The power of "harmless fun"

Gendergeek has a very pointed look at the misogynistic views that are implicit in much of what she calls "lad's magazines." She cites examples of analogues to the typical women's mag quiz and column features, which here run along the lines of "calculate how much you are paying for sex" and "how can I get my girlfriend to do things in bed that she doesn't want to?" Eeek.

I don't have much familiarity with such magazines, so I have no idea of the degree to which this is a symptom of a particular British excess of jaunty chauvinism versus an endemic problem in the genre on both sides of the pond. Anyway, read the whole post -- it makes many other good points about the way that an existing power structure can disallow questioning of its mores (as by accusing the questioner of having "no sense of humor")...