ABSTRACT
In the news press (especially, but by no means exclusively, the tabloids) and in a wide range of consumer periodicals, the apparent prurience of the British is exploited as an excuse to print sexually titillating material which will boost circulations. A good example of hypocrisy creeping in is with magazines for young teenage girls. Editors of these use arguments about sex education and empowerment to justify their generous use of sexually explicit material. No one doubts that some of this is informative but that doesn’t explain the extent of it or the contextual tone it creates. When being frank editors will admit that it’s all about sales (McKay 1998) and it would be interesting to see whether the publishers’ public devotion to the good causes of education and empowerment would survive were these shown to push sales down rather than up.
