This morning, on a very rash and impulsive whim, I did a lot more than pick up today’s Globe and Mail at the magazine shop. Well, actually, I suppose it wasn’t a completely impulsive whim that made me purchase this month’s issue of Playboy; the issue was hyped recently as a special “Women of Enron” issue, in which a number of employees of the battered energy company stripped to their bare essentials for the enjoyment of Playboy’s readers. Leave it to Playboy to be topical -- I’m waiting with great anticipation for the “The Women of Adelphia”, and “The Women of Worldcom” issues ........
The whole concept of a nude pictorial section involving women associated with the biggest bankruptcy in history (well, until Worldcom goes under) is totally hilarious, and I knew that I just had to purchase this! The cover is appropriately true cheesecake -- the blonde woman opens her executive style wear to reveal a shirt saying Women of Enron. The headline reads “Women of Enron uncover their hidden assets.” Subtlety is not exactly the magazine ‘s strong point.
Inside, the contents are equally amusing. Here are these pictures of some quite attractive women, while the comments on each photo combine the usual sex-related sentiments (“I’m free-spirited, open and sexual”) with comments directed at Enron and its executives (one woman’s turnoffs include “anyone who’s arrogant, which exemplifies Enron” and another says about CEO Kenneth Lay “A heart -- that’s what he needs”)
Mind you, many Playboy readers will probably not give a crap about the fact that these women worked for Enron, and will only be interested in one thing. Are these women hot or not? Well, I know that I wouldn’t have minded working for Enron alongside some of these women, even if they were fully clothed (Shari Daugherty and Carey Lorenzo are personal favorites.....), and it at least shows that “ordinary” women, who are not stars, or models, have the goods too, but all sensible people should already know that.
I’m not a regular Playboy reader, mainly because I have so many interests and so little money that I can’t buy every issue, as I’m already buying issues of completely different sorts of periodicals. I find that Playboy really only gets my interest when they do a special issue, like a celebrity pictorial (Cindy Crawford and Namoi Campbell have done a couple of issues), or an issue such as the Enron women --- or if they ever do those Sex in the Movies types of articles, since both movies in general and (you already know this if you are a frequent reader) sex scenes in movies are particular interests. I also got a Playboy as a birthday gift from a woman one time, which was a very intriguing gesture...... I don’t buy the magazine for the Playmates, although some of them are, in fact, quite nice -- Miss August Christina Santiago (in this Enron issue) is a cute and smoldering Latin gal with a natural body (no matter the measurements, a real woman is always much more attractive than someone who injects herself with silicone....).
Before writing this review, I have read a few Epinions on the magazine, ranging from profanity laced rants by Epinons abusers, bemoaning the fact that Playboy is far from a hardcore mag, to women who buy the mag for their husbands/boyfriends, and enjoy reading it themselves. Some of the readers comments for the Epinions written by the women basically attack these writers for not realizing that Playboy is demeaning to women, etc.
Well, I suppose there could be some truth to that. The fact is that the whole point of magazines like this is to present women as erotic, sexy figures rather than as full individuals. But I seriously doubt that every man who reads this magazine will look at this and say, Hey women are only pieces of meat, and have nothing else of value. Most men who do say that probably already had that idea before they came across a centerfold. Hey, any time I flip through any issue, of course I would look at these women as pretty, beautiful, sexy, whatever..... but those aren’t evil thoughts. It’s pretty old hat to say this at this late date, but these women want to present themselves in this way, so one shouldn’t feel yucky about admiring them for their physical attributes.
The truth is that Playboy, in some ways, is a much better magazine than some of these other men’s magazines that I’ve glanced at. I’ve picked up a few issues of Maxim, Stuff, etc., in my time, mainly because of the sexy cover shots of its celebrities, and I’ve noticed that there is a lot more fluff, and a lot more sexist tripe, in those mags than there is in Playboy. Odd! Now, I won’t doubt that there could be the occasional informative article in Maxim, but all I remember is a bunch of so-called humorous pieces which basically make women out to be alternately our enemy, and a potential conquest. I don’t know --- I have enough lewd sexual thoughts in my own mind, but reading such locker room talk kind of makes me feel embarrassed to be a male......
Playboy has its share of lowbrow, especially the Party Jokes, and the cartoons, but oddly enough, there actually is some fairly good reading to go alongside that of the sexy pictures. Every issue has a long-form interview, and one interview I remember most is one with Gary Johnson, the New Mexican Republican governor (January 2001), who at this time already had done interviews with CNN and the like referring to his wish to legalize drugs, not necessarily because he approves of drugs, but because he, like many, believes that the U.S. war on drugs is a total failure. This interview of a political figure is so much more effective than a political sound-bite; here, you get a much fuller sense of a politician and his beliefs, etc.
The fact is that Playboy is not really a “pornographic” magazine. It is not a Hustler or any of those other hardcore magazines. Sure, it started out as a magazine about sex back when such things didn't’ exist in the mainstream, and it does have articles about sex and porn stars and the like, but, overall, Playboy is basically a mainstream men’s magazine (like GQ or any other) with full nudity. While really explicit material does have its place, Playboy’s ethic is softcore, which is fine by me. Sure, it does get pretty tacky and cheesy, but that just goes with the territory. Most all sexual material, from soft core to hardcore, from romance novels to explicit erotica books, tend to be silly. The photography in this magazine, while not really classics of erotic art, is more tasteful and sensual than “dirty” or “sleazy” -- while “everything” is shown, the effect is more about beauty, although, like all sexual material, it’s much a fantasy as anything else. In any case, the women are beautiful, some of the articles are actually good, and while Playboy is far from being close to my favorite magazine, it is an occasionally amusing romp every once in a while.
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