Attitude (magazine)

Attitude is a magazine published by Remnant Media within the United Kingdom aimed primarily at Gay men.

Related Topics:
Remnant Media - United Kingdom - Gay

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As one of the UK's leading gay magazine, its chief rival is the Gay Times.

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Unlike the Gay Times, though, it is known for avoiding the opinion that all gay men are victims or operate as a single group. It is consequentially notable for a distinct lack of a "gay news" section, or any other polemic. However this has caused it to attract some criticism. The content of the magazine tends to be, like most magazines, shallow and superficial and seems more concerned with commercialism. Its target reader seems to be a stereotypical camp gay man. Attitude has been accused of pandering to a restrictive view that a gay man has to fit somewhere into gay culture. A number of gay men reject this idea and feel that this does not represent who they are.

Related Topics:
Shallow - Superficial - Commercialism - Stereotypical - Camp - Gay culture

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Like many magazines, Attitude features interviews with the celebrities of the day, particularly those deemed to be camp or gay icons. In addition, well-known celebrities sometimes choose to use it as a declaration of their homosexuality and come out on its pages.

Related Topics:
Camp - Gay icons - Come out

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Many of Attitudes pages are taken up by fashion shoots, in a similar manner to the interests of many of the more upmarket magazines aimed at a female readership. In contrast to such magazines, Attitude features youthful male models and clothing, indicative of its target market.

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The imagery of Attitude sometimes has a mild sexual tone, such as featuring poses by celebrities, both gay and straight, semi-nakedly, one of the most famous being an, artistic, full nude by Robbie Williams.

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Unlike many magazines aimed at a homosexual market, it does not dwell on politicisation of gay issues when it undertakes celebrities, preferring to present a lighter, more general discussion, making it popular amongst a younger generation. Possible reasons for this could be that some young people regard groups such as Stonewall as an offensive anachronism that they feel do not represent them. Though it seems more realistic that the reason for its popularity is its light, fun and camp tone making it a magazine that does not have heavy content and can be read in free time for amusement or leisure. While Attitude has been criticised for being as hollow as magazines aimed at straight men such as Loaded, many think this shows progress that a commercial magazine is marketed at gay men and they do not just have to read more politically minded magazines, which could suggest that they are more accepted in mainstream society than they may have been in the past.

Related Topics:
Stonewall - Amusement - Leisure - Loaded - Mainstream society

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Brief articles on recent new music groups and albums, and films and video, and more extensive ones about gay nightclubs, appear alongside articles on interior design, elegant restaurants and hotels (for example, Baglioni in Kensington), books, and the arts, which appeal to the higher end of sophistication.

Related Topics:
Nightclubs - Interior design - Baglioni - Kensington

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In common with most gay publications, it features a listing of locations in the current British gay scene, as well as (similarly to magazines aimed at straight men) featuring a set of mildly pornographic adverts for light adult services (such as phone lines featuring sexual stories, chat lines, and pornographic videos).

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Although the adverts catering to adult services fills the ending pages of the magazine, the last few pages feature interview about events, predominantly on television or cinema, from the distant past. Also at the very end is an agony aunt page, although it operates on a satirical bent, and although many of the letters appear genuine, the responses suggest that the last person you should ever go to for advice is the bitchy and vain aunt belonging to Attitude, known as Jools. A lot of young gay people have criticised this as it serves no actual purpose other than as a joke and many have suggested that perhaps an actual agony aunt section would be a good idea as young gay people still have a lot of problems. This is one aspect in which more serious magazines such as Gay Times and The Pink Paper have over Attitude as they have genuine agony aunt columns which try to offer genuine help. This aspect of the magazine does lend some weight to the argument that it is rather trivial and one-dimensional, and that it chooses to ignore the more serious problems gay men can go through.

Related Topics:
Agony aunt - Bitch - Vain - Gay Times - The Pink Paper

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Attitude seem to be aware of such criticisms, as in recent issues they have included items that were previously covered in other gay magazines such as homophobia in foreign countries and in British schools.

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Another section which has attracted some controversy is the "How gay are you?" questionnaire, usually located at the back of a magazine. This asks a famous straight celebrity multiple choice questions intended to determine if the celebrity is "gay" by whether they own, for example, a Kylie Minogue record or if they would be upset if they missed an episode of their favourite soap opera. While this segment is obviously tongue-in-cheek a lot of people find it irritating as it implies that sexuality is determined by a person's taste in clothes and music. This is seen as a possibly offensive and certainly restrictive stereotype, though this controversy perhaps addresses issues that are within the gay community and the gay scene itself. In any case, this is another aspect that other magazines may claim some superiority over as they are far more neutral and even dismissive of the idea that a gay man has to be camp.

Related Topics:
Kylie Minogue - Tongue-in-cheek - Gay community - Gay scene - Camp

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Attitude calls itself a "lifestyle magazine" which suggests that it is chiefly concerned with "gay culture" rather than anything deeper than that. However, it does occasionally

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have special issues, such as "youth" and "health", which deal specifically with these more serious sides of gay life.

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