The "Laddish Culture" is a form of masculinity that became prominent during the 1990's as a means of relinquishing power. FHM is a social commentary on "How to be a Man" and creates an entire system of "laddish behaviour". Drinking heavily, eating junk food, socialising, playing with gadgets and having sexist opinions of women form the majority of content. This form of masculinity has transcended from improving phallic symbolism to demeaning women as objects of desire. "Laddish Culture" as a form of masculine expression appears to be a fight for survival, to exclude the competition (In the case, women and their rise in the hierarchy of society) by demeaning their existence as just objects. .
The dominance of man is represented through discourse, as social practices are constructed through thought and conceptualised in language. (Montgomery, M, 2000, P81). The ideological construct of language portrays women to be the least significant gender. This is evident in forms of gender specific language, where certain nouns are not symmetrical and tend to downgrade women. A representation of this is Master, which clearly has a positive connotation, the female equivalent to this term is Mistress, which carries a negative connotation and portrays women as sexual objects. The social construct of mans dominance through years of evolution has been integrated into language. Sexism is entrenched in language and impossible to change even by the reformation of individual language terms. The dominance of man has originated as a natural progression from physical appearance to being conceptualised in language and therefore society.
A good place to start for the analysis of FHM is the front cover. The front cover provides the initial attraction of a magazine for the prospected reader and can reflect its purchase power. Firstly the actual title of FHM is For Him Magazine, which instantly creates a link to its intended audience, this is a form of gender exclusion.