Much has been said in the
media lately about Men’s Health magazine’s dubbing Fort Wayne the
nation’s dumbest town in a recent issue. Out of 101 cities
“studied”, Indiana’s second-largest city was named the most intellectually
challenged using criteria such as residents’ SAT scores, number of universities,
number of Noble Peace prize recipients born inside the city limits, etc.
As a resident of Fort
Wayne, I advise people in the community to take Men’s Health’s findings
with a grain of salt. Their so-called studies have about as much credibility as
Mike Davis has as coach of the Indiana Hoosiers.
This rag of a magazine
needs to stick to what they do best—displaying pictures of partially clad men in
an array of homoerotic poses and giving people advice on some of the world’s
most compelling problems, like “Do women prefer to see romantic comedies on
first dates?”
I’ll admit, I am far more
likely to pick up a copy of The Economist or Foreign Policy than
Men’s Health, but I did visit their web site to see what all the fuss was
about after the Fort Wayne story broke.
After
checking out the site I was able to come to this conclusion: America’s real
dumbest town is the one whose citizens buy the most copies of Men’s Health
per capita each month.
This is supposed to be a
magazine for men, but 90% of the images I saw on their site were of partially
clad MEN! Talk about dumb! If they were serious about taking back some of the
market share that magazines like Maxim and FHM have stolen, then
Men’s Health would be wise to have photos of the kind of women will get
you if you lose weight and get in shape, not pictures of male models standing
around alone with no shirts on. Not many men I know are going to rush out to
their newsstand each month to because they can’t wait to see that.
Maybe someone should do a
study on America’s dumbest magazines. After seeing the Men’s Health web
site, I am sure they would be right in the running for numero uno on that list.
To be fair, I will give
Men’s Health their due. If you are looking for ways to have six-pack abs
then they are the world’s foremost expert. You can even sign up for their Abs
Diet newsletter where you can “discover
the latest scientific research, newest abs exercises, meal plans, success
stories and cutting-edge advice for getting a six-pack fast! Abs-olutely FREE!”
At least I can say that something good has come
from Men’s Health’s
dumbest city study: If having ripped-to-shreds abdominal muscles becomes the
number one priority in my life, I will know exactly where to look.
After
checking out the site I was able to come to this conclusion: America’s real
dumbest town is the one whose citizens buy the most copies of Men’s Health
per capita each month. 
