Smooth magazine (2002- ) is an American men’s magazine. Like King, it sees itself as a black Maxim. It has pictures of half-naked women and articles on things like cars, sports, electronics, video games and other things that men are interested in. It comes out six times a year.
The writing is better than King’s, but its women are not nearly as good. The pictures in Smooth are too airbrushed to be believable. It has far more Latin American models than King.
There seems to be a particular look the magazine wants in its women: long hair, big breasts and an even bigger behind, light skin, a face with white features and an empty look in the eyes. Smooth seems to think flesh is the main thing that makes a woman beautiful, not her eyes.
It is an idea of female beauty that is curiously halfway between the black beauties of King and the white ones of Maxim. But since Smooth is outsold by both Maxim and King, it might be a middle ground that few are satisfied with. Readers keep asking for more dark-skinned women. I agree!
But even if the look of the Smooth woman is, say, based on studies of what men like, it is too religiously applied. The women look too much alike. The make-up and the way the pictures are taken makes them look even more alike.
It is like McDonald’s: not all that great, but there is a certain level of quality that you can count on.
Sandra Vasceannie, the founder of Smooth (and also Jewel, a magazine for black women), admits that the models have been airbrushed to make their skin perfect, but she says their figures have not been airbrushed. Many of the models, however, have already been to the doctor to have their figures altered.
Sales have been flat for the past few years. It used to be second only to King in its field, but by 2007 it had fallen behind Black Men and Show to fourth place.
Back in 2001 Vasceannie approached XXL magazine about making a black Maxim. They met and talked about her ideas. XXL did not seem interested, so she went off to do Smooth by herself. But then even before Smooth came out, XXL came out with King!
To be fair, the idea of making a black Maxim had to already be on the minds of the great and good of XXL. Maxim came to America from Britain in 1997 and surprised everyone with its success. XXL was well placed to copy the idea for black readers. It would be surprising if it did not.
Nor is King just a cheap knock-off of Smooth – it is much better. And it is Smooth, not King, that is modelled more closely on Maxim. So it would be a stretch to say that XXL took her ideas and beat her to market. They clearly did more thinking about making a black Maxim than she did.
See also:
- smoothmag.com
- Models I Like – a blog with some content from Stuff
- Maxim magazine
- King magazine
- Black Men magazine
- race and beauty
- magazine
- Sophia Loren
Abagond 
I am a plus size woman and ever since the scandel with the anti anorexia posters I am proud to flaunt my curves. This trend for the last decade to look like a skeleton because supermodels were doing it …is unhealthy. A real woman is supposed to have curves…period!
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Not all women are born to have nice curves, but, yes, stick-thin beauty is unnatural and unhealthy.
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Yes, indeed it is! The natural body of a woman is curvy with some fat reserve inside for childbearing. I don’t understand how some of today’s models manage to have children after years of imposed body thinness. I wonder why that it is so.
Steph
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Thin women do not like to hear that. But a big reason why they can have healthy children is because we live in a time when food is plentiful. It has not always been so, which is why the body has fat – and why it makes sense for men to be turned on by certain curves in a woman’s figure.
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everybody can’t be fat and everybody can’t be skinny i was 98 pounds all my life to after having 2 kid’s now 45 weighing in @ 118 after being teased all my life bye family and freinds not to mention the nasty looks i get from woman on a DAILY AS WELL AS WISE CRACKS about my size i have learned to except my size and embrace that i am petite and i can eat anything i want and i do so when fat woman and girls look @ me and think i do not eat a thing little do they no from lookin on the out side of us skinny woman are girls
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“have learned to except my size and embrace that i am petite….”
Good! Don’t ever let someone try to bring you down about your size, or anything for that matter.
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I hate airbrushed photos. Not that I look at half-naked women, but that kind of pictures often look fake.
It has not always been so, which is why the body has fat – and why it makes sense for men to be turned on by certain curves in a woman’s figure.
It does make sense, but it looks like some things are cultural rather than natural. White men, in general, do not like that kind of figure.
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