NationStates Jolt Archive

After a recent study (i.e, I asked some female friends), my research shows that guy's magazines have women in them because guys are obsessed with sex and don't give a [insert bad word here] about their looks. With women, it's vice-versa. My question to the people of NS is, which is worse? The guy's obsession with sex or the women's ultra-self-consciousness? And, do these obsessions eventually fade?

(By the way, I do realize I'm being WAY sterotypical here. Sorry if I've offended anyone.)

But if you look in women's magazines they are full of naked female skin too. (At least in the countries I'm familiar with.) Maybe it's just a human thing, everybody likes looking at females and it has nothing to do with sex. (umm... the sex you are that is, not the actual, ah, you know... rubbing against each other kind of sex.)

But if you look in women's magazines they are full of naked female skin too. (At least in the countries I'm familiar with.) Maybe it's just a human thing, everybody likes looking at females and it has nothing to do with sex. (umm... the sex you are that is, not the actual, ah, you know... rubbing against each other kind of sex.)

That may be the case, but in my study, the naked female skin normally markets some sort of cosmetic, thus adding to my theory of women's ultra-self-consciousness, with the idea that with this product, you'll look like [insert name here].

Maxim is a study of how you can sell to men the same way you sell to women. If you look, Maxim has just as many articles on hair products and clothes and accesories(sp), but instead of showing other men as much they show you what you're supposed to attract with all that expensive crap. The only real difference is the filler is frat humor instead of whatever fills womens magazines.

I feel sorry for weman who read those magazines. They paint their faces and shave large parts of their body in an effort to look like the girls in the rag mag. Well I've got news for you, all of those photos are touched up. You can't look like the girls in the magazines because the girls in the magazines don't even look like the girls in the magazines. If you wanna look like that you need a degree in computer graphics and hundreds of dollars in softwear. Do you know what the sad part is? Guy aren't that fussy. It's not like we look around, see someone skinnier than you and decide you're dumped.

Maxim is a study of how you can sell to men the same way you sell to women. If you look, Maxim has just as many articles on hair products and clothes and accesories(sp), but instead of showing other men as much they show you what you're supposed to attract with all that expensive crap. The only real difference is the filler is frat humor instead of whatever fills womens magazines.

True, but that isn't what sells the magazine. The hot women on the cover and inside the magazine sell it.

The two are complementary. The girls are obsessed by their self-image because the guys are obsessed by girls' looks and girls want to be attractive to guys. [feminist rhetoric]So it's time for the girls to get their act together and stop giving a *bleep* what guys think about them and stop defining their life according to male-established standards of what is proper or beautiful. [/feminist rhetoric]

both situations are craploads and pretty sick, if you ask me.

both scenarios objectify woman. sick.

woman in magazine needs to put on goddamn stilletos (shown on page 43) and start punching holes through the walls and get out of there.

ugh. woman not happy as object.

(cave speak fun)


(I'm really tired and just spent the past 10 hours in trains/airports/airplanes. forgive unintelligent posterama)

The two are complementary. The girls are obsessed by their self-image because the guys are obsessed by girls' looks and girls want to be attractive to guys. [feminist rhetoric]So it's time for the girls to get their act together and stop giving a *bleep* what guys think about them and stop defining their life according to male-established standards of what is proper or beautiful. [/feminist rhetoric]
Thing is, guys are really way more relaxed about it than the magazines would have you believe. You have to create desire in order to sell an unneccisary product. That's where the problem lies.

but in my study, the naked female skin normally markets some sort of cosmetic, thus adding to my theory of women's ultra-self-consciousness, with the idea that with this product, you'll lokk like [insert name here].

Hmmm... I guesss. But in Japan I looked in a girl's magazine called Egg and many of the pictures seemed to involve schoolgirls flashing each other.

And before anyone asks me to mail it to them, I threw it out.

many of the pictures seemed to involve schoolgirls flashing each other.

...What the fuck...?

Thing is, guys are really way more relaxed about it than the magazines would have you believe. You have to create desire in order to sell an unneccisary product. That's where the problem lies.What?

Hmmm... I guesss. But in Japan I looked in a girl's magazine called Egg and many of the pictures seemed to involve schoolgirls flashing each other.

And before anyone asks me to mail it to them, I threw it out.

I suppose it's possible that it was a lesbian magazine. Or another guy magazine. God knows...

What?
Dudes aren't that picky, but to sell a product you don't need you have to create desire.

I was literally just talking to a friend about the difficulty in advertising 'scents,' perfumes and such.

You have to not only convince one gender that it will attract the other, but you have to convince the 'other' gender that it is attractive.

That's a tricky thing to do-and essentially what purpose those magazines serve, to create desire and desirability. It's not a reflection of any actual desire, it's the creation of one.

I think the girls magazines are much more unhealthy.

Let me be a sex-obsessed guy for a moment here. No, seriously. There's nothing wrong with it, guys like girls. That's natural. That means that evolution (or creationism! Let's not sidetrack the issue) is doing a good job. There is absolutely nothing wrong with me looking at an attractive girl who walks past. There IS something wrong if I offend her, or upset my girlfriend, but those are social issues. My girlfriend has no problems with me looking at attractive girls (she only asks that I point them out. As she points out attractive guys to me). Really, I was much happier with myself when I realized that it's fine to look at girls. And, also, that it's fine to NOT look. It's fine to not be looking for sex all the time.
We guys can't win. Either we're obsessed with sex, or else we're "less of a man" for not wanting it all the time. It's crazy. I know women have similar problems (you're a slut, or you're cold?), but I really do think guys get it worse. I think we're just more sensitive to girls, in the modern feminist age.

So, I think that it's cool that magazines marketed to guys are full of attractive girls. Even if the girls aren't realistic. I enjoy it, it catches my attention, all good.

I think the lack of self esteem for many women is a problem. I really don't think that's the fault of guys or their expectations. I see so many adverts telling girls to pluck their eyebrows, wax their legs, put on makeup. My girlfriend's mother tells her those things. I certainly don't. I think the female image issues are caused by society. I think guys are just as worried about their image, and want to be attractive to girls, just as much as girls want to be attractive to guys. (and everyone that wants to be attractive to their own gender, well that's cool too). The difference? Well, my girlfriends mother organizes to take her to get her eyebrows waxed. My father never did that with me. My female friends learnt from an early age about fashion, they had dolls with changable clothing, they talked about what was cool to wear at school, they copied their mothers. Many males just don't learn this growing up. They don't have the same sort of culture around themselves. So, while they have the same desires to appear attractive, they really don't know how to go about it. Girls have magazines full of tips about it. Girls are trained to read those magazines, and to care.

So, yeah, I find female magazines more worrying. Just as I find magazines showing bodybuilders as the image of a "real man" worrying. At least guys don't see those images all day every day, and get told "that's how you should look". I have no problem with images of male bodybuilders being in females magazines, though. They have just as much right to look at attractive guys as we have to look at attractive girls.

Wha is right, what the hell are you talking about?

I think the girls magazines are much more unhealthy.

Let me be a sex-obsessed guy for a moment here. No, seriously. There's nothing wrong with it, guys like girls. That's natural. That means that evolution (or creationism! Let's not sidetrack the issue) is doing a good job. There is absolutely nothing wrong with me looking at an attractive girl who walks past. There IS something wrong if I offend her, or upset my girlfriend, but those are social issues. My girlfriend has no problems with me looking at attractive girls (she only asks that I point them out. As she points out attractive guys to me). Really, I was much happier with myself when I realized that it's fine to look at girls. And, also, that it's fine to NOT look. It's fine to not be looking for sex all the time.
We guys can't win. Either we're obsessed with sex, or else we're "less of a man" for not wanting it all the time. It's crazy. I know women have similar problems (you're a slut, or you're cold?), but I really do think guys get it worse. I think we're just more sensitive to girls, in the modern feminist age.

So, I think that it's cool that magazines marketed to guys are full of attractive girls. Even if the girls aren't realistic. I enjoy it, it catches my attention, all good.

I think the lack of self esteem for many women is a problem. I really don't think that's the fault of guys or their expectations. I see so many adverts telling girls to pluck their eyebrows, wax their legs, put on makeup. My girlfriend's mother tells her those things. I certainly don't. I think the female image issues are caused by society. I think guys are just as worried about their image, and want to be attractive to girls, just as much as girls want to be attractive to guys. (and everyone that wants to be attractive to their own gender, well that's cool too). The difference? Well, my girlfriends mother organizes to take her to get her eyebrows waxed. My father never did that with me. My female friends learnt from an early age about fashion, they had dolls with changable clothing, they talked about what was cool to wear at school, they copied their mothers. Many males just don't learn this growing up. They don't have the same sort of culture around themselves. So, while they have the same desires to appear attractive, they really don't know how to go about it. Girls have magazines full of tips about it. Girls are trained to read those magazines, and to care.

So, yeah, I find female magazines more worrying. Just as I find magazines showing bodybuilders as the image of a "real man" worrying. At least guys don't see those images all day every day, and get told "that's how you should look". I have no problem with images of male bodybuilders being in females magazines, though. They have just as much right to look at attractive guys as we have to look at attractive girls.

Good point.

Wha is right, what the hell are you talking about?

What the heck do you not understand?

I think the lack of self esteem for many women is a problem. I really don't think that's the fault of guys or their expectations. I see so many adverts telling girls to pluck their eyebrows, wax their legs, put on makeup. My girlfriend's mother tells her those things. I certainly don't. I think the female image issues are caused by society. I think guys are just as worried about their image, and want to be attractive to girls, just as much as girls want to be attractive to guys. (and everyone that wants to be attractive to their own gender, well that's cool too). The difference? Well, my girlfriends mother organizes to take her to get her eyebrows waxed. My father never did that with me. My female friends learnt from an early age about fashion, they had dolls with changable clothing, they talked about what was cool to wear at school, they copied their mothers. Many males just don't learn this growing up. They don't have the same sort of culture around themselves. So, while they have the same desires to appear attractive, they really don't know how to go about it. Girls have magazines full of tips about it. Girls are trained to read those magazines, and to care.

Put down Maxim. Walk away from 'askmen.com' and enter the real world please. Women have been succesfully turned into domestic buying sheep over the past few centuries. Fine. Thats not changing anytime soon. Don't you go buying into the modern attempt to turn men into the same domesticated buying sheep.

Right now I can go look at a picture of JP Morgan circa 1905 and I will see a suit almost identical to one that I wear myself. If Maxim has its way in the year 2105 the suit a guy wears will look nothing like the one I wear today. Society is trying to impose ‘fashion’ and ‘fashion seasons’ onto men. Well fuck that. And drop this bullshit about men 'having the same desire' for fashion. That’s bull. Attraction yes, Fashion no. And that desire for being attractive is limited to a clean shave, straight teeth, combed hair, and a fat bank account. It does not include a selection of cologne, moisturizers, shoes and pedicures.