Black Men magazine (1998- ) is a lifestyle magazine for black American men. Like King and Smooth it has pictures of half-naked women and articles on things like sex, cars, sports, fashion and famous people. It comes out once every two months.
It is put out by John Blassingame, who also puts out Today’s Black Woman and Hype Hair. Hype Hair is his best-selling magazine. His office is across the street from a Staples in Paramus, New Jersey.
Black Men is more well-rounded and serious than King or Smooth. You could take out the women and still have something of a magazine left. But in 2005 it was in last place: its women were not as good as those in Smooth and King.
Then one day Blassingame’s son Marcus was in Harlem getting his hair cut. As the women walked past the front of the shop it struck him that the men did not like the thin supermodel sort of women that appeared in the magazine. They liked women with much more of a figure – “fat asses and pretty faces,” as the barber put it.
So over the next two years Black Men tried different sorts of women to see what worked. By using models with more of a figure they were able to outsell Smooth. They say they now have a pretty good idea of which kind of women will work in all parts of the country and even in Jamaica and Haiti.
The magazine has women of all colours: white, yellow, black and brown. It prefers Latin and light-skinned black women. In 2006 Black Men named Vida Guerra, a near-white Latin woman, as the sexiest woman of the year. Each issue has only one or two dark-skinned models.
The women are heavily airbrushed and many have a soulless look in their eyes. They are still not as good as the women in King, which, in spite of its blacker idea of female beauty (or maybe because of it), still sells better.
Video vixens, those half-naked women you see in music videos, tend to speak well of Black Men: many got their start in its pages. One was Angel Lola Luv. She was discovered at one of their modelling contests – not on stage, but sitting in the audience!
Black Men seems to be based more on Today’s Black Woman than on Maxim. When Black Men first came out in 1998 there was no King and even Maxim was still new in America.
Unlike King and Maxim, Black Men does not have any mainstream advertisers, like Heineken or Absolut.
Sometimes Black Men puts out a swimsuit extra magazine called Black Men SSX. Some have only one woman, like Buffie the Body.
Blassingame learned the magazine distribution business by working first for Hearst in the New York region and then Metropolitan News. When he was passed over for a higher position at Metropolitan he started his own magazines. Thus Black Men.
See also:
Black Men magazine used to be a good quality magazine. I’m a Black woman saying this. It had a lot of social commentary as well as pretty women in it. Feminists complain about objectification of women but come on women and men love to see beautiful women. There’s nothing wrong about it.
Stephanie B.
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I agree. I used to find myself buying it for the articles!
Feminists think of women too much like they are men. God made women beautiful for a reason. Any woman can satisfy a man physically, but only a beautiful one will he love and give and live his life for. Only for her will he fight the dragon.
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Black Men Magazine been a sellout one for awhile now, maybe because so many of my brothas are selling out thinking pink skin is better
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The magazine doesn’t sell well in the U.K.
I buy the mag now and again.
I think you know what for?
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Someone should come out with a magazine called “Black women” and fill it with White men and White-looking Latino men every month.
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i lave sxx voman
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Feminists think of women too much like they are men. God made women beautiful for a reason. Any woman can satisfy a man physically, but only a beautiful one will he love and give and live his life for. Only for her will he fight the dragon.
Oh, Abagond. 😦
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My thoughts too. Hopefully his thinking has changed since; this is an old post.
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I must admit I’d love to hear what he has to say about it today.
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The Star Blazer says,
Someone should come out with a magazine called “Black women” and fill it with White men and White-looking Latino men every month.
laromana says,
Excellent idea, Star Blazer. It’s time that ALL BW stop putting up with the DISRESPECT of Black beauty that MOST BM in America like to promote by PUBLICLY showing more interest in WM/NON-BM than BM.
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theyre not only posting black women in it. the also put in latinas and some white women like jesikah maximus and coco austin. coco has been in the magazine for like 6/7 times
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hi my i was wondering if you can help me find the subscription of the 1998 issue of the black men magazine
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I know of several Black men who are getting way from this mag b/c they complain that their is not enough BW are used in the magazine. You still have BM who lust over Black women. The women they use are Latina and other Mixed Raced chicks that have a little of that Black African DNA that gives them the body and lips. They sprinkle in darker skin chicks who are really just dark brown and some light skin African American chicks. This is why their mag does well b/c it does appeal to many Black men, b/c of their love for this look, but they fail compared to King b/c King appeals to ALL BLACK MEN EVEN THE ONES THAT LOVE THAT CHOCOLATE. Also, King has taken risks putting in non-commercial though still beautiful looking dark chocolate women on their cover and other non-conventional women on their covers that are just absolutely beautiful.
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Jackie I agree 100%
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All I can say is that good luck to the new idea that is coming through with the magazine. It is awesome. My new stuff is very funny. This is what they call the new fake sonogram videos. This is from fakeababy and it is amazing.
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