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the way i see it: Quit Reading Maxim!
I'm so sick of all these Maxim-type magazines. I just don't get them. I imagine that these magazines are the male counterpart to a lot of the women's magazines that do nothing but reinforce gender stereotyping. I now know why so many women (not as many as should) are offended by Cosmo and such. Maxim and its ilk are so fucking stupid. They promote homophobia. I've seen them make fun of the disabled on more than one occasion. They basically promote date rape. And so on and so on. And every one of these magazines (Gene Simmons' Tongue -- sure to go out of business within a year, Razor, FHM, Stuff, etc.) are exactly the same. At least one military article. Cars. Pictures of bizarre injuries. Lists on how to do something totally stupid. Interviews with uninteresting, untalented second-tier actresses or porn stars, which ask things like "do you do anal?".
I would love to put the entire reading audience of Maxim in a convention for one weekend, with speakers such as date rape victims, alcoholics, fathers of deceased porn actresses, HIV+ white heterosexuals, Abner Louima, and Matthew Shepard's mother.
Now I'm not saying that all readers of these magazines are idiots, or sexist, or racist, or whatever. But a whole lot of them are. I'm also not saying that all the articles in these magazines are worthless. But a whole lot of them are. (William Vollman writes some wonderful articles for Gear, so I will not throw that rag into this category, even though they are guilty of all of this, albeit to a much lesser degree). I'm also not saying that there's not a time and a place for porn, partying, and toilet humor. But it is sad that it comes in the form of what is somewhat of a young man's bible, and more likely than not, where millions of young men do their only reading.
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