'We are no longer certain, any of us, what is "right" and what is "wrong"': Honey, Petticoat, and the construction of young women's sexuality in 1960s Britain

The history of teenage lifestyle and pop culture publications is a productive and dynamic field, and how these publications constructed and communicated ideals of girlhood, femininity and young female sexuality has been the subject of a number of formative and influential studies. Less, however, has been said about the wider relationship between sexual knowledges and popular youth culture in the post-war period. Magazines published for teenage girls and young women in the 1960s were an important part of everyday ephemeral engagement with popular youth culture, and their coverage of issues including sex, marriage, contraception and abortion were central in constructing a new sexual morality. Using archival material from two popular teenage publications aimed at teenage girls and young women, Honey and Petticoat, this chapter considers way sex and sexuality were presented to young women. The desires of girls and young women were utilised as a marketing tool for the growing popular music market yet were often dismissed and trivialised by cultural commentators. However, despite this trivialisation, the early post-war years witnessed significant anxiety about the behaviour and lifestyles of young women. These inherent contradictions reveal young female sexuality to be a malleable concept, and one that demonstrates the cultural power of early post-war youth culture in shaping national debates about sexuality and morality.