Lifestyle media very successfully promoted (conspicuous) consumption as a major referent in the social and cultural convergence between Greece and Western Europe between the mid-1980s and the late 2000s. Perceiving the Internet as a crucial component of the contemporary public sphere where testimonial cultures abound, this article explores how during the current economic crisis particular communities of web users dealt with the breakdown of previous consumer certainties, placing emphasis on the downfall of the lifestyle media industry and on how and why publisher Petros Kostopoulos is discussed as a metonym of this media field. Using comments published below articles about the collapse of lifestyle in popular media and posts in a popular men’s forum, the article examines the uses  of contemporary history in the construction of arguments about the origins of the current crisis and explores how the dismantlement of recent consumer utopias echoed questions of Europeanization and often carried traumatic loads.

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This article examines the representational politics of gender and sexuality in Playboy, Status and Click, three Greek lifestyle magazines of the late 1980s. Despite differences in representation, politics, impact and audience demographics, these magazines’ politics towards gender and sexuality shared noticeable similarities. Challenging the view that lifestyle magazines one-dimensionally advocated patriarchy, the article argues that their positioning towards gender and sexuality varied. It combined the reproduction of patriarchal stereotypes targeting to the objectification of (mainly) female bodies with challenging and often productive views on gender roles. These magazines often dealt with (mainly male) homosexuality through a liberal viewpoint, opening a space for the empowerment and visibility of gay audiences. Finally, in a period of growing fears about HIV/AIDS, these magazines provided valuable information about the epidemic to their readers.

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This article examines cultural responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Greece during the first wave in spring 2020 approaching such responses not only as resulting from the fear of the virus but also as outcomes of larger historical processes. Analysing media material, surveys and discourses by politicians and health specialists the article argues that although Greece had a limited number of cases, most Greeks embraced the lockdown seeing COVID-19 as a threat. The government’s communication strategy highlighted popular values such as family and downplayed the class dimensions of the pandemic. This strategy proved effective and increased the popularity of the government and health experts at that stage.