Even The Advocate Isn’t Above Trafficking In Cheap Skin Reports
We haven’t paid much attention to the “Do gay media rely on sex to sell?” question because the answer is so painfully obvious: Yes, we do. And shameless: No, we don’t have any reservations about it. But we would like to take this opportunity to note that even The Advocate, which positions itself as the most serious of all gay media, and which usually left sexy time to its sister mag Out, isn’t above baiting its gay readership with the breaking titillating news item reporting on a straight cast member of the Real World/Road Rules receiving an oil rub down, while wearing a string thong, from a gay guy. They really are competing with the blogs, aren’t they?
Some strait dude getting an oil rub down from a gay guy doesn’t really qualify as stroke worthy material; at least not in my book. That said, I think magazines and blogs have got to mix it up a bit. Sex does sell but so does excellent journalism, well researched and written articles, and interesting subject matter.
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I’m getting soooo old! Obviously, the Queerty writer has grown-up with this here Internet thingy and not old fashioned printed-on-paper information thingies called magazines. At least I’m not so old that we were still using slate and chalk.
“The Advocate” gained its national reading audience because of its FIRST AND ONLY “MEN SEEKING MEN” CLASSIFIEDS. Back in the 70′s and 80′s, we all bought the Advocate to read the classifieds, to learn what each color bandana signified, movie reviews of the latest Falcon Video and, possibly find out about someplace nearby where we could get laid. That there were articles of interest was much more akin to “Playboy” readers who had their “Playboys”, you know, for the articles.