Benefits of the In-Between: Swedish Men’s Magazines and Sex Films 1965–1975

Abstract

This article analyzes a content-based market position that developed during the mid-1960s, situated in-between the pornographic and the accepted. By studying Swedish men’s magazines and sex films from the time period, the argument is made that these media products profited from both the advantages of pornography, i.e., more or less sexual explicit images, and the advantages of the accepted, i.e., common distribution channels, the possibility of having regular advertising and placards and being sold in ordinary kiosks (for magazines) and shown at ordinary cinemas (for films). For some years, this balancing act between the accepted and the pornographic was maintained, and the genre became enormously popular. From the mid-1970s onward, however, the division between pornography and accepted media became more clear-cut. The critique against pornography and the in-between media products intensified, and the uncertainty about pornography’s future role after the legalization in 1971 was followed by new ways of separating the pornographic from the accepted. While there were some differences between the two media formats, such as their degree of internationalization and the importance of advertising, they shared much in terms of content formulas and used the same female actors and models. It is argued that both formal regulations and the informal norms of gender and sexuality at the time and their change throughout the 1970s are key for understanding the development and the disappearance of the in-between genre.