(Stupid) Men Get Told What Is Sexy And Stylish: Maxim Magazine!

The Good: Decent photography
The Bad: Lowbrow writing, Addy, Photography is hardly spectacular compared to all that is on the internet.
The Basics: Maxim is not worth the cover price.


I was not a fan of high school when I was in it. I was not popular and it was only when I embraced my own geekdom and stopped caring what others thought about me that I came into my own. So anything that tries to sell itself as an authority on what I (as an American or a human) should like, I tend to treat with the same eye roll of disdain that I have for most of my thoughts of what high school was like. So, when my wife picked me up a subscription to Maxim magazine, I had some real doubts that she truly knew me. She told me it was something she managed to get for free and that she intended for me to review it. Sadly, Maxim was not really worth my time and attention.

For the purposes of specific details, I am using the April 2015 issue of Maxim for review. I would have reviewed it last month, but I could not credibly review without a hint of disdain for a magazine with the cover advertising an article on the most desirable woman in the world. Talk about pretentious bullshit . . .

Maxim is a monthly magazine comprised of 98 glossy pages and it is a men's magazine for men with money and a dependence on being told what is fashionable and sexy. The advertisements - and there are many of them - are filled with good-looking guys who seem likely to score with the attractive women pictured and featured in the articles. Articles focus on desirable women, "cool" activities (gambling, sports, weaponry), and men's fashion.

The photography in Maxim is good, but the latest issue even manages to illustrate how obsolete the magazine is becoming in that way. The current issue features the women of Instagram and the photography in that article illustrates perfectly that one need not hire professional photographers to get high-quality pictures of women. They are, as most of the world already knows, already all over the internet.

Not overflowing with impressive diction or vocabulary, Maxim is incredibly ad-filled. The 98-page magazine features 31 pages of full ads (not counting the inside and back covers and two separate pictorial spreads that advertise all of the items the models/actors are wearing, which wipe another 14 reading pages out of the magazine). That is an insane amount of ads, especially for a magazine one is spending money on (it could be free for all who want it based on how much space is taken up with ads!).

But then, Maxim readers appear to need to be told what to buy as much as they need to be told what to like and how to spend their time. For the rest of us, there is real life and this magazine can be easily avoided.

For other magazine reviews, please visit my evaluations of:
The Week
Ladies’ Home Journal
Self Magazine

0/10

For other magazine reviews, please check out my Magazine Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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