Vital advice for girls ... or simply smut?

 

 

Comments (14)

Explicit teen magazines have been praised by school inspectors for offering 'very positive' advice on sex.

Ofsted regards them as valuable reading material, despite their often lurid and sometimes sexist content.

In a report published yesterday, inspectors also blamed parents for children's increasing reliance on such magazines for the facts of life.

The report on the teaching of Personal, Social and Health Education, did not name any specific magazines.

 

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But it clearly related to girls' titles such as More, Cosmogirl! and Sugar, which have been criticised for publishing features such as 'position of the fortnight'.

Ofsted said that even though teen publications have become increasingly explicit, their problem pages 'remain a very positive source of advice and reassurance for many young people'. We examine five of the big sellers.

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Five of the best? We put teen magazines under the spotlight

 

SUGAR

 

Boasting it is the 'biggest and best' of the teenage magazines, this is filled with topless pictures of male popstars. It even offers a website link to let readers watch one strip off. With articles such as 'The single girl's guide to partying' it is hardly intellectual stuff. It tends to focus more on grown-up sexual issues than its rivals, which may be disheartening news to parents. TARGET AGE: 13-19 CIRCULATION: 200,541

MOST DUBIOUS CONTENT:

An anonymous girl tells of an horrific experience at 16, when she slept with a boy she had met online. One evening, the boy turned up with a friend and drove them all out into the woods. Not wanting to seem 'uncool', the girl let both boys kiss her. They all ended up having sex. A few days later she received an email with a video of their sordid encounter. It had been posted on the Internet.

TYPICAL COVER LINE: 'Get Kissing Confident - What every girl needs to know about snogging'

TYPICAL PROBLEM PAGE LETTER:

'I slept with a boy because he said he loved me, but the next day he didn't want anything to do with me.'

BLISS

 

Bliss covers issues such as friendship, fashion, true life and sex. Though it's full of brash images of celebrities out 'boozing', it claims it gives girls 'safe' lifestyle advice, such as keeping fit without starving themselves. TARGET AGE: 14-18 CIRCULATION: 151,729

MOST DUBIOUS CONTENT:

1) On a 'true life' confession page, a 15-year-old girl tells of a one-night stand with a young man in a bathroom at a house party.

She had lots of alcohol to 'boost my confidence' and had very brief, unprotected sex. A few weeks later she discovered she had caught a sexually transmitted infection.

2) A picture of girlband star Sarah Harding drinking whisky straight from the bottle and Madonna feeding Penelope Cruz a cocktail, accompanied by a jokey caption: 'So this is how blondes have more fun - by chucking drinks down their mates' necks! We reckon Madge and Sarah are very bad influences. Hic!'

TYPICAL COVER LINE: '129 Hot Body Secrets'

TYPICAL PROBLEM PAGE LETTER: 'My boyfriend of the past year has asked me if I'm up for threesome sex with him and his mate.

I'm not sure I want to, but I love him and don't want to get dumped. Should I do it to please him?'

COSMOgirl!

 

This magazine claims to target intelligent young girls who are keen to succeed at school and in their relationships with friends, family and boys.

Shame about the superficial articles such as 'Cosmo's 101 most wanted men' - which spans three pages of pictures - as well as endless pages of fashion. TARGET AGE: 12-17 CIRCULATION: 131,956 MOST DUBIOUS CONTENT: Diagram of how to put on a condom on the 'Sex Sussed' page.

TYPICAL COVER LINE: 'Make Him Fancy You', 'How normal are your boobs?'

TYPICAL PROBLEM PAGE LETTER: 'Can laxatives and vomiting help me slim?'

TEEN NOW

 

Teen now is a bi-annual publication, an off- shoot of the weekly celebrity magazine Now.

It targets younger teenage girls concerned with fashion, celebrity and boys.

More light-hearted than its rivals, it is peppered with young television stars and focuses on celebrity interviews as well as real-life teenage problems. TARGET AGE: 13-17 MOST DUBIOUS CONTENT:

1) Pop group the Sugababes are asked in an interview to say when they have been drunk.

They explain they got 'completely smashed' at an awards ceremony and how one of them fell over, knocked herself out and vomited over herself.

2) Kara Tointon, EastEnders actress talking about how she likes to wear G-strings because they're skimpy and sexy.

TYPICAL COVER LINE: 'Total Boy-Fest', 'Sacked for being too fit'

TYPICAL PROBLEM PAGE LETTER: 'I really fancy my sister's new boyfriend. They've been going out for three months and I've liked him since the moment she first introduced me to him. Should I make a move on him?'

MORE

 

More magazine is an unashamedly sexual read. Almost every story has a sexual angle. Often the real-life accounts focus on fetishes or sexual boundaries being broken.

An uncomfortably explicit publication, its pages are littered with diagramsand raunchy photographs to explain numerous sexual positions and techniques. The current issue features a report on a girl who lost six stone (and then her virginity) and another who loves having sex with her 7ft tall boyfriend. TARGET AGE: 21 - however, it used to be a teen title and is still thought to be widely read by teenage girls. CIRCULATION: 271,629 MOST DUBIOUS CONTENT:

1) A sexual diagram entitled ' Position of the fortnight', in which readers are given step by step instructions to a sexual position. TYPICAL COVER LINE: '100 Greatest Sex Tricks', 'I have sex with a giant' TYPICAL PROBLEM PAGE LETTER: 'I'm straight but turned on by girlon-girl porn. Is this normal? I'm really happy with my man but I'm worried it means I'm bisexual.'

This magazine claims to target intelligent young girls who are keen to succeed at school and in their relationships with friends, family and boys.

Shame about the superficial articles such as 'Cosmo's 101 most wanted men' -

 

Intelligent girls do NOT read those trashy magazines, they read Hardy and Tolstoy

 

end of.

they are just full of garbage......

like Tapioca?

if an intellingent girl would like to know about sex in a healthy way, without all the crap those magazines say she would probably try to find a serious book/magazine that talked about it;not to give her advices on "how to turn men on" etc but to inform the good, the bad and the precautions etc.

 

just my opinion :wacky:

like Tapioca?

 

 

 

What the heck??

teen girls' magazines suuuuuuuck, so do womens' magazines, but it's nothing new. i get all the womanly advice i need by listening to ani difranco, joan baez, tori amos and neko case. i wish everybody had awesome rolemodels, magazines like these make things a hell of a lot worse for teen girls than better.

teen girls' magazines suuuuuuuck, so do womens' magazines, but it's nothing new. i get all the womanly advice i need by listening to ani difranco, joan baez, tori amos and neko case.

 

What about K.D. Laing??:rolleyes:

Based on personal experience, it's amazing how much your self image can improve when you stop reading teen/fashion/women's magazines. It's like they were written to give you an inferiority complex and body issues.

Basically, these are monthly reminders that sex is good, tans are good, boys are cute, and that you're not good enough. And girls pay for these things.

What about K.D. Laing??:rolleyes:

 

you don't know me, don't try to insult my taste... he who believes in coldplay over all other.

Based on personal experience, it's amazing how much your self image can improve when you stop reading teen/fashion/women's magazines. It's like they were written to give you an inferiority complex and body issues.

 

 

 

That's exactly what I was saying,you see heaps of girl reading those thrash magazines,not only the monthly ones..but also the weekly ones,which are sometimes filled with even more trash!!!!

I hate magazines.

 

No, I really don't have any intelligent comment to add to this.

Yeah, but who reads those magazines.

Never read those girlie magazines, although if they are anything like Nuts & Zoo (Lads' magazines), they will be idiotic.

teen girls' magazines suuuuuuuck, so do womens' magazines, but it's nothing new. i get all the womanly advice i need by listening to ani difranco, joan baez, tori amos and neko case. i wish everybody had awesome rolemodels, magazines like these make things a hell of a lot worse for teen girls than better.

 

i read that while i was listening to tori amos

ahaha, what song?