Cons: There is some real insulting editorial content
The Bottom Line: flittering around the light of celebrity and sensationalism with a dash of fashion and culture - Details goes from issue to issue trying to be something but never doing it
What’s that in your stack of magazines on the table, an issue of Details perhaps? Probably just about everyone has bought a copy of this magazine at some time and some of us might even have subscriptions, but have you ever really thought about who this magazine is geared towards and what’s really in each issue?
A magazine with multiple personalities, each issue of Details seems to attempt to attract every male demographic – from horny straight teenagers to gay guys. I just really don’t get it – and while most of the editorial content is at the least interesting, some of their reoccurring features are downright insulting to some groups of people.
Basic Structure
Each issue of Details is made up of several main departments including Features, Fashion, Know + Tell, Dossier, The Ink, Culture, Vital File and finally The Last Word.
As you can probably guess, Features is where you will find the cover stories along with other major editorial content in each issue of Details. These feature stories are generally several pages long and the first few pages are generally not broken up by advertising, but the back end of the story is pushed the back of the magazine and are broken up by some advertising. These stories generally run the entire spectrum of topics, from stories about suburban swinging couples to a look at a certain celebrity or destination. The July 2004 issue’s cover boy Vin Diesel, is also the subject of an interview and story in the Features section.
Ready to know what the latest fashions for men are? You’ll find some ideas in the Fashion section which generally has two or three stories on various current fashion topics. Recent stories have included the rise of bodysuits (doesn’t everyone want to look slimmer), to what kind of sunglasses to wear for the summer.
Up in the front of each issue, in Know + Tell you’ll find much of the introductory editorial content of each issue. There are sections on new products, quick news stories, new music, cars and books, along with some other current topic type quick articles.
Dossier extends the more in-depth editorial content that Features starts with slightly shorter articles on current events and topics. Recent stories have included a look at what to do when you get the adult pimple, what drives a guy to be a stripper for a day, and how to get into the world of art auctions.
The Ink, Culture, Wiseguy, and the Last Word are all reoccurring columns in issues of Details that are from various writers. A recent Last Word column came from the queen of funny herself, Ellen Degeneres.
Advertising
No wonder Details is $3.95 when most other magazines around the same size are at least $4.95. Each issue is chock full of advertisements, from expensive watches to liquors, to high fashion clothes and cologne to cigarettes. It seems like almost every page has some sort of ad on it. Plus the advertisements seemed geared towards all different groups of people – which reflect I guess the multiple personalities of the magazine itself. You’ve got an ad featuring a practically naked woman selling something followed by a blatantly homoerotic ad selling something else.
If you don’t like to be overloaded with advertisements – you won’t like Details. At least 60% of each issue is made of up the advertising and it interspersed throughout much of the editorial content.
What I don’t like
Lately issues of Details have been featuring a “Gay or …” in their Know + Tell section, where a type of guy is compared to a gay guy. Now I can laugh about myself just as much as the next guy and I know I’ve cracked gay jokes before, but always with the understanding that I wasn’t trying to be cruel, I was just trying to laugh at myself or something I found funny about my community, but this section is Details is downright insulting.
For example the latest issue is “Gay or a Country Singer,” and features the memorial introduction – “One saddles up to the six-string, the other mounts his horsey bareback.” Whoa! That alone is probably one of the most denigrating bits of “humor” I’ve seen in a major magazine. I won’t even go into the connotations of some of the words, but it’s a pretty low blow.
Then it goes on to point out various items on the picture of the Gay or Country Singer guy and attempts to write witty and humorous reflections. You know, his “Ten Gallon Hat: You know what they say about rim size,” or “Well-Balmed Lips: Plays a mean mouth organ.” I’m gay and I really don’t see anything funny about this – it plays on gross and basic stereotypes of gay culture and doesn’t do anything but perpetuate those stereotypes and this coming from a magazine that’s basically an ode to closeted men everywhere.
Plus they don’t learn. The issue before had a “Gay or Asian” theme and the magazine was literally inundated with mail and complaints from both Asian and Gay groups and even the editor issued an apology in the current issue and then went and did another of the same kind of columns? What kind of lip service is that? Are they assuming that country singers won’t write in to complain? Do they think that all gay men are so one-dimensional that they’ll think all these comparisons are flattering?
Come on Details, at least have some class.
Another Thing I Don’t Like
I hate magazines that try to pander to everyone and end up not serving the interests of anyone and Details does that a lot. They are trying to appeal to so many different types of men that while a story or two might grab you, there are going to be at least a couple of others that turn you away. You have stories and advertising luring in the younger straight male market, while a few pages away you have stuff interesting to a young and hip gay crowd and so on throughout the magazine. No group leaves happy except for perhaps the closeted men out there who can read Details because it won’t let out their secret.
I think that’s pretty sad. Details could be a cool magazine – sort of a young and hip GQ or something along those lines. Instead it jumps all over the place and never finds a single unifying theme to hold each issue together.
Final Thoughts
I find it very hard to recommend Details to anyone beyond picking up an issue here and there when the cover grabs you. While the majority of the editorial content is actually well written and interesting to read, there’s so much stuff around that detracts from each issue that I find I can’t even usually get through an issue.
My partner had a subscription for a while but we finally let it run out and now, unless there’s some really interesting cover story, or something else that catches our eye when we see Details on the newsstand, I don’t bother with the magazine.
Perhaps try an issue and see how you feel about it – but for me, Details is much like a moth flittering around a bright light. Except that instead of a floodlight, Details flitters around the light of celebrity and sensationalism with a dash fashion and culture. Never really hitting a theme, Details goes from issue to issue trying to be something but never really getting there.
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