The last decade has witnessed the phenomenal growth of the men's magazine market, raising important questions of a more general kind. What is the significance of the rise of men's lifestyle magazines for gender politics? Are we witnessing a backlash against feminism or are they merely harmless fun? Why did 'new man' give way to the 'new lad'? What political issues do these questions raise within the context of the information society?Making Sense of Men's Magazines is an original study which enables us to understand the appeal of men's magazines, the ways in which they are constructed and understood, and many of the complex questions they raise for both men and women. Through interviews with editors and key production staff, an analysis of the content of men's magazines and focus group interviews, this work seeks to 'make sense' of this cultural phenomenon. The authors give particular attention to the gendered and commercial character of men's magazines, and the implications they have for the way we understand capitalism, masculinity and consumption in the modern world.This book makes a major contribution to understanding the role of magazines in contemporary culture and will be essential reading for students of sociology, media and cultural studies and gender studies.

Peter Jackson is Professor of Human Geography at the University
of Sheffield, Nick Stevenson is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield, Kate Brooks is a postgraduate student in the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield.

Nick Stevenson is a Lecturer in the Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield

Kate Brooks is a postgraduate student in the Department of Geography at the University of Sheffield

Acknowledgements

vii

Introduction

1

(23)

Reading magazines

5

(7)

Theorizing masculinities

12

(3)

Consumption, the media and audience studies

15

(3)

Outline of the book

18

(6)

The Media and the Market

24

(24)

The magazine market

24

(7)

Contemporary media debates

31

(12)

Conclusion: the instability of hegemonic masculinities

43

(5)

Editorial Work

48

(26)

Magazines and cultural power

49

(3)

Interviewing the editors

52

(3)

Editorial insecurities

55

(4)

Commercial imperatives versus editorial freedom

59

(3)

The `necessary evil' of advertising

62

(4)

Responding to the market or creating a niche?

66

(3)

Sexy or pornographic?

69

(1)

Conclusion

70

(4)

Questions of Content

74

(35)

Boys love their girls

80

(3)

Don't you want me?

83

(4)

Lexicons of love or operator's manual?

87

(3)

Consumption and the sociology of the body

90

(2)

Men's health magazines, anxiety and the body

92

(11)

Irony and the cultural politics of masculinity

103

(3)

Conclusion

106

(3)

Readings

109

(38)

Discourses and dispositions

110

(2)

Discursive repertoires

112

(16)

Constructed certitude

128

(3)

Discursive dispositions

131

(6)

Cultural capital

137

(4)

An ambivalent space

141

(4)

Conclusion

145

(2)

Conclusion

147

(11)

Mediated cultural power

147

(2)

Masculinity and contemporary gender relations

149

(5)

Commercial culture

154

(4)

Appendix: Researching Men's Magazines

158

(24)

Editorial interviews

159

(1)

Content analyses

160

(1)

Recruiting the focus groups

161

(4)

Carrying out the focus group interviews

165

(3)

Thinking about the focus groups

168

(3)

Reading the transcripts

171

(9)

Transcript analysis: discourses and dispositions

180

(2)

Notes

182

(12)

References

194

(11)

Index

205

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