ABSTRACT
Since sex traditionally has been regarded as a taboo topic, periodicals devoted to the subject were almost non-existent until the post World War II period. Usually when references to sex appeared in serials before that time, they did so as part of another topic. Scientific journals, for example, often included references to sex as part of the ongoing effort to explain physiological differences between the sexes, impregnation, hormonal influences, and so forth. Medical and psychiatric journals often included clinical case studies with a strong sexual factor, while legal journals dealt with sexual topics through discussions of such subjects as prostitution. Religious magazines and journals usually put references to sex in terms of general discussions of morality.
