Men’s Magazines

As periodical publications, magazines have developed into an important part of the media landscape, as they have been credited with original and targeted content, high-level writing, and striking art and design. Magazines mainly serve audiences by interest or topic, unlike newspapers, which usually have audiences defined by location. As special-topic magazines blossomed in the United States during the mid-to-late 1900s, men’s [Page 1018]magazines emerged, aiming to reach a gender-specific audience covering topics and featuring art that were considered of interest to a traditionally defined masculine audience, such as stories about sports and photos of women.

As is the case with much of the media landscape, men’s magazines also included a wide spectrum of topics and tone—upscale to pornographic, literary to lowbrow, explicitly “male” to subtly “male.” ...