Most black women of all ages read Essence Magazine or peep it now and then. How much of African values or culture does Essence Magazine express?

I read a lot of Essence magazines and I don't really think it's promoting BLACK,but SELF. :peace:

Essence Magazine is no longer a black owned publication, and its topics of the last 10 years is a reflection of that. Essence is extremely anti-African male, and promotes inter-racial dating. Black men are constantly demonized in this magazine...I don't recommend anyone read its contents.

Essence Magazine is no longer a black owned publication, and its topics of the last 10 years is a reflection of that. Essence is extremely anti-African male, and promotes inter-racial dating. Black men are constantly demonized in this magazine...I don't recommend anyone read its contents.


You know, I KNEW something was different about that magazine! WE were talking about this article a while back on the nappturaliity forum... This mother and daugther got make overs.. both had natural hair. The very first thing the make over person said to them was "Let's put a perm in your hair to make it more managable."

How much influence does Essence mag have on the culture of black women in black/African-America?

I personally don't read it, but I know a lot of black women who can quote articles they've read or something they saw that basically depicted what wasn't "right" with black America.

How much influence does Essence mag have on the culture of black women in black/African-America?

Most women I know read it religiously, along with Ebony and Jet. Funny, most of them don't read Black Enterprise.

Anyway, from what I see, it has a substantial hold on African-American women the way Cosmo does on white women. It is chock full of advice on how to dress, how to wear makeup, how to catch a man. There was once an article about keeping your husband happy. The answer was to have sex with him whenever he wanted if, within reason, even if you didn't want to.

I stopped reading Essence at the beginning of the year.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

When the black book explosion was taking place, and white publishers believed incorrectly that blacks were not reading or buying books, only to discover that we were. There was no way for them to tap into the market at that time because black publishers and book stores had it tied down. Essence magazine was the one who sold the black book list and publishers to White people. Does that answer your question ?

It answers it for me!

I think this question, which examines the “African-ness” or rather the African cultural content of an Essence Mag., could refer to many so-called Black publications. What I find even more interesting is that many magazines that are published as “African” magazines that deal with news and culture in continental Africa are also actually published and sometimes edited by white Europeans.