Something is radically wrong in American medicine when even the 2008 Republican presidential candidates start debating the merits of universal coverage and even Michael Moore’s critics praise his cinematic exposé of political bungling and corporate maneuvering behind the health-care mess.
So it may come as no surprise that the leading U.S. men’s magazine in newsstand sales is called Men’s Health—targeted at males, ages twenty-five to forty-five, and read by an estimated 10.5 million of them a month. What might be surprising, however, is the magazine’s definition of health. It all but excludes the national crisis, while including:
“Dress for More Sex”
“Magnetize Your Attraction”
“What Her Place Says About Her—Decipher her pad, then launch your offensive”
Recent issues also carried pieces on fashion (“Great White Ways—How to wear the ultimate summer color”), outdoor cuisine (“The grill is the glory tool of masculine cooking”), and the perfect aluminum softball bat, to name just a few. Need to identify the office weasel, who’s likely to stab you in the back? A weasel’s handshake, Men’s Health explains, “will either be too hard, too soft, too long, too short, or just plain limp and weird.” Who knew?
There is also health as we know it in Men’s Health, with the focus on helping guys be winners—eradicating belly fat in eight days flat, building “muscles that show,” finding a tasty, low-cholesterol burger, avoiding an early stroke or unnecessary surgery.
David Zinczenko, Men’s Health’s editor-in-chief, explains in an e-mail that his magazine’s formula has boosted circulation seven-fold since 1990, overcoming the resistance of the 86-percent male audience to health as a subject. “Health class in high school was about venereal disease… So we redefined the word to be inclusive of everything that could improve a man’s life. Great sex. Great food....
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yup, a fine investigation by a reporter who conceived, researched and banged out his copy during an hour in his dentist's waiting room. sure, men's health runs stories about whipcord abs and 93-day erections; i've written them myself. discovering that astonishing fact demands the ability to mouth-move your way across the cover. but the REAL mystery (and c'mon, you have to be seriously lazy not to see and tackle it) is how the mag gets 10.5 million guys who'd rather Ultimate Fight than read to huff their way through 5000-word features on MRSA infections, carcinomas, anesthesiologist addiction rates and anthropological research on tarahumara indians (features, incidentally, which have made Men's Health a National Magazine Award finalist for the past two years). the smart story was right under your nose: the personal IS the political, as Mike Huckabee proved when he got fired up about health care only after he nearly died. first, make readers care about their abs, then maybe they'll care about their cholesterol, then their hearts, then their world. it's pretty subtle; you'd need two dentist appointments to figure it out.
Posted by cmcdougall
on Fri 7 Sep 2007 at 11:39 AM