Details. GQ. Both are men’s magazines. Both are also magazines that I have personally subscribed to for years. Both of these are magazines I have been getting since I was in high school. Why? Because both of these are men’s magazines that are all about fashion, gadgets, etc., and things that men, men like me, like to look at and read about.
But, last year, I cancelled my subscription to GQ for one big reason; I don’t think that magazine was meant for me, at least not anymore. Reason being, that almost every single thing they advertise and hype in their fashion and gadget sections are WAY out of my price range. And I am not talking, “oh, that’s just expensive, I could never afford a $400 coat”, no, I am talking like a $40k-watch-out-of-my-price-range, price range. Seriously, who has this magazine begun to target? Millionaires? Billionaires? Because these are the only people that I can foresee being able to afford to drop a couple thousand dollars on one bag or one pair of shoes, or afford a $7000 suit. Not to say that I don’t like those things, but I do have an idea of what it means to be extravagant, and just plain stupidly indulgent and wasteful. Seriously, if you spend $40k on a watch, you just have too much money, and you are just wasting it because you can’t think of anything else to do. That has to be it, because it is JUST a watch, after all. I can even see spending a couple thousand on a watch, if it is what you want, and can afford, but not $40k. That is overly excessive and insulting to those that go hungry every day (now, I am not saying that they have to do anything else, I am just saying, I would never spend that much money like that. I think it is crazy.). So, long story short, that is why I cancelled my GQ subscription. It sucked a little bit too, because I always liked looking through it and reading about fashion and whatnot. But I just felt so distant from the target demographic they have started going for, that I really had nothing in common with it anymore.
But at least I still had Details. Details is a sorta-gay-friendly watered down version of GQ; not as high and mighty, and a little more level headed when it comes to fashion and personal spending. Even when GQ started to slide more towards the superfluousness, Details still maintained a sense of staying grounded. There was a feeling of youth to Details, and you could tell it really was made for men like me. But alas, just as GQ zoomed off in a multi-million dollar jet, it seems that recently, they have doubled back in order to pick up Details and take them for the ride. Low and behold, there was a feature in a recent Details that hyped “indulgent” items, and there was the $40k watch, staring right back at me. Ugh. And it highlighted what I didn’t like about GQ, Details is no longer targeting normal guys like me… indulgence isn’t a $40k timepiece or a $700 steak, it is MUCH MUCH less than that; that is more like wastefulness. So I ask, who are these magazines for? Apparently, it has become so out of sync that you must be a multi-millionaire to have “nice” and “indulgent” things… I mean, we live in a country where stores can sell a normal t-shirt for $100. And I am talking a regular shirt just like the Hanes T you can get at Target, 3 for $10, but with a D&G logo screen-printed on the front. No other differences.
Things have just gotten so out of control, and I guess the magazines are just reflecting the inflation… but in the process, they have alienated me, and I would guess many other middle class men like me. I know that I won’t be renewing my subscription, because like GQ, they are not concerned with my demographic anymore. But they probably won’t notice anyway, since I’m no longer their target. Sigh.
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