First of all, if you're offended by those magazines, you should check out the ones they keep behind the counter in the plastic-wrap (or you can just check the box at the back of your dad's closet). Anyway, Stacy, you're entitled to your opinion - although we think it's shameful that you would call this shameful - but let's talk about your concerns for a minute or six. We're confident that we can not only convince you that it's not our fault, but we're gonna try to turn it around and show you that it's actually YOUR fault. So here goes....

Despite the fact that most college students snooze through their Intro Marketing class and manage to pass by simply reading the chapter summaries and throwing out buzz words like "demographics" and "target market," there is actually an entire industry out there consisting of marketing professionals. These are the people who get paid lots of money and spend lots of money doing market research so that they can prove, statistically and indisputably, things that AskTheCollegeGuy.com could have told them for free. For example:
1) Males like to look at scantily-clad attractive females.
2) Females like to look at scantily-clad attractive females too!

Ok, we can hear Stacy and all her girlfriends out there screaming "that's sooooooo not true!" But come on now, let's be honest. You know you enjoy thumbing through that Victoria Secret catalog, right? Well, how many (straight) guys do you know that would get the same enjoyment flipping through "Tighty-Whitey Weekly" or "Boxer-Briefs Illustrated"?

[Editors' Note: This column originally appeared on AskTheCollegeGuy.com in 2003, so we apologize for the slightly outdated celebrity and magazine-cover references]

As you may know, the magazine-of-choice at AskTheCollegeGuy.com headquarters is Maxim and a quick search through recent issues strewn about the office show recent cover-girls including: Anna Kournikova, Gina Gershon, Jessica Alba, Shannon Elizabeth, and numerous other hotties who could melt an igloo by ringing the doorbell. But before any of you Women's Studies majors out there even think about criticizing Maxim for such (brilliant) decisions, a quick look at other popular men's magazines (FHM, Stuff, etc.) show recent covers to include Carmen Electra, Daisy Fuentes, and Jenny McCarthy, so it's pretty much nothing but hot chicks across the board, er, newsstand. Special Note about Jessica Alba on the cover of Maxim's November issue: This girl is so ridicuhot, that we almost considered taking a staff field trip to see "Honey." But common sense eventually prevailed and we went out drinking instead. Anyway, our point - yes, we actually have one - isn't that you'll find scantily-clad hot chicks on the cover of men's magazines. No, that's a no-brainer that even those of you on academic probation would likely expect. Rather, our point is that if you look you'll also find scantily clad hot chicks on the cover of WOMEN'S magazines.

No, we don't have some special arrangement with Maxim that allows us to use their pictures. But we hope it'll be ok since we're linking back to them and acknowledging they're the best magazine on the planet... right?

Since Cara and Michelle (our 2 female interns) aren't here right now, we sent Intern Jason down to a local convenient store to do some investigative reporting on women's magazines.

[Note from Intern Jason upon his return: That's Bullsh*t! They sent me out to get a case of beer. I came up with the idea of checking out the Girly Mags on my own.]
[Editors' Note: Whatever, you're still just a little intern. Now go put those beers in the fridge.]

Anyway, Renee Zellweiger is on the cover of Vogue and Britney Spears is on the cover of Glamour! And it's no different for Women's magazines we've never even heard of: In Style (Julia Roberts), Marie Claire (Julia Styles), and Self (Angelina Jolie). But, Stacy, somehow these magazines stay in business - and women keep buying them. Do these women's magazines exploit women too?

And this idea that "women are hot, guys are not" is held by teenagers too (and we all know that teenagers can be some of the trendiest, most fashion-conscious people in America). The cover of this month's Seventeen features Liv Tyler, Teen Magazine features Kristen Kruek, and Teen Vogue has Katie Holmes. Only Teen People had a man on the cover (and that was Clay Aiken - so don't get us started on whether that really counts as a man)!

And it will come as no surprise that every girl/woman that we saw featured on the cover of a magazine this month was hot - with the lone exception of Oprah Winfrey, but she owns her magazine so she's earned the right to put herself on the cover.

So anyway, because BOTH males AND females like to look at attractive females, it's a no-brainer for the marketing and advertising industries to use attractive females on magazine covers or to sell products, regardless of the gender of the primary target market.

Think about beer ads... The Coors Light Twins? The St. Pauli Beer Girl? The Miller Lite "Catfight" commercial (a poolside argument turns into a clothes-shredding, wrestling match between two women who end up in bras and panties)? We're not marketing professionals, but it simply wouldn't be that way if the numbers didn't show that both males AND females are buying the products being marketed this way. We're gonna go out on a limb and say that the number of beers consumed by our female readers in the last month will be a helluvalot higher than the number of Strawberry Daiquiris consumed by our male readers.

So, if you're looking for people to blame for the "shameful" ways of society, you should probably hop down off your soapbox for just long enough to empty all the beer out of your refrigerator, throw out all your magazines, and take a good look in the mirror because your purchasing decisions and your money (or your daddy's credit cards) have a far greater effect on this "shameful" state of affairs than the mass media, the advertising industry, or a random entertainment/humor column like AskTheCollegeGuy.com could ever have!

-- The College Guy