Men tend to get a bad rap in the media. Joe Blogs is often depicated as a beer-chugging, X-Box playing slob who loves curry, loves boobs and blondes. And cars and hilarious ‘pranks’ involving petrol and singed eyebrows.
Looks like those stereotypes have just been thrown on their head, as Men’s Health became the best-selling magazine in the sector for the first half of 2009. FHM had been the best-selling title for the past 13 years, but it seems today’s men are becoming increasingly health conscious.
Staff at Men’s Health have put the rise in sales down to the new ‘hetropolitan’ man, who prefers to read about ways to keep in shape rather than the more raunchy subject matter covered by FMH, Zoo and Nuts.
The deputy editor of the monthly magazine Mike Shallcross said that the new breed of male chooses ‘solid, actionable advice’ about health, nutrition, mental health and fitness over ‘topless Hollyoaks girls’ or expensive clothes.
Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Mr. Shallcross said that the stereotype of his magazine – obsessed with body building and read by teenage boys desperate to bulk up – was outdated. He describes the content as taking a ‘holistic’ approach to health, covering many different aspects of fitness and wellbeing.
The changing tastes and priorities of the British man were further proved by the fact that two weekly magazines at the raunchier end of the magazine scale, Nuts and Zoo, have seen sales fall by 25% and 31% respectively.