Following in the path of the gender difference topic...

This picture is from the Details magazine website. They coined the term "mantropy" in backlash to the metrosexual movement. They describe mantropy to be a cruel degenerative disease that sets in during the best years of a man’s life, causing the man within that man to slowly wither and die until the victim is literally a husk of his former self.

See, that is funny! So smart, insightful and funny. Why aren't there any womens' magazines like Details? I am female, but I still love its humor, its articles and topics, its insightfulness into the male brain, its useful lifestyle info (e.g. why you should find a restaurant you like and stick to it, how it's not ok to wear flipflops with a suit).

The writers at Details somehow manage to make fun of men as a means to communicating empathy and comraderie. When you read the magazine, you get the sense that they just want to give men on the verge of being cool a fighting shot. I love its "big brother-in-the-know" tonality. Picture Vince Vaughn in his "Swingers" days.

In contrast, womens' magazines just aren't funny; they aren't entertaining at all. They are more like self-help books, dispensing advice on how to lose weight, have better sex and better understand your man. They don't even have any stories beyond depressing (but uplifting!) human interest bits about women who had to cope with some ordeal.

While Details may feel a little bit like a boys' club, it's a fun place to hang out. Womens' magazines feel like support groups for women with neuroses and low self-esteem. If womens' mags represent insight into the female psyche, I am so scared! Honestly, I feel like these books perpetuate an image of women as being so NOT fun.

The thing about Details is that they know that as a man you think you've got it going on, but they call your bluff anyway. I don't think womens' mags feel like they can poke fun at women and call them out; perhaps they think women are too sensitive, and perhaps they are. But that doesn't mean that all we care about is a tighter tummy and how to make a little bit of food seem like a lot. The womens' mags are just so...earnest! In contrast, details has a cooler, "watch and learn" approach that makes you want to, well, watch and learn.

The only womens' book I have seen in the recent past that nears the level of smartness that Details has reached is Bust magazine. Bust is honest and funny, it actually has interesting stories, its subjects aren't just focused on health and beauty, which is a refreshing change. But, you get the sense that the people over there are a little unhinged, on the fringe, and perhaps a little angry at the world....like the girl who was an outcast in high school and never got over that but was able to qualify as "indie" as an adult. And that is fine, but you don't have to be so quirky or subversive in order to be cool. If you think of a magazine as a person...confidence, sense of humor, multiple interests, and good storytelling go a long way...