New research raises serious questions about the impact of so-called lads’ magazines. Psychologists from Middlesex University and the University of Surrey in the UK found there was little to distinguish the descriptions of women in the magazines from comments made by convicted rapists. The research, due to be published in the British Journal of Psychology, revealed that some comments in the lads’ mags were more derogatory than those made by rapists.
Dr Peter Hegarty, of the University of Surrey’s Psychology Department, said: “There is a fundamental concern that the content of such magazines normalises the treatment of women as sexual objects. Are young men best prepared for fulfilling love and sex when they normalise views about women that are disturbingly close to those mirrored in the language of sexual offenders?”
