Stating the Obvious: Gentlemen Do Not...

[elfs]

This morning on the bus I happened to glance over at the rider next to me. He held in his hand a copy of King magazine [Warning: probably NSFW], and he was reading an article entitled "50 Rules To Being a Gentleman."

King is what is known as a lad rag, along the lines of Maxim, Loaded or Zoo, featuring semi-naked women in the US or even topless ones in civilized nations like the UK and Australia. I believe I've even mentioned it before. Ah, here it is, October 19, 2004. Ignore its ethnic target (it's content is mostly aimed at black men), the essentials of King, Maxim, etc. is that they are about men at their most atrocious: concerned only with getting laid, getting rich, and being seen.

I hesitate to point this out because it should seem rather obvious: Rule #1: Gentlemen do not read King.

At least, not in public.

Comments

[jenkitty.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's a case of "I read Playboy for the articles"?
I found the article in question, and it's actually rather a good list. Again, there's the ethnic bent, but plenty of useful information and reminders for young men of any cultural stripe.

http://www.king-mag.com/online/?p=7981

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, it is. On the other hand, it's hard to take it seriously when the sidebars are loaded with half-nekkid deeply oiled women offering themselves up in parodies of youthful desireability or, as in the case of the paper edition, the full-page ad opposite is for an international calling card yet somehow features a woman with a, ahem, "digitally enhanced booty."

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

Or even in private...

[woggie.livejournal.com]

Having never seen a black-oriented lad mag, let alone very few white-oriented ones, I found the jargon strangely unsettling.

It makes me wonder why it is I didn't find the jargon in white-oriented lad mags unsettling.

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

It's the same as girls reading "16" or whatever the latest teen angst (or even some of the non-teen housefrau) magazines touting "How to catch the guy and keep him long enough to get a ring on that finger."

Both sets show how really brainless the activity is unless your MST3King it.

[fallenpegasus]

The second two aspects of "atrocious" men are just aspects of the first. Mainly because, to a good zeroth and first approximation, attractive young women prefer to have sex with men who are rich and visible.

[danlyke.livejournal.com]

I believe it was at a Museum of Sex exhibit where I read a quote by one of the late 1800s New York idle rich that convinced me that, indeed, a gentleman was likely someone who read King. Those who termed themselves "gentlemen" in that era were trust-fund idle good for nothing whore-mongers (and I use that term despite my deep respect for whores), and I've seen little evidence to indicate that the Gilded Age was an aberration.