Cultural Girlshness

Glutinous Maximus
Once I had analyzed the structure and meaning of two heavy-hitting girlish mags, I thought I would take a quick look and see how they stacked up against a contemporary men's magazine. So I grabbed the latest copy of Maxim.

I noticed right off the bat that Maxim was just as laden with advertising as both Cosmo and Glamour. On the 184 in the issue I read were strewn 85 ads, again overwhelmingly one page or more. To my surprise, Maxim actually had more fragrance ads than the two ladies' mags. At times it made me downright dizzy. Also to my surprise, there were a number of ads in Maxim that appeared in one or both of the other two. Not all of these common ads were for cars, either.

Most Interesting Article
“Music Lives!”, a great report on the state of today's music industry and ways you can support your local neighborhood garage band.

The front cover followed the familiar pattern – nine call-outs, female celebrity staring out in a vaguely longing way while violating the masthead and showing lots of cleavage. There were two key differences I noticed straight away, however. First, the female celebrity appeared in a larger, more closely-cropped picture and more suggestive pose. And second, the lead call-out mentioned the interview with her, as opposed to sex. With Maxim, you see, the sex is implicit.

I believe that Cosmo really wants to be liberated, irreverent and sexy. They even have a monthly article called “Guy Without His Shirt” that features a half-naked hunk of beefcake just standing around being dreamy. But the articles on sex and flirtation contain tasteful, editorially appropriate photos of fondling couples. These pictures betray an underlying ideal of intimacy and warmth and, heck, good old fashioned couple-hood. There is none of this in Maxim. It's just a lot of scantily clad women.

Next Page