ABSTRACT
The focus of this paper is the “new lad” lifestyle magazine such as loaded, FHM, Maxim and Front. The evolution of consumer masculinity in Britain from “new man” to “new lad” has been well documented (see Benwell, 2002; Edwards, 1997; Jackson et al., 2001; Nixon, 1996). The construct of “new man” emerged at about the time of the launch of the first contemporary UK men's lifestyle magazine, Arena. “New man” was an avid consumer and unashamed narcissist, but had also internalised and endorsed the principles of feminism including a reassessment of the traditional division of labour and a new commitment to fatherhood. Beynon (2002, pp. 100–5) makes the distinction between these two main strands as “new man as narcissist” and “new man as nurturer”. “New lad” was a clear reaction to “new man”, and arguably an attempt to reassert the power of masculinity deemed to have been lost by the concessions made to feminism by “new man”. “New lad”, most clearly embodied in loaded magazine, but also by its competing successors (e.g. FHM, Maxim, Front) marked a return to traditional masculine values of sexism, exclusive male friendship and homophobia. Its key distinction from traditional masculinity was an unrelenting gloss of knowingness and irony: a reflexivity about its own condition which arguably rendered it more immune from criticism. It was also a construct which drew upon working-class culture for its values and forms, was younger than “new man”, was little invested in the world of work, preferring to drink, party, holiday and watch football, made barely any reference at all to fatherhood, addressed women only as sexual objects and was ethnically white.
