Much has been made of the ‘new’ postmodern breed of magazines, from lads’ mags to celebrity glossies with their tongue-in-cheek versions of the conventional gender roles; but how far do our current lifestyle mags really challenge the well-worn stereotypes they claim to undermine?

The new breed of magazines presents women in a stereotypical manner as magazine editors believe that sex sells. Magazines such as Loaded and Nuts portray women in a demeaning way; these magazines enforce the ideologies of sex sells and the male gaze. In addition men’s lifestyle magazines have also accepted the fact that sexually objectified women sell more magazines.

“Loaded has become increasingly more pornographic in its content; as such it has increased the use of female stereotypes, namely as sex objects”. Women on the front cover are depicted nude and with their bodily assets on display. Additionally they are positioned in with long shots and mostly high angle shots and highlighted in vibrant high key colours on magazines. This to portray them as sexual objects and inferior to men and make the women stand out on front covers and inside the magazine, suggesting they are only put on the magazine to be looked emphasising Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze.

Moreover, Nuts have also stylised their magazine similarly to Loaded and other competitors such as Zoo magazine and FHM around sexually objectified women in order to attract the male target audience. In addition the women are also positioned in a sexually demeaning manner; also the price of the magazine can vary from only 60p to 0ver a £1. This connotes that women are meaningless and emphasises the patriarchal order in society. The women are dehumanised as only parts of their bodily features are mostly shown to the audience, and enforcing the idea of that women are to be looked at and have no physical or emotional feelings. Furthermore, the ways the women are depicted in Nuts magazine are stereotyped as sex objects, fulfilling the audience’s chauvinistic dream, women depicted with good looks and no brains. Additionally the use of red in the magazine is highly emphasised as women are wearing red tops or make-up and also the mast head being red. The red connotes the sexual connotations and the impurity of women, making the male audience treating women as fetishist.

Both Loaded and Nuts magazine impose the stereotypical views of women, the magazines both portray the ideologies of a patriarchal order as women are depicted as sexually demeaning and dehumanized. The magazine implements the male gaze and Mulvey’s theory as she viewed the practice of the camera lingering on women's bodies as evidence that women were being viewed as sex subjects for the gratification of men.