Why yes, as one commenter pointed out, a good portion of Queerty’s Morning Goods photo spreads feature heteros that cater to the homo eye. Those are there for your masturbatory enjoyment. But when it comes to a magazine like Out – which we showed you the first cover from new editor Aaron Hicklin yesterday – the cover is more than a photo spread: It’s a statement.
Learning where Hicklin is taking the title, however, means we’ll let his Footballer’s Wives go by with a shrug.
While Hicklin won’t be altering Out’s sexual identity, he does plan to make it, like his own, a bit harder to pin down. “My buzzword has been, ‘Let’s be [David] Bowie gay rather than Cher gay,'” he said this week, at the end of his first month on the job.
Just as Bowie recorded concept albums, Out, said Hicklin, will publish more themed issues in hopes of stimulating the creativity of its writers and photographers. Hicklin’s first full issue as editor, September, will have a back-to-school motif, complete with a fashion shoot inspired by “Lord of the Flies.” “The fashion is where you can get all the pictures of cute, sexy boys you want, but shot in a way that’s radical and thoughtful,” he said.
But alongside the beefcake will be a beefed-up supply of serious reportage, with the goal to produce journalism that could just as easily be found in The New Yorker or Vanity Fair, said Hicklin. “The question I ask myself is, ‘What would those magazines do if they were gay?'” he said. “I’d rather have mainstream magazines with an aesthetic I admire as the competition” than other gay titles, he added. “For an editor, you create the magazine you want to read. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.”
And while we’d love to read 12,000 words on the love life of some 1920s glamour girl a la Vanity Fair, we’re sure Aaron will find a way to tie energy security in with choosing the best Wednesday night leather bar.
Memo Pad: Out Editor’s Straight Talk [WWD]
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Chad
As a conservative republican dentist that also JUST HAPPENS too be an out/proud homosexual, I think it’s “outrageus” that this New Editor would try to say that all gays are like David Bowie and Cher! Cher is not even a Gay (though her daughter Chaz is a “tipical” lesbian, LOL, I know not all Lesbians are Over Weight, like those girls on the “L” word but a lot are!) And David Bowie is married to that Mexican WOMAN! Now I love Cher as much as all Homosexuals and my favorite is her Song For The Lonely which all the bois still Go Crazy for in the Clubs here in Washington DC. LOL, I’m a littel too old to be considered a boi still ,but I want to know why it is either Cher or David Bowie and not some actual Gay/Lesbians or EVEN Gay/Lesbian conservative or Christian Republicans such as Marie Chaney (the vice presidents out/proud daughter!) Also if you had to compare QUEERTY to a gay or hoosexeual person, who would it be? I am so sad that Dan from “Road RUles Challenge” is no longer your Editor because he brought some real Conservative flavor or flava as the Twinks call it to this blog like when he wrote about how he Supported Our President with those gays at the Easter Parade who were trying to turn their children homosexual too!!!! With him here I think this blog could have been compared to Mary Chaney or almost but not quite my Hero Andrew Sullavin. Now I think it is more like Jim J Bullock (of 3s Company) or Will Wikle from Big Brother and the Logo Channels travel show Round Trip Ticket! Well that’s okay, at least your still funny and cute LOL! If you’re ever in DC or Rockville Maryland you should call me! I will take you to see the “Supreme Court!” If You Know What I mean! (I don’t mean the Real supreme court, LOL!!!!!)
Paolo Colonna
My, you Queerty guys always sound so bitter when you write about Details or Out. For what it’s worth, European gay magazines such as Attitude or Têtu often put straight males on their cover too.
Kurt Dyer
Speaking of Attitude… their newest footballer spread is HAWT!! If heteros want to be the object of our mastubatory fantasies I’m all for it….
Matt Harwood
David Bowie vs Cher? Wanna be scared? Check this out. Proof that David Bowie was willing to prostitute himself.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=_z9b0GFRz9g&search=david%20bowie%20cher
Kris
“Those are there for your masturbatory enjoyment. But when it comes to a magazine like Out – which we showed you the first cover from new editor Aaron Hicklin yesterday – the cover is more than a photo spread: It’s a statement.”
So Out isn’t? Since when? They want us to read what they have to say just as you. I’m by no means saying you should have guys that are gay “morning goods” posts, but I’m also saying you ARE a hypocrite.
Guess I might have hit a nerve, but I’m sure you haven’t researched what your straight boys on “morning goods” think about gay rights either.
Why shouldn’t you be held to the same standard?
rod
Can I just whisper in that Morning Goods is possibly the weakest aspect of this site?
Granted, I’m a freak. I don’t look at photo spreads in Out or Details or Instinct. Yes, I’m an article reader (aka freak I suppose).
I prefer my flesh, well, in the flesh.
M
Chad, the out and proud conservative republican dentist:
1) Hilarious self-identification with labels
2) To deal with the anxiety of your displaced homosexual identity you realign yourself with established oppressive hegemonies, hoping that that will garner you some measure of acceptance. Essentially a failed enterprise from the very beginning. The desire for acceptance is so strong in this one. Conservative republican gays are the scum of the Earth. Sorry, but this is my opinion.
3) How exactly are gay parents protesting at the white house turning their children homosexual as well? Do you seriously think that people’s sexualitiues can be shaped and ‘converted’ in such an overtly manipulative manner?
no
Uh, Bowie’s wife is Iman, a Somali (African), woman. Africa. Mexico. There a lot water between the two.
Chris Holden
First time here. It’s a hoot. Thanks much for all your effort. I think this is just wonderful. What’s there to bitch about?!?
Keep it up, Chris
Bufftuff
Like Details, OUT wants to be mainstream, though it still arrives in the mailbox wrapped in a plain while sleeve.
Anyway, these publications evolve. Remember the originals of the Advocate. It wasn’t always the slick publication it is today.
Sean Carter
Aaron Hicklin. This is the same man who, last month, ran a BS, apologist, piece on the awful hate bashing/ near-death assaults of two CBS newsmen (Ryan Smith and Dick Jefferson) in St. Maarten.
Apparently, Out was trying to play down what is happening to gays in the Caribbean because it has a cruise line that takes thousands of gay guys to that island all the time and makes lots of $$$$$$$$$$$.
Nice! Trying to make a GAY BASH look like it was a victims fault…when it was probably the mags ads. & news that got them to go in the first place.
Aaron Hicklin and his cheekbones can go fuck himself.
He and his mag need to decide who he is for. Gay men or gay bashers.