Process In the Production of Popular

Culture: The Romance Magazine

By DAVID SONENSCHEIN

As part of a small study done for the Commission on Obscenity

and Pornography, publishers of the 43 magazines in our sample were
solicited for open-ended interviews concerning their editorial work
and philosophies. Editors of white-oriented magazines were interviewed personally in New York, while editors of black-oriented
magazines were similarly interviewed in Chicago and Fort Worth.
The publishers interviewed obtained their manuscripts from
what was described as a hard-core group of semi-professional freelance writers. These individuals were described as nearly all white,
middle class American housewives, writing either to supplement
their family income, or for their own entertainment and intellectual
exercise. Submitted drafts are either flatly accepted or rejected;
subsequent reworkings and editorial work are all done at the publishing house.
Four magazines in our sample were specifically produced for
blacks and it is of particular interest that editors reported the
writers for these magazines were also nearly all white middle class
women. All manuscripts received by the black magazines are edited
not only for style and content, but for references to physical de-

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scription and life style as well. One editor mentioned that we may
change eye color from blue to brown and change hair color from
blond to black to increase suitability for a black readership. Personal references may also be inserted, such as my boyfriend looked
like Sidney Poitier, to make more explicit the connections to black
life. Another editor reported that they get complaints from readers
if the stories are not true to black life, or if they put in too many
references to great material wealth, such as large numbers of boats,
cars, television sets, etc.
Most editors try to hit a variety of topics in each issue so that
it may carry the widest appeal. There are limitations, however, as
one editor pointed out that social problem stories do not sell well
for him; broad social issues do not sell well. The stories that sell
are the ones that are vicarious thrill stories, he said. These stories
are classified under various types, discussed always in terms of their
marketability. For example, he related that
God stories are very big now, and so are bad girl stories and
medical stones. We call the last type, by the way, plumbing stories. They are very popular among our readers. We
dont do any black-white stuff because of our high sales in
the south. We dont do too many detailed medicals thoughthe publisher is too squeamish about anatomy.

He also indicated that rape stories were very popular for reasons he
could not determine. Over the course of a year or so, magazines try
to cover a broad range of story types. During the summer months,
for example, the editor said that this is the time to feature stories
about summer affairs while these are fresh in the minds and experiences of our reader. So well do a lot of stories about falling in and
out of love quickly, and kind of hit-and-miss or hit-and-run sex.
Most of the magazines sell from the newsstand rather than by
subscription. Newsstand magazines, the editors related, will be the
ones to place more emphasis upon sensationalism on the covers.
One editor said
We try to reach the browser and the sporadic buyer on the
newsstand rather than the subscriber. The subscriber is a
captive audience and weve got her no matter what. But on
the newsstand, its every magazine for itself!

Another publisher says

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We try to feature an attractive, good color photograph of a

girl on the cover so as to attract a reader who kind of wishes
to be l i e her. Then they pick it up and read the lines. We
always promise more than we can deliver in the magazines.
Our covers are much more titillating than the actual stories
are. This is true of all the magazines.

The lines on the covers begin to make some assumptions

about the quality and character of the reader. One editor says
Virgin lines dont do well either on the cover or as stories.
We assume, as a matter of fact, the nonvirginity of most of
our narrators from the beginning in the stories and, of course,
now we assume the nonvirginity of a lot of our readers.
Where we used to use a line that said Virgin In Sin Town,
we now would have to put something like Teasing Is Not
Enough to entice the reader.

The language of sex is very indirect in most romance magazines;

the most salient feature of the stories is the emotionalism of the narrator and the situation which generates that involvement. According
to the perceptions of the publishers, the general tone of the stories
has changed over the years, progressing to a much franker and
more explicit examination of the narrators activities in sex. One
editor comments
We used to remove the narrator from guilt in the stories, that
is, events used to happen around her but she very rarely became involved in them or had sex herself. As far as actual
sex goes, we used to carry the narrator along with the reader
to the bedroom door, but now in our magazines, we even get
in bed with the narrator, so to speak. Despite a l l this, though,
we still put the main emphasis on the romanticism. The
narrator in the stories now as opposed to those in the past
can live with the fact that she has had sex, whereas in the past
the event was much more problematical, I guess you would
say, for the narrator and, of course, for the reader.

In comparing his stones both in format and content to what he

called male pornography, another editor said were pornographic
in the sense that we do write to arouse. The only difference, I guess,
between male pornography and our stuff is that we dont get
anatomical about it. Another editor, a male, continues:
We avoid the actual fact of the act. We may describe petting
as He put his hand on my breast, or we may describe a

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male erection as He pressed his hard body against me, but
we dont give the anatomical detail that is found in the male
magazines. Women want the emotion of the seduction, the
titillation, not the act itself. Thats why we describe in great
detail the emotions the narrator feels in leading up to the act
and the emotions she feels afterward. For the reader these
are more important than the act itself, and these are the
things that involve and attract our readers in the first place.

Aside from kissing, heterosexual coitus is usually the main

focus and form of sexual interaction in the magazine stories. Less
common or marginal sexual activities do occasionally appear however. Of these, one editor said
Sado-masochism and homosexuality are too marginal for
most of our readers. We cant preach tolerance-that has to
come from other sources. In a story when these topics come
up, we refer the narrator in such an event to an authority
f s u r e for the solution of these problems. We are also never
specific on oral-genital stuff. We did some stuff on thattwice-but it didnt go over too well. Most of what we say
about that is very, very indirect, and not too many of the
readers seem to get it. We may do about one story a year
on group sex. This is usually hard to handle for both us
and the readers, and we always end up appealing to an
authority to get the narrator out of the situation.

Attention to reader response on the part of the editors is surprisingly slight. Letters received by the publishers ranged from as
few as 5 to as many as 300 per month; many magazines, however,
do not solicit response at all. Many do, of course, run features that
attract reader response, such as advice columns, story popularity
contests, household hints, and so on. But response to these is minimal and, by and large, the determination of editorial policy and
philosophy bears little relation to reader reports of likes or dislikes.
One editor explained the process this way:
We receive only a few hundred replies a month to even our
solicited contests, and we cant generalize obviously from
these to our total circulation which may be in the hundreds
and hundreds of thousands [actually, about 1%million].
When we see our sales figures dropping, thats when we try
to change some format and content, and we d o that until
sales figures pick up again and we figure weve hit whatever
was needed so we just leave it alone until the sales figures
drop again.

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The reader advice columns are run in a number of the magazines,

and the editors all noted that such features are very popular among
readers. One editor gets about 50 problem letters a month which
are answered personally by the staff. The editors of this black magazine state Most problems dont have anything to do with sex, its
a kind of Dear Abby column. They keep coming in, so I guess the
advice is good. This magazine charges a fee ($3) for answering the
letters, either in print or personally. At another magazine, a male
editor writes the advice column himself. His magazines (2) run
advice columns but he says of these The letters I publish there
arent real. We use actual ones to kick off topics that I write about.
I try to write in a very chatty style, but if I get a touching one I
throw it out. I cant answer it; Im not qualified, and I often feel
very bad about that.
None of the editors reported any significant pressures from
community decency groups. One editor related
We were once at the mercy of the National League of
Decency, but these things are cyclical. We used to be on the
avant-garde of sexual material on the newsstand, but now
we are very conservative and traditional and we hardly ever
get any feedback about the content of our stories. We
cant change too fast because readers get hostile. The general
changes in sexual attitudes and behavior in this country
affect our readers as well as anyone else, and we have to
adjust to new generations. We do occasionally try new
formats but not too often. Our readers are still pretty conservative despite social changes.

All of the publishers saw themselves putting out stories that

contained very conservative and traditional American cultural values.
The editors of one of the black magazines, for example, said that
We try to develop ideals suitable to young blacks. We emphasize
interpersonal relationships within the black community and put an
emphasis on personal development. By and large, we are not different from middle class white morality. Another editor said
We include a lot of sex, both on the covers and in the magazines, but its the kind that anybody can read. We dont
go for pornography at all and we dont go too far in sex,
though we dont mind printing words like hell and LLdamn
-even children say things like that nowadays.

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There was, however, a contradiction that appeared many times

in the interviews regarding the legitimacy of the sexual focus of the
magazines. All of the editors insisted that romanticism rather than
sexuality was their primary commercial feature. The editor of a
black magazine said We are very conscious about our very young
females who read the magazine and we try to edit the stories so that
they wont get wrong ideas. The content of our stories may be
juicy, but our female readers can see that the middle-of-the-road
policy is the best one. This editor then suggested that proof by
negative example is best for their readers in terms of morality and
also in terms of salability in that this holds the readers attention
and involvement without passing on a good deal of guilt t o the
reader.
The question is begged as far as reality in the stories goes.
Many magazines carry the words True or Red in their titles,
and frequently stories are signed with a feminine first name and
last initial. While admitting this is fictional, one editor remarked
Our readers are less educated and marry young. They dont
have very many people to talk to. For them our magazines
are an authority. Readers do tell us when the story is like
their experiences, but its obvious to us that they dont need
to be true. What were selling is something close enough to
reality for our readers to enjoy and become involved in.

This fictionalizing then allows publishers to better control

cultural values that figure centrally in the stones. An editor, male,
remarks on his editorial philosophy:
The attitudes toward sex are positive and healthy in our view
and not that we encourage promiscuity even though some of
the experiences are so in our stories, we try to emphasize that
the attitude is a healthy one. I feel my responsibility is here
in providing healthy and positive attitudes. Kids who are led
to romance magazines seem to have an obsession with unhealthy attitudes. We try to give our stories a healthy slant
for them to pick up.

In this regard, many editors were very conscious that many of their
readers are very young girls, even preteens. Most editors aim their
magazines at the late teens and early twenties market, although
several of the larger magazines aim at women whose estimated
median age would be in the late thirties.

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When asked about his feelings of personal commitment and

responsibility to and for the magazines, one male editor replied
The goodness or badness of them doesnt concern me. I
guess if romance magazines have a message, its the liberalization of sex attitudes. We try to say have the guts to
live with mistakes. We also advocate in our stones when to
shut up and not tell everything. All in all, though, I guess
our stones try to give a healthy outlook.

Another male editor further expresses the general editoral philosophy

that was found in the romance magazines:
I cant believe there is any actual arousal on the part of the
reader because we dont go far enough. There is too much
emotional identification with the problem and the narrator
in the story rather than the sex to have that kind of reaction.
I think most people read our magazines because of the
experiences rather than the actual activities that we try to
talk about. We try to tell people that sex is a wonderful
thing and that they may be missing out. Our readers dont
like to identify with a frigid woman. But the activity that
takes place does have to be within the bounds of our, and
we hope our readers, morality-even though we see ourselves as both liberal and conservative in that sexual morality.

Thus are the perceptions and language of the editors, nearly all
males, as they attempt to deal with female emotionalism and
sexuality within the traditional boundaries of the American institutions of love, marriage, and the family. Throughout the interviews,
the editors maintained that, while they may be unable to deal with
their nearly 17 million readers each month on a personal basis,
they were still very close to them conceptually and in touch with
them morally.

NOTE: Research for this paper was supported by a grant from the Commission
on Obscenity and Pornography. This paper is a slightly revised version
of a chapter from the resulting technical report (Sonenschein, et al.,
1970). For a broader view of the romance magazine, see Gerbner (1958),

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Schramm (1961), Sonenschein (1970), and Sonenschein and Ross (1971).

REFERENCES
Gerbner, George
1958 The social role of the confession magazine. Social P r o b l e m
5:2940.
Schramm, Wilbur
1961 Content analysis of the world of confession magazines. In
Popukzr Conceptions ofMental Health (J. Nunnau, ed.); pp.
297-307. Mew York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.
Sonenschein, David
1970 Love and sex in the romance magazines. Journal of Popular
Culture 4:398-409.
Sonenschein, David, Ross, Mark, Bauman, Richard, Swartz, Linda, and
Maclachlan, Morgan
1970 A Study of Mass Media Erotica: The Romance or Confession
Magazine. Final report to the Commission on Obscenity and
Pornography. Technical Reports, Volume 9. Washington,
D. C.: Government Printing Office.
Sonenschein, David, and Ross, Mark J. M.
1971 Sex information in the Romance and Confession magazines.
Medicd Aspects of Human Sexuality 5:136-159.

David Sonenschein, formerly with the Institute for Sex Research, inc.,
Indiana University, and formerly with the Department of Anthropology at the
University of Texas, and now lives in Austin, Texas.