Making Sense of Men's Magazines

by Peter Jackson, Kate Brooks, Nick Stevenson

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 lsquo;new man' give way to the lsquo;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 lsquo;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.

Paperback

First published October 16, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Peter Jackson is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sheffield where he leads theCONANX research group which focuses on consumer culture in an 'age of anxiety' with a particular interest in consumer anxieties about food.

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good example of pop culture study that fuses focus group with textual analysis, written in a classic production-text-reception structure. The study is methodologically sound in general. The book's response to big theories (Hall, Fiske, Radway, etc...) in media studies is comprehensive. However, the book's main research question of how the booming men's magazines responding to the crisis of masculinities in the late 80s and early 90s has not been studied deep enough. The book reveals some contradictions of the meaning-making process during which men reading/producing magazines, but it fails to discuss and unpack these contradictions as a form of response/critic/resistance/reinforcement of the "crisis of masculinity".

[Tahmina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book to sum all arguments from famous magazine historians/ editors from loaded, FHM and GQ. If you're focusing on this topic this is good for overall knowledge.