Representations of heterosexual anal sex in Cosmopolitan magazine

Abstract

Anal sex has been the object of unprecedented recent media visibility; however, media discourses of anal sex are still largely unstudied. This study explores the representations of anal sex in Cosmopolitan, available online on the magazine’s website. Anal sex, mostly equated with heterosexual anal intercourse, is presented as trendy and popular, as well as potentially pleasurable and intimate. The articles pervasively characterise anal sex as a sexual activity that demands preparation, providing women with tips and techniques allegedly indispensable for a safe and pleasurable (or at least painless) practice of anal sex. The discourses offered are deeply gendered, however, picturing anal sex as a male obsession, and sometimes an expression of power and male conquest. Women’s own experiences are portrayed in a more nuanced and heterogeneous way, combining narratives of pleasure and pain, personal initiative and coercion. Although women’s individual right to refuse anal sex is often stressed, male pressure is naturalised, and certain dimensions of constraint in heterosexual interaction are normalised.

Keywords:

• Anal sex
• heterosexual anal intercourse
• women’s magazines
• Cosmopolitan
• postfeminism

Acknowledgements

I thank Nicola Gavey, Maree Martinussen and Jade Farley for their contributions to previous versions of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.