Making sense of men's lifestyle magazines

In this paper we document the rapid growth of the British men's 'lifestyle' magazine market and explore its significance in terms of men's changing id entities and gender relations. By drawing on focus-group discussions with m en of different class, age, and regional and ethnic backgrounds, we contras t two ways of thinking about these magazines. The first employs a distincti on between 'surface' and 'depth', and suggests that the magazines signal on ly superficial changes in contemporary masculinities. The second approach i dentifies a series of discursive repertoires on which men draw in 'making s ense' of the magazines. Four such repertoires are highlighted, which involv e notions of 'honesty: 'naturalness: 'openness: and 'harmless fun'. The ana lysis suggests that although some respondents saw the magazines' commercial success in terms of a backlash against 'feminist extremism' and 'political correctness', most denied their wider political significance. We conclude that the magazines provide their readers with a form of 'constructed certit ude' that represents a commodified response to men's current gender anxieti es.