Homo Genre

I don't mean to be a social critic, but Genre Managzine wants me to renew my subscripton. Now don't get the wrong idea - I never actually paid for a subscription in the first place. But somehow I've been receiving the magazine for the past year, and it even has my name on the subscription label.

I'm not claiming that Genre is shallow, or anything like that. But after you have read an issue or two, you realize that if you are 57, this magazine isn't for you. Maybe I should use skin moisturizers, but I have different priorities. Maybe I should be interested in the latest dance music, but only if it's 4/4, and I can square dance to it.

In this magazine, gay men don't live a day over 45, all of the men are beautiful, and I assume they just die early deaths, or something like that. All of the guys want to get married, and they all want to be dads. All of them want monogamy, and most of them tend toward a certain bland, conservative self-righteousness. Some of the men profiled even admit that John McCain would make a good President.

This is a magazine for shallow, young, good-looking men. In fact, no other kind of gay man exists in this magazine. Why would I want to pay money for a magazine that makes my incredibly wonderful life completely invisible?