazines of any type.<ref name=onetwothree />
By 2001, Paul Raymond Publications dominated the British adult magazine market, distributing eight of the ten top selling adult magazines in the UK. At that time, there were about 100 adult magazine titles on sale in the UK.<ref name=guardian>{{cite news |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4185678-102271,00.html |title= Top shelf gathers dust |publisher=Observer |access-date=3 February 2013 |location=London |date=14 May 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090222105917/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4185678-102271,00.html |archive-date=22 February 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Common features== In the late 20th century, several magazines featured photos of "ordinary" women submitted by readers, for example the ''Readers Wives'' sections of several British magazines such as ''Fiesta'', and ''Beaver Hunt'' in the US.<ref name=Encyclopedia/> Many magazines also featured supposed stories of their reader's sexual exploits, many of which were actually written by the magazines' writers.<ref name=Encyclopedia/> Many magazines contained a high number of advertisements for phone sex lines, which provided them with an important source of revenue.<ref name=Encyclopedia/>
== Gay magazines == {{Expand section | 1 =post-physique ("hardcore") era, late 1960s onward|date=June 2021|small=n}}
An early example of borderline gay pornography was the physique magazine, a genre which had wide circulation in the 1950s and 1960s. Physique magazines mostly consisted of photographs of attractive, scantily-clad young men, and occasionally homoerotic illustrations by gay artists like George Quaintance and Tom of Finland. The magazines contained no overt mentions or depictions of homosexuality and used the pretense of demonstrating bodybuilding techniques or providing photos as visual references for artists, but it was widely understood that they were purchased almost exclusively by gay men. Major examples of the genre include ''Physique Pictorial'' (the first of its kind, debuting in 1951), ''Tomorrow's Man'', and ''Grecian Guild Pictorial''.
Shifts in the judicial interpretation of obscenity in the US and elsewhere led to physique magazines being supplanted in the mid-to-late 1960s by new publications which openly acknowledged a gay audience and featured nudity, and later hardcore sex.
==Production, distribution, and retail== A successful magazine requires significant investment in production facilities and a distribution network.<ref name=oneofive/> They require large printing presses and numerous specialized employees, such as graphic designers and typesetters.<ref name=oneofive/> Today a new magazine start-up can cost as much as $20 million, and magazines are significantly more expensive to produce than pornographic films, and more expensive than internet pornography.<ref name=oneofive/>
Like all magazines, pornographic magazines are dependent on advertising revenue, which may force a magazine to tone down its content.<ref name=oneofive/>
Depending on the laws in each jurisdiction, pornographic magazines may be sold in convenience stores, newsagents and petrol stations.<ref name=Encyclopedia/> They may need to be sold on the top shelf<ref>{{cite journal | last = Iqani | first = Mehita | title = The top shelf and its failures: the semiotics of softcore porn magazines at the newsstand | journal = Porn Studies | volume = 2 | issue = 1 | pages = 35–48 | doi = 10.1080/23268743.2014.988037 | date = January 2015 }}</ref> of a retail display to prevent children reaching them, hence their euphemistic name ''top shelf magazines''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Look of Love: Review|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1428042109|first=Graham|last=Fuller|journal=Film Comment|publisher=Film Society of Lincoln Center|location= New York|volume=49|issue=4|date=July–August 2013|pages=65–66|id={{ProQuest|1428042109}} }}</ref> Alternatively it may be necessary to sell them under the counter or in plastic wrappers. Some retail chains and many independent retail outlets do not stock pornographic magazines. They may also be sold in sex shops or by mail order.
==See also== * Fetish magazine * Glamour photography * History of erotic depictions * List of pornographic magazines * Pubic Wars
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{cite book|title=Dian Hanson's The History of Men's Magazines vol. 1 From 1900 to Post WW II. |publisher=Taschen |author=Hanson, Dian |year=2004 |isbn=978-3822822296 }} *{{cite book|title=Dian Hanson's The History of Men's Magazines vol. 2 From Post-War to 1959. |publisher=Taschen |author=Hanson, Dian |year=2004 |isbn=978-3822826256 }} *{{cite book|title=Dian Hanson's The History of Men's Magazines vol. 3 1960s at the newsstand. |publisher=Taschen |author=Hanson, Dian |year=2005 |isbn=978-3822829769 }} *{{cite book|title=Dian Hanson's The History of Men's Magazines vol. 4 1960s under the counter. |publisher=Taschen |author=Hanson, Dian |year=2005 |isbn=978-3822836354 }} *{{cite book|title=Dian Hanson's The History of Men's Magazines vol. 5 1970s at the newsstand. |publisher=Taschen |author=Hanson, Dian |year=2005 |isbn=978-3822836361 }} *{{cite book|title=Dian Hanson's The History of Men's Magazines vol. 6 1970s under the counter. |publisher=Taschen |author=Hanson, Dian |year=2005 |isbn=978-3822836378 }} *{{cite book|title=The gender of desire: essays on male sexuality|publisher=SUNY Press|author=Kimmel, Michael S. |year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1mM0m37AHkC|isbn=978-0-7914-6337-6}} *{{cite book|title=Creating the Modern Man: American Magazines and Consumer Culture, 1900-1950 |author=Pendergast, Tom |publisher=University of Missouri Press |year=2000 |isbn=9780826262240}}
{{Pornography|state=collapsed}}
Category:Pornographic magazines Magazines Category:Magazine genres Category:Softcore pornography