While they may claim to be harmless fun, sexist jokes in lads' mags are not dissimilar to comments about women made by convicted rapists.

This is according to a new study, which presented male university students with a series of remarks about women, some made by rapists about women and others from lads' mags.

The students were unable to tell the difference between statements.

While they may claim to be harmless fun, sexist jokes in lads' mags are not dissimilar to comments about women made by convicted rapists. This is according to a new study, which presented male university students with a series of remarks about women

LADS' MAG JOKE OR RAPIST'S COMMENT? Some of the comments involved in the study included: 'The possibility of murder does bring a certain frisson to the bedroom.' 'You do not want to be caught red-handed … go and smash her on a park bench. That used to be my trick.' 'Girls love being tied up … it gives them the chance to be the helpless victim.' 'If the girl you've taken for a drink won't spread for your head, think about this mathematical statistic: 85 per cent of rape cases go unreported.' 'If your girl is making a face that seems forced during sex, then she's pretending to enjoy you, but if she looks like she's just been punched in the kidneys, she's in the moment.' 'You know girls in general are all right. But some of them are bitches … The bitches are the type that … need to have it stuffed to them hard and heavy.' Advertisement

In a study led by Peter Hegarty at the University of Surrey, 274 undergraduate students were asked to identify quotations used in lads' mags, and those used by convicted rapists.

After the students on average failed to correctly identify the quotations, students saw the lads' mags as 'less legitimate', the study found.

Statements made by rapists included 'there's a certain way you can tell a girl wants to have sex…the way they dress, the way they flaunt themselves'.

From the lads' mags, an example was 'girls love being tied up. It makes them feel the helpless victim.'

'Sales of lads' mags have declined significantly in recent years, with several ceasing publication, but 'lad culture' and the normalisation of sexism is still a major concern, particularly on university campuses and online,' said Professor Hegarty of the University of Surrey's Department of Psychology.

'These latest studies demonstrate how a concrete source of social influence (lads' mags) can shape the expression of a prejudice that is generally considered unacceptable in an egalitarian society.'

Lads' mags sprung up in the 1990s in opposition to existing magazines targeted at men such as Arena and GQ which focused on style, taste and fashion.

They promoted tough 'laddish behaviour such as drinking to excess, adopting a predatory attitude towards women and a fear of commitment', the authors said.

In recent years most lads' mags have closed their doors, including Loaded, and Nuts but the authors say the culture lives on and is 'concerning…particularly on university campuses'.

While they may claim to be harmless fun, sexist jokes in lads' mags promote hostility to women, the academics also claim.

Editors of men's magazines and websites have previously claimed that their readers treat sexist jokes in their publications as 'ironic' and do not take them seriously.

Zoo (left) arrived in 2004 in the newly-created weekly men’s magazine market and featured topics such as women to sport and music to technology. Britney Spears (right) on the cover of FHM in 1999

But the jokes make hostility to women seem more normal, another study found.

In the study, psychologists presented eight 'sexist' jokes from FHM, Loaded, Nuts and the website Unilad to 81 British men aged between 18 and 50.

The men were evenly split into two groups: one was asked to read the jokes without any explanation, and the others read the jokes but were told they had come from a 'lads' mag'.

The groups were asked to assess the jokes in three categories: how funny, ironic and hostile to women on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being 'not at all funny, ironic, or hostile to women' and 5 being 'very funny, ironic or hostile.'

In the study, psychologists presented eight 'sexist' jokes from FHM, Loaded, Nuts and the website Unilad to 81 British men aged between 18 and 50. Overall the jokes were seen as 'somewhat hostile' to women on average. Stock image

One of the 'jokes' used in the study, taken from website Unilad, drew controversy when published for suggesting that if a man can't seduce a woman, '85 per cent of rape cases go unreported. That seems to be fairly good odds.'

An example of one of the jokes was: 'My girlfriend says she wants to start seeing other people. I don't see how that will work, unless I let her out of the cellar.'

Another was: 'I'm often asked, 'can you laugh a woman into bed?'. Yes. The hard bit is three minutes later, when you are trying to laugh her into a taxi home.'

Many of the other jokes are too obscene to repeat.

THE DRAMATIC RISE AND FALL OF LADS' MAGS Lads' mags may have taken off in the mid-1990s, but some of the many titles that became synonymous with the booming sector had already been around for some time. The likes of FHM and Arena had been catering for the male market since the middle of the 1980s and more emerged in the following decade. But although many titles prospered in that era, circulation for some of the best-known magazines started to suffer with the rise of the internet. Men's monthly magazine Arena was set up in 1986 with the aim of providing a mix of fashion and style. But circulation declined in its last decade and it was closed down by publishers Bauer in 2009. In the same year, it was announced that the UK print edition of Maxim would be closed after 14 years, having been launched in 1995 by Dennis Publishing. In 2004, two new weekly titles, Nuts and its rival Zoo, were launched within weeks of each other leaving more established lads' mags reeling - but they often encountered controversy for their portrayal of women. Front pages predominantly featured pictures of scantily-clad women and in 2013 it was reported that Co-op would no longer sell Nuts. It came after the title rejected an ultimatum to use 'modesty bags' or be removed from shelves, according to reports at the time. Despite having a weekly circulation of more than 300,000 at its height, the circulation of Nuts was in decline by 2007 and in 2014, IPC Media announced it was closing the title. Then in March 2015, the publishers of Loaded announced the magazine would be also closing down after 21 years. At its height, the title was one of the leading players in the booming sector, commanding a six-figure readership. Zoo and FHM also closed last year - 16 years after the latter had its best-selling edition featuring Gail Porter, which shifted more than a million copies. Advertisement

Both groups found the jokes 'moderately funny' – 2.5 on the scale of 1-5 and 'moderately ironic' (2.8).

Overall the jokes were seen as 'somewhat hostile' to women on average.

But when it came to assessing the level of hostility to women, those in context in a lads' mag were seen as less hostile on average, given a score of 3.23, on the hostility measure, compared to 3.71 when not described as being in a lads' mag.

The findings were particularly true of young men who scored lower on sexism measures.

The authors said 'the lads' mags context normalises jokes that would otherwise be considered hostile to women by these men.'