It was dark and stormy night and Tom wanted to see how fast he could turn out a simple Soc. paper........counting printing time on a piece of shit printer, as well as stopping to read a few columns in Maxim, the official time was 56 minutes. I must be slipping.
Tom Acton
Sociology 100
November 29th, 2000
Men love women. That is a common enough fact that debate is not even needed. Not only do men love women, but men love beautiful women. Maxim, knowing this, has stocked its magazine with pages on pages donned with the sexiest and usually most exotic women imaginable.
Sex sells, and everyone knows it. At times Maxim will go too far in estimating the superficiality men posses, but as a rule, they use women to sell their magazine simply by having them take some clothes off and smile just right. It may seem shallow and manipulative, but it is not as if this ploy to gain readers is not noticed by the men buying the magazine. Every guy knows full well that Maxim editors are milking every last square inch of their models skin they can get their hands on, and the truth is, no one cares. Though continued readership is based on entertaining articles, the initial attraction is of course to the women, and that is perfectly all right with almost every guy. Maxim knows attractive women appeal to a huge number of men, and so they don't hesitate to slide in a scantily clad model whenever they can. No one wants to read an article about Gena Lee Nolin's new television show, but few men would pass up another glance at the picture of her in a shear bra and what can only be described as a flowery, translucent attempt at tight fitting boxer shorts. By appealing to the most basic of male tendencies, our attraction to women, they guarantee all types of men will take a second look at their magazine and possibly hand over their money.
As superficial as we men might seem at times, with the exception of an actual pornography magazine, a little more than a pretty face and a nice body is needed to keep our interest. That is where Maxim excels. Maxim writers know what types of jokes to tell to men to keep them reading on. Though rarely would the jokes been seen as outwardly offensive to the average woman, the jokes do carry a sort of "this joke is only told amongst the guys" aura. Men know women do not read, and are often incapable of finding humor in, columns comparing the sex lives of the children's book hero Harry Potter, and M*A*S*H's bitter, yet lovable Colonel Potter. (For the record, the good Colonel got the edge because his sex life, including "stateside wife Mildred, cross-dressing sergeants, and possibly a horse" easily trumps Harry Potter's "aloof Asian darling and presumed perma-virgin Cho Chang.") I, for one, would love to see Redbook try to beat that display of almost-tasteful, sex- inspired, humor that for some unknown reason appeals to all men.
Maxim also knows that a fair percentage of men have a deep love of cars. Though the numbers might not compare with those garnered by half-naked women, there are still enough men out there dying to read about the new Audi Supercoup (shaped like Howitzer shell and easily capable of 200 mph with its 2 combined v-8's) to justify articles about autos monthly. Kudos to those at Maxim who realize that though most can't afford the six-figure prices the cars they write about carry, men still love to dream dreams of grandeur in parking lots.
Though every now and then Maxim well overstep their bounds with playing to what they assume to be a shared male consciousness (e.g. "How to Score at a Funeral"), they have a pretty good read on what men want to read. Sometimes stereotypes actually do contain fact. If finding humor in a picture of Regis Philbin with a potential new co-star that could replace Kathy Lee...Bruce Lee, means I'm just another sheep in the herd of stereotypical men who will together pay to read witty, yet racy jokes, all the while gazing on the most beautiful of women and the most beautiful of cars, then just point me to the subscription card.