With Playboy USA dropping the nude like a now hot potato last month…
FHM and Zoo magazine axed: a victory for feminists? (theweek.co.uk).
“The much-publicised and oft-anticipated demise of the ‘lads mag’ may have finally arrived as FHM and Zoo announced they were to halt print and digital editions by the end of the year. But have we finally seen the back of the lads’ magazine and the culture it represented? And what is the alternative?”
Well, I think it said it there, didn’t it—it’s just gone digital so that lumbersexuals (gawker.com, Nov. 2014) can retain their social justice warrior status by not having to pick a covered-up copy off a top shelf at Tesco.
“Publisher Bauer Media didn’t give a reason for the closures, but hinted that ‘men’s media habits have continually moved towards social and mobile’.”
Indeed, because it’s just simply no longer cool to post animated GIF boobies on Facebook and indeed may frustrate your chances of picking up lumber-loving fems who may send you homemade, self-shot social boobage.
“Both magazines have suffered a steep decline in sales over the past ten years. FHM’s circulation fell from 700,000 copies per month during its heyday in the early 2000s to just an average of 67,000 per month for the first six months of this year. Zoo’s circulation has fallen to 24,000 this year from its high of 250,000 a decade ago.”
Because, hey, why buy when there is so much for free on Google Images or indeed by trying your hand at soliciting some self-shot on social media. So, as with Playboy, is any change in trends purely an economical one at the behest of the law of supply and demand which really should not leave “feminists” declaring victory?
“‘The male-targeted magazines dominated the market through the 1990s, but it seems like the rise of the internet (and, perhaps, of online porn) has rendered them obsolete,’ says the New Statesman’s Media Mole.”
It most certainly isn’t, but it’s certainly an ambiguous one usable by many to prove a point, whatever it may actually be.
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