Reviews For Maxim Magazine

Ah yes, the inevitable faceoff - two ok magazines featuring lots of hot women in underwear with some text surrounding them that is rather negligible considering there are so many hot women. Maxim has more and funnier writing than Vicki's but the latter has a whole lot more pictures of women.

Maxim you can read in public in place where it's inappropriate to sit with Playboy in your hands. Victoria's Secret you can be guaranteed access to if you spend any time at the home of female friends since every woman in the world seems to get scads of the catalogue - Victoria's Secret Country, City and many other manifestations.

On the whole, after all the publicity, Maxim is a bit of a disappointment. The Victoria's Secret catalogue is more of a turn-on if you want the sexy aspect while Maxim's writing is a watered down version of Playboy's writing [because that's all my friends read it for - the "articles"].

half the women featured [see Lara Flynn Boyle on the December cover] are Hollywood lollipops - all skin and bones which really detracts from the sexiness. Though the women in the Vicki's catalogue may be skinny, at least all the push-up bras and curve enhancers make them seem much more voluptuous.

You won't learn much from Maxim though the magazine boasts otherwise featuring articles like "20 Reasons Why She'll Cheat On You." If you are taking advice from these pages, you're probably already in trouble.

Vicki's on the other hand is not only great fun to rifle through but you actually might learn something about women's lingerie - a subject most men seem woefully underinformed about.

Thumb through Maxim at the newsstand but watch for Vicki's in the mail.


Recommended:
Yes

There's the old adage about men who subscribe to Playboy do so only for the articles. The same can be said of Maxim. I'm a married man and I genuinely read Maxim for the articles. Of course the pictures are nice, but it's the content that keeps me reading from cover to cover.

The Good
Maxim is a guy's magazine. It is geared for men and obviously published by men. However, my wife likes to read it to gain a male perspective. I suppose if there was a Cosmo in the bathroom, I'd flip through it too. The main focus of Maxim is Fitness, Fashion, Gadgets, Sex, and Food. It is not politically correct when dealing with any of these topics and yet does not try to be overly offensive. It talks about men's issues in the same manner that men would talk to each other in the locker room. It is frank and to the point. But not too vulgar or obscene.

I am continually intrigued by the randomness of the articles. For example, the Macguyver section is always fun. In it, the editors try out various contraptions that worked in movies and TV and see if they can achieve the same degree of success. It is always done with tongue firmly in cheek.

I'm also impressed with the size of the magazine. But since we all know that size doesn't necessarily matter in regards to magazines (Have you seen the number of ads in InStyle??), the ad to article ratio seems to be quite good. Maxim always takes me longer to read than a normal magazine. And no, it's not because they have more syllables.

The Bad
Maxim is clearly designed for single men, albeit younger. References are continually made about girlfriends, college, and dating. Never have I seen a mention of wife or children.

And being geared toward younger single men, the articles tend to be quite short. The interviews may stretch on for a few pages, but the text is sparsely spaced out to fill in blank areas where there is no picture. The attention span of men is thought to be quite a bit shorter than the audiences of other magazines. Probably rightly so.

Recommended:
Yes

Well, OK, I am a woman and I am writing about a magazine geared pretty much exclusively to men, but......

My husband will pick up a Maxim magazine at the store once in a while and bring it home. I am an avid reader, so I will pick anything up and read it. When he first brought this magazine home I though, " Oh, great a soft porn magazine for the coffee table." After it sat there for a few days, I picked it up for lack of something better to read. Surprisingly I ended up reading the magazine cover to cover (skipping the pictures of all the cute little size 2 ladies wearing not much of anything).

I was impressed with this magazine because it is really written from a guys perspective, not like other men's magazines that are written by women under a male name. The article were lively, FUNNY, and interesting. The pictures are clear and crisp (yes, even the ones with the half naked women on them). The format of the magazine is well thought out and keeps a reader interested. There are allot of advertisements, but no more than the average men's magazine (beer ads, alcohol ads, macho man stuff ads, car ads, etc.).

What you will find in Maxim:
1.) A great laugh out loud JOKE section
2.) Circus Maximus- Totally USELESS (but very interesting) FACTS about nothing in particular. (My favorite section)
3.) A How To section-Once again, totally useless, but interesting (one month featured HOW TO Hypnotize a Lobster).
4.) What would a men's magazine be without a SPORTS SECTION? Maxim has one!
5.) And the ever popular (at least in women's magazines) ADVICE COLUMNS!

These are just a few of the regular sections, and every month has featured articles as well.

My guess: If you are a man you will love it (go ahead and buy a subscription).


Recommended:
Yes

How often do married women complain in sessions with their counselors or shrinks about their husbands' pot belly? They tell the truth about slobs who go to bed without a shower and who only feast on French Fries while sitting in front of the TV set. Maxim has something for all guys who care about their physics and how they are perceived by their partner, girlfriend and spouse. This magazine is for you, married men!

This year is still new enough for you to make resolutions. You may decide to get a subscription to this magazine because you want all the encouragement that the world can offer to join a fitness center. You want to work out and become as fit as fiddle...(How does the saying go?

I have been reading Maxim. It has helped me a lot. The writers and publishers do a good job generating ideas that will interest guys. The articles are about a wide range of topics. They tackle intimacy, relationship, workout tips, etc. Different sports disciplines are also writen about. Whatever your taste, you will get something to satisfy it.

Good luck improving your life and the relationship with your loved one. She will thank you for your decision. The benefits will be yours!


Recommended:
Yes

Do you want to know why I'm tired of girlie magazines? Do you really want to know? Ok. They're not realistic, about men, about image, about anything. They tell us that guys are thinking exactly what we want them to be thinking, and if they're not, they're jerks.

They let us know that men should never, ever look at our breasts. Ever. At all. If he looks at you, he's a perv, because he's looking and thinking about sex, and we can't have that, now can we? Not unless he's really, really "cute", and we're thinking the same things about him. (It's not harrassment if it's done by a girl.)

The girls on Maxim are all foxed up. They have lips, hips, breasts, and they know how to use them. They aren't afraid to be called "chicks", and they don't look like they starve themselves constantly. The breasts are the first thing to go when you diet, ya know. Survival comes before sex appeal in nature.

Sometimes they say (*gasp!* How dare they!) bad things about us girlie girls. You know what? I don't mind. I know how to learn from it -- Wouldn't you like to know what's going on in the minds of the opposite sex? That's why if a guy finds a girl's secret stash of mags, he reads them. He wants to see the half naked girls inside, and he wants to find out what the last quiz brainwashed his girl into thinking.

I find the articles a lot more realistic. They talk about more than hair, clothes, and celebrities. The teen girl mags that I've read never tell you that sex is ok; they usually tell you about all the diseases and heartache it can cause you. Maxim talks about cars, beer, work, etc., without always adding in, "...this helps with the opposite sex, too!!!"

Basically, this is something I'm using most recently to help me format my online ezine. I've found it fun in the process, though, being able to disagree with some of their ideas on girls, giggle when I do, and just get a better idea on what guys are like in general. Read this, gals, and you'll find that the 5 extra pounds you're going mad over aren't that bad, if they're contributing to curves, and yes, they like intelligent women, so don't giggle endlessly, flutter your eyelashes, and agree with everything they say. Of course, it's even nice to see that they're wrong about us sometimes! Would you rather write in and put them straight, or ignore it and hope it goes away?

I can't really recommend this to -guys-, because I don't really see it the way a guy would see it. But I can recommend it to girls. If you really want to know what guys are like, read their magazines for once. Hold your breath, grab the arms of your chair, and dive right in! It might hurt at first, but it gets better if you let it. (Like losing your virginity..?)

Who knows? You could even share it with your boyfriend!

(I wanted to say t!ts several times up there, but uh oh, that's a bad word, so I couldn't. Gosh golly darn it.)


Recommended:
Yes

Maxim for Men. That is what the cover of this magazine says. When you first look at the cover, you will most likely see a big name star dressed in nothing more than her bra and panties, sometimes even just her panties and turned so you get just a peek of what is legal to sell on the newsstand. So, needless to say, the first time my husband brought this magazine home, I had to check it out.

Was it just a toned down version of Playboy or Hustler? Or was it different? After reading the first few pages, I put it down thinking to myself, yes it is nothing more than another version of Playboy just toned down. Three days later I picked it up again and began reading it, determined this time I was not going to put it down until I was done.
After reading the whole magazine, my opinion is much different.

Maxim doesnt just offer scantily clad women showing almost everything. The articles are informing and of interest to BOTH men and women of all ages and races. This years Christmas issue was of particular interest to myself. It had a long article about what a man should buy a woman he loves, a woman he is friends with, and his mother for christmas. Now, I didnt get anything in the magazine, but I would have loved anything out of those pages.

My overall opinion of Maxim for Men? Take the "for Men" part out of the title and you will have a perfect magazine.


Recommended:
Yes

What can I say, this is not the New England Journal of Medicine. But Maxim is worth the two dollars in my opinion. As a fellow reviewer stated this is a real man's magazine, and I concur. The pictures will draw you in. There are guaranteed to be at least five scantily clad women in each issue. However it is the cool articles that set this magazine apart. There are always some funny but useful sex stories as well as stories on things such as bar tricks. To some this might seem a little juvenile but that is the fun of the magazine. They don' take themselves too seriously. They are trying to show off beautiful women and tell a few funny stories, that's it. They also have a little fashion section in the back sometimes.
Overall it is worth checking out. I don't think that everything you read has to be intellectually stimulating, just so long as it's stimulating!


Recommended:
Yes

The Maxim Man is to me, the majority of young men out there today. You know, the lusting, beer drinking, sports, cars; all the stereotypical male stuff is in this package. It is not necessarily a bad thing at all. Women love men, no matter how mad we get or how disgusting we think they are. (that doesn't mean ALL men, there are still some that we would never touch)

Anyway, as you can tell I am a woman. I have a boyfriend that started getting Maxim a few months ago. I have read about every copy. At first sight of this magazine, I was seriously mad at him. I was mad that my boyfriend got a magazine with pictures of women in it like that. After I read it, I realized it was kind of like Cosmo, just for men. How cute is that?

Some of the articles were funny and even useful for men I suppose. I find some of it actually interesting. Most of the articles don't have much real substance, but there are funny jokes and occasionally something worth reading. The pages aren't flooded with naked women, which I did like, but there are of course the stripped down women near the back.

I actually find it amusing to read the articles these Maxim editors and writers come up with. I mean, sometimes I'm thinking "Do men really think that works on women?" Some of the things they tell men to do concerning women are just downright funny, and its either because its an obvious thing that men should just know, or because it is just way out in left field. I'm talking about the electric toothbrush around the nipples. I, personally, think that would hurt and would be a little too harsh. A woman wants soft touches on the breasts, they are tender and soft, supple accessories to other things. A cucumber in the vagina also made me wonder. Don't they have little hard bumps on them sometimes? Talk about cutting you up. I just hoped my boyfriend wouldn't bust out a cucumber or zucchini on me next time I was over.

Anyway, after I reviewed the first issue my boyfriend had, I approved it for reading just because some things are right and maybe he'll get a hint! Also, the pictures weren't too provocative and no one is completely naked. They try to make the women look beautiful instead of like cheap hookers. That's a good quality in this magazine. However, even though he tells me "You seriously look like the women in Playboy naked," I get a little jealous that he is looking at pictures of other chicks like that. But, overall its not too bad so I will let it go on, I just read every issue to see what fun stuff and women tips there are, just to see if he is taking notes.


Recommended:
Yes

As a red blooded transplanted canadian in america,
I must say one of the things that I really enjoy doing is reading magazines that I find have a. good articles b. good pictures & c. interesting topics.

As meatloaf put it 2 out of 3 ain't bad!! Thus, 3 out of 3 must be amazing. I wouldn't say this magazine is for all people. In fact some might say it exploits women and I kinda of wonder what women think about this but that is for another time and place. So setting aside political view points aside it is my opinion thatthis magazine meets my criteria for excellence.

1. Good Articles: the articles are informative and entertaining. I especially love when they interview the cover person(okay girl) and ask the questions that I think i would ask if given the oppourtunity. Maxim has a good quality writing staff and they know exactly what the reader wants!!

2. Pictures: I know your all thinking yes half dressed women!! thats why he likes it but I say its a combonation of the fact they fill the magazine with yes , those beautiful, half dresed women, in risque poses and very little clothing but its done in a tasteful manner. They also have some amazing shots. They had an article on the most grusome football injuries and let me tell you they took this writer just a little too close to the action! But the pictures are generally of good quality, good taste and of interesting objects or people(and no I don't consider women objects)!!

3. Topics: this magazine runs the gammit from, entertainment, sports , miscellaneous and yes sex as well as those great interviews with the cover person and they throw in a litle fashion for those of us who are fashion consienscious. They cove cutting edge trends and current events.

Overall: I think this magazine picks up where time magazine never got started(kidding) but seriously it is kinda like reading playboy without naked women, instead there arejust scantaly clad women and furthermore it is on the cutting edge of whats new and fashionable with excellent writers and at a good price!



Recommended:
Yes

Maxim gets a bad rap particularly among those who criticize its gaudiness, crudeness, and flirtation with nudity. To be sure, Maxim is all those things. But critics should bear in mind Maxim's predecessors when condemning it. These predecessors it turns out are less Playboy and other explicit mags, than they are women's magazines like Cosmopolitan. Pick up any issue of Cosmo and you'll see a generous amount of cleavage complemented by all sorts of sexual tips, advice, and musings. Maxim does the same thing, just for men. If you think it's OK for women to indulge in these things, I say it's OK for men. Maxim gets my vote. Or if you think it's not OK for men to enjoy Maxim, be consistent and say the same about Cosmo and its ilk. I'll support your consistency.

As for what you'll find if you actually pick up an issue of Maxim: a photo spread of a starlet in revealing, evocative poses, plenty of guy tricks involving bars, tips, and seducing women, and sexual advice. At the very least your guy may end up knowing more about how to make you happy. He won't have to rely on rumor or instinct. Maxim is formulaic in its approach, but it's a formula I still enjoy. It has set a model for other men's magazines, from Details to Esquire and even GQ.


Recommended:
Yes