They primarily serve to stimulate sexual arousal, and are often used as an aid to masturbation. Publications of this kind may contain images of attractive naked subjects, as is the case in softcore pornography, and, in the usual case of hardcore pornography, depictions of masturbation, oral, vaginal or anal sex. Pornographic magazines or erotic magazines, sometimes known as adult, sex or top-shelf magazines, are magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature.
Pornographic magazines on display in a Japanese shop, 2009
