So-called lads' mags encourage young men to look at women as sex objects, and society needs to hold their publishers to account for this, according to a leading Conservative politician. Michael Gove, the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families in the UK, argued that magazines such as Zoo and Nuts nurtured a "shallow approach" to women.
He accused them of being linked to a rise in the number of absentee fathers and family breakdown.
In a speech delivered to the Institute for Public Policy Research on society and family, Mr Gove also said that Prime Minister Gordon Brown's obsession with Government control was undermining communities.
Mr Gove said the Tories saw stable families as a "route to greater equality and opportunity" and pledged to support them through the tax system.
He continued: "Helping adults commit and stay committed not only opens the door to a depth of emotional enrichment which a series of shallow and hedonistic encounters can never generate, it also provides the best possible start in life for children."
The drive to reduce the number of teenage pregnancies should be focused on making young men face up to their responsibilities, he said, beginning with lads' mags.
"I believe we need to ask tough questions about the instant-hit hedonism celebrated by the modern men's magazines targeted at younger males.
"Titles such as Nuts and Zoo paint a picture of women as permanently, lasciviously, uncomplicatedly available. The images they use and project reinforce a very narrow conception of beauty and a shallow approach towards women. They celebrate thrill-seeking and instant gratification without ever allowing any thought of responsibility towards others, or commitment, to intrude.
"The contrast with the work done by women's magazines and their publishers to address their readers in a mature and responsible fashion is striking.
"We should ask those who make profits out of revelling in, or encouraging, selfish irresponsibility among young men, what they think they're doing. The relationship between these titles and their readers is a relationship in which the rest of us have an interest."
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