ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a comparative investigation of the social construction of sexuality, sexual health and disease in the highest circulating print mass media magazines directed towards two groups of women in the United States of America (USA). In the social climate of the USA during the years focused on in Jackson's study, it is likely that stories supporting the maintenance of heterosexual marriage. Patriarchy would likely be looked on more favourably by profit-seeking media conglomerates because such a portrayal reinforces existing power relations. Sex as the desire of women has been distorted, by and large into sex as another part of women's work to be rationally organized and managed. Jackson's study demonstrates how magazines devoted to both teenage and middle-aged women describe women as responsible for sexual expression that is portrayed as being ultimately intended for the maintenance of heterosexual, patriarchal marriage in the context of a double standard.
