The influence of magazines on men: Normalizing and challenging young men\u27s prejudice with Lads\u27 Mags

Social psychologists have argued that popular U.K. and U.S. men\u27s magazines known as lads\u27 mags have normalized hostile sexism among young men. Three studies develop this argument. First, a survey of 423 young U.K. men found that ambivalent sexism predicted attitudes toward the consumption of lads\u27 mags, but not other forms of direct sexual consumption (paying for sex or patronizing strip clubs). Second, Study 2 (N = 81) found that young men low in sexism rated sexist jokes as less hostile toward women, but not as either funnier nor more ironic, when those jokes were presented within a lads\u27 mags context. These findings refute the idea that young men readily read lads\u27 mags\u27 sexism as ironic or harmless fun. They show instead that placing sexist jokes in lads\u27 mags contexts makes them appear less hostile. The third study (N = 275) demonstrated that young men perceived lads\u27 mags as less legitimate after attempting to distinguish the contents of lads\u27 mags from rapists\u27 legitimations of their crimes. Implications for contemporary studies of masculinities and consumption are discussed