So, I think we all know that women’s magazines are fraught with unattributed quotes and facts filed under kicky headlines like “BETCHA DIDN’T KNOW” or “FAST FACTS” or whatever.
A few months ago, Woman’s Day, or First for Women or something said this:
Did you know?
People who swim competitively or for a steady workout enjoy longer and better sex lives than those who don’t?
of course, with no cite.
My question is…how can I find a cite for this? Where would I even begin? I assume it would be in some journal somewhere…but to search on the internet with the word SEX is to ask for naught but porn.
any thoughts? Or better yet, has anyone heard of this study?
You might try searching for the words “swimming” and “sex” at PubMed. Course you could go straight to the source and search the Cosmo web site. You know it has to be a Cosmo thing.
You’d probably have trouble finding a valid cite anywhere, JarbabyJ. Most likely they quoted some doc/physical therapist/exercise physiologist/astrologer out of context, hearing them say something like “regular exercise, like jogging or swimming, leads to better cardiovascular health, and can also prevent and control diabetes, which if left unchecked, can result in kidney disease and loss of sexual function”. They shorten that to “swimming=better sex”. Maybe I’m wrong, but 9 times out of 10, that’s as close to valid cites as these periodicals get.
BTW, thanks for the house on the rock thread. I got to relive some nasty memories. It was fun in a creepy way.
I would recommend that you call the magazine directly. Usually, magazines subscribe to a service which provides “fillers” and they can put you in contact with this filler service.
You indicated, however, that you weren’t sure of the source. I would then recommend you call, “Women’s Fitness” magazine and ask for the Features Desk and explain your situation. They will probably try to help you. Who knows? They may even get a story out of it.
Yeah, try to find the magazine and write to the health editor. We are very strict about such things at my mag: if we had a filler like that, you can damn well bet the fact-checker and the health editor made sure it was pretty legit (we also note the sources for such things!).