For our December edition and for the entire month of November online, GQ embarked on a groundbreaking project to investigate every aspect – and the accompanying problems – of modern masculinity.
To do this we engaged contributors from a wide range of backgrounds and conducted a YouGov survey that explored men's attitudes to sexuality, relationships, work and career, mental health (the results were enlightening and, in some cases, disturbing).
The magazine also included "State of Man" articles on the roots of misogyny, Aids, tech culture, sport, dating, pornography, fashion and politics. To top it all the cover star was Anthony Joshua, who took part in a photoshoot with his son and talked about fatherhood and masculinity.
For online we expanded the coverage further with news pieces around our YouGov survey, for example an in-depth read on the result that LGBT+ people are more depressed than straight people - talking to people within the community about their experience. Additionally we created engaging video content to understand issues affecting men fully. For example, by asking well-known names and previous cover stars, such as Naomi Williams, Chadwick Boseman, Jeff Goldblum and Elisabeth Moss - what it means to be a man in 2018.
Online, our State of Man coverage enjoyed 399k global readers. The coverage was picked up across a number of platforms and publications including The Guardian, New Statesman, GQ US, Flipboard, Business of Fashion, Apple News, Reddit, Mumsnet and beyond. We published 43 features overall and the Jordan Peterson interview by Helen Lewis was viewed on YouTube over 6.3 million times. Our most watched video to date.
