FHM and Loaded - what happened to two magazines that helped shape still prevalent 'lad culture'?

Sexual abuse by men in power is nothing new but the conversations around terms like 'toxic masculinity' will undoubtedly continue to bring up cases of sexual abuse from the past.

We could debate all day about where we feel this behaviour stems from, but there must be some mind paid to the idea that the mid-1990s lads magazine boom could have played some role in the objectifying of women in the modern, digital age.

Of course we're not suggesting these magazines have led to a generation full of perverted, sexually deviant men, but it's hard to deny they haven't at least helped exacerbate the problems women suffer at the hands of some men.

Loaded, FHM, Nuts, and Zoo are just a few men's magazines that were all the rave in the 1990s, catered for a certain type of male, but in doing so, perpetuated sexist views of women.

NationalWorld takes a look at what happened to two magazines that led this boom.

What happened to Loaded magazine?

After lasting 21 years, Loaded magazine closed in 2015. The magazine first launched back in 1994 and at its height, it sold 350,000 copies per issue in 2000.

As with all print titles, sales took a big hit in the digital age and the latest estimates from 2011 show circulation was at around 35,000.

The magazine also enjoyed a troubled ownership before it closed with four owners in the space of three years. Loaded eventually closed 18 months after it was bought by Simian Publishing in a management buyout.

Six years earlier in 2009, Dennis Publishing announced it had curtailed the print edition of Maxim while, also in 2015, Zoo magazine shut down after 11 years due to young readerships turning to smartphones instead of wanting to buy magazines.

The year before, Nuts magazine also called time after a high-profile dispute where Co-op supermarkets asked for the magazines to be placed in modesty bags to hide explicit images.

The final issue went on sale in 2014, 10 years after it made its debut.

What happened to FHM magazine?

Known for its annual Sexiest Women of the Year list, FHM had been printing for 30 years before it stopped.

The final issue of the magazine was printed in December 2015 and marked a significant turning point for lads' mags.

As a market leader here, FHM's downfall and eventual end can be seen as the point where the lads' mag died its death.

It's hard to believe how they ever were seen as socially acceptable in the first place.