"Anal sex is an ancient and persistent taboo, a long-stigmatised sexual practice (McBride and Fortenberry 2010). Recent empirical studies, however, suggest an increasing prevalence of anal sex among heterosexual partners (Herbenick et al. 2010; Mosher, Chandra and Jones 2005; Satterwhite et al. 2007), and heterosexual anal sex has been identified as an emerging social norm among women (Fahs and Gonzalez 2014; Fahs, Swank and Clevenger 2015; McBride 2019). The literature on women’s experiences and motivations with anal sex points to a range of subjective experiences, ranging from women’s own pleasure and desire to violence and coercion (Fahs and Gonzalez 2014; Reynolds, Fisher and Rogala 2015)."
... "The increasing visibility of anal sex in the media is observable across different contexts and platforms (McBride and Fortenberry 2010). Writing in 2007, Gill stated that “anal sex seems to have replaced oral sex as the favourite heterosexual taboo for women’s magazines” (Gill 2007a, 193), combining “a frisson of risk and danger and [encouraging] women to ‘break the last remaining taboo”’ with “[y]ou should never do anything you don’t feel comfortable with” (Gill 2007a, 193)."
... "Descriptions of a culture change regarding anal sex are pervasive, being overwhelmingly positioned as ‘no longer as taboo as it once was’ (47). Several articles converge in the portrayal of a status shift around anal sex – from taboo to trendy, from forbidden to popular: ‘We’re suddenly anal-crazy’ (6), reads one article, while another states that ‘people still can’t seem to shut up about anal sex’ (25). Interrogations such as ‘when did anal become the new first base?’ (36), ‘Is everyone having anal without me?’ (6) and ‘Had I missed the anal revolution?’ (6) mirror the prolifically announced popularity of anal sex."
... "Cosmopolitan’s portrayal of an on-going process of normalisation of anal sex seems to position the respective authors as spectators observing its occurrence. However, considering Cosmopolitan’s reach and large audience, the diagnosed cultural change is not an outside statement: when diagnosing a social shift around anal sex towards its normalisation, the magazine is already and actively participating in the construction of the same normalisation process that is being report[ed]."
"Representations of heterosexual anal sex in Cosmopolitan magazine." Culture, Health & Sexuality. 2021 Aug; 23(8): 1050-1065. doi:10.1080/13691058.2020.1755453. (PMID 32
Post too long. Click here to view the full text.