Men's Magazines??

I was studying in Starbucks when a guy friend from the fraternity next door came up to say hi. We struck up a conversation and eventually found ourselves talking about the future. It turns out he had been offered the position of Art Director at Playboy Magazine.

After having a good laugh about it, he got serious, wanting to know my legitimate opinion. He is not ‘that kind of guy’ and was really worried about working in such an environment. Naturally, to help him decide, we did some research and I ended up browsing the Playboy site for longer than I should have.

Of course there were pictures of women everywhere – that I expected – although I will admit, I was surprised to find an interview with a well-known economist and piece on biopolitics. But I did not find a single article on art or even men’s fashion.

Our findings resulted in an interesting conversation about gender roles and males tendency toward self-asserted leadership. Men today want to be leaders because they were told they ought to be, but there is no longer a sense of earning it or deserving it. Leadership is awarded to the worthy, meaning not everyone can or should lead. But men are told if they are not this masculine type that likes motorcycles and hordes of women, they are weak, not fit to lead. Just as women are told they must fit a certain body type in order to feel desired.

I know not all men’s magazines are as ridiculous as Playboy, but it is an interesting thing to remember. Men face very similar pressures women do, a lot of which stem from gender-segregated magazines. For some reason, gender magazines feel the need to either enforce or defame gender roles; but either way it is still all about gender roles.