the last issues of genre magazine
For almost a year at my Brooklyn address and now for several months at my new Manhattan address I have received monthly issues of Genre magazine for free.
Somehow, some gay thing that I bought put my address onto a gay consumer mailing list that Genre bought and then, somehow, they found out about my change of address without me telling them. Each additional issue of the magazine comes wrapped in plastic with a great big subscription card over the front cover that reads something like "This is the Last Issue...unless you subscribe." And even though I don't ever subscribe I keep getting one more "last" issue.
Genre magazine is like the Seventeen magazine of the gay world. It's so vapid it's not even guilty reading like People or HX. I leave the most recent issue in the library (a.k.a. la toilette) and skim through the articles for something interesting to read in five minute intervals. But the articles are frighteningly vapid: 10 questions to know if your boyfriend is a good traveler; a fabulous interview of the current fabulous boy toy celebrity conducted by the current fabulous cultural guru; an endpaper on standing up for your gay rights or learning about new gay health concerns thoughtfully penned by the current fabulous drag diva; choosing a designer backpack to match your designer watch. When did gay men have to be told how to choose designer anything? Especially young gay men!
I've read bits and pieces and I get nothing from it, not even from the celebrity interviews or film and music reviews, that I can't also get from a 30 second spot on Entertainment Tonight. It's like flavorless cotton candy. Do I need a school locker to paste the pictures up in to appreciate this fluff? (Even with a locker, I wouldn't paste up the pictures. There isn't a body hair to be found on a single page of the magazine, no matter how low the jeans ride on the models' hips.)
What goes through my head, nevertheless, as I toss each copy down the recycling shoot, is how amazing it is that a Seventeen-like magazine for the gay world even exists. That notion in itself rocks my sensibilities even if the content does not. And so I wait to see if another "last issue" will arrive next month.
Somehow, some gay thing that I bought put my address onto a gay consumer mailing list that Genre bought and then, somehow, they found out about my change of address without me telling them. Each additional issue of the magazine comes wrapped in plastic with a great big subscription card over the front cover that reads something like "This is the Last Issue...unless you subscribe." And even though I don't ever subscribe I keep getting one more "last" issue.
Genre magazine is like the Seventeen magazine of the gay world. It's so vapid it's not even guilty reading like People or HX. I leave the most recent issue in the library (a.k.a. la toilette) and skim through the articles for something interesting to read in five minute intervals. But the articles are frighteningly vapid: 10 questions to know if your boyfriend is a good traveler; a fabulous interview of the current fabulous boy toy celebrity conducted by the current fabulous cultural guru; an endpaper on standing up for your gay rights or learning about new gay health concerns thoughtfully penned by the current fabulous drag diva; choosing a designer backpack to match your designer watch. When did gay men have to be told how to choose designer anything? Especially young gay men!
I've read bits and pieces and I get nothing from it, not even from the celebrity interviews or film and music reviews, that I can't also get from a 30 second spot on Entertainment Tonight. It's like flavorless cotton candy. Do I need a school locker to paste the pictures up in to appreciate this fluff? (Even with a locker, I wouldn't paste up the pictures. There isn't a body hair to be found on a single page of the magazine, no matter how low the jeans ride on the models' hips.)
What goes through my head, nevertheless, as I toss each copy down the recycling shoot, is how amazing it is that a Seventeen-like magazine for the gay world even exists. That notion in itself rocks my sensibilities even if the content does not. And so I wait to see if another "last issue" will arrive next month.
1 Comments:
More like the gay version of Sassy. The magazine appalls me. But I can't get Speedo style tips in A Bear's Life magazine?
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