The new men's magazines advise men how to look and how to live, through features, articles, and photographs. They do so by presenting particular representations of “appropriate” masculinity; that is, what it means to be a man in a certain time and place. Images of masculinity are projected and controlled through media niches. In this way, men's magazines Page 546  |  Top of Articleserve as one window through which to make sense of current social expectations men confront through their consumption of popular culture and media.

The topics presented in the majority of men's magazines clue the reader into what are appropriate “male” interests, such as golf, beer, hunting, video games, and women. It is significant that men's magazines do not seriously consider articles on ballet, parenting, and cooking. The latter are activities and interests that continue to be socially constructed as “feminine,” and thus contaminating to men. The feminine is often considered contaminating to men's sexuality. This means that a man interested or participating in what is considered feminine activity may fall under suspicion of homosexuality. Thus, magazine marketers continue to sell magazines by appealing to (heterosexual) men via their supposed traditional interests. Although these publications market to men as consumers and increasingly provide clothing and “beauty” products as solutions to insecurities, they continue to be inundated with mostly hegemonic (dominant) masculine symbols and instructions. In this way, these magazines perpetuate narrow meanings of masculinity that reinforce the hierarchical relationship of masculinity and femininity.

“Appropriate” masculinity is constructed as being synonymous with heterosexuality. Men's magazines reflect this in their objectification of women. Women are provocatively shown on the cover of many men's magazines, including Maxim and FHM (For Him Magazine), as sexual objects offered to men for consumption. In this way, a number of men's magazines encourage men to be voyeurs. While images of women are meant to sell the magazine, they also appeal directly to the intended readership: heterosexual men. This suggests a sexual relationship between men and women that is rooted in meanings of subject and object.

Bethany Benwell suggests that the use of irony within men's lifestyle magazines plays an important role in the perpetuation of inequality, especially gender and sexual inequality. Irony and humor within these magazines act as reactionary discourse to the call for sensitivity in the wake of both gay liberation and second-wave feminism. Benwell suggests that such irony is strategically employed to represent masculinity as politically incorrect but “fun loving” in character, asking to be excused because the homophobic and misogynist jest is “all in fun.”