Always has a glossy girl on the cover
• Amorous Capitalism , • Amorous Pop Culture
A look at the British men's magaines Stag & Groom Magazine, Zoo, Nuts, Loaded, Jack, Esquire, GQ and Men's Health.
Britain's news-stands are heaving with magazines devoted to the rough magic of being a bloke. On first sight you think they are what my friends used to call scud mags; the girls who adorn the covers - legs wide, breasts atumble, nipples fit for pegging a couple of wet dufflecoats on - tend to be among the nearly famous, a tribe of models admired by laddish editors for their friendly shagability and the hunger in their eyes. ... With their grisly combinations of sensitivity and debasement - 'How to Bathe Your New Baby' v. 'Win the Chance to Pole-Dance with Pamela!' - it may be time to consider whether these men's magazines aren't just the latest enlargement on the old fantasy of men having everything they want to have and finding a way to call it their destiny.
Andrew O'Hagan, London Review of Books: Disgrace under Pressure