Posted on 12/17/2003 8:40:07 PM PST by T Lady
For the past weeks, the media have been gaga over the 50th anniversary of Playboy magazine and the "Playboy philosophy," whose guru, Hugh Hefner, began to mainstream pornography and de-couple sex from a committed marital relationship.
What interested me most about this latest excuse to run pictures of almost naked women on television and of the 77-year-old Hugh Hefner in his silk pajamas, surrounded by surgically enhanced women young enough to be his great-granddaughters, was the usual media complicity in promoting a one-sided and incomplete picture of the "free love" generation (which, as it turned out, was neither free nor love).
Where were the stories on venereal diseases, broken marriages and shattered lives of the women who were "bunnies" and "playmates" in Hefner's fantasy world? One might think that those "hard-hitting" journalists so dedicated to presenting both sides of any story would have interviewed people whose lives have been transformed-not for the better-by the sexual revolution.
Writing on FreeRepublic.com, Patrick Fagan says we now live in a "culture of inverted sexuality." This is Hugh Hefner's legacy.
Remember modesty? Gone with the cultural winds. Writing in the Washington Post last week, Tina Brown said that Paris Hilton's pornographic antics and fame show we live in an age "beyond embarrassment."
The progeny of the Playboy philosophy- which said men did not have to limit their sex drive to their wives but could plunder whatever woman would allow them- is brokeness, depression, addiction and, in some cases, suicide. What Hefner thought would liberate has, in fact, enslaved. What he promoted as fun turned out to be its opposite for larger numbers of people.
The throwing off of all restraints has produced a culture without rules, without signposts and without meaning. Is Hefner ever asked by the numerous toady interviewers about what responsibility he bears for any of this? Not that I've seen or read. I guess lust means never having to say you're sorry.
Would Hefner acknowledge that AIDS, which is currently devastating Southern Africa with a vengeance worse than Europe's medieval Black Death, is any of his doing? There is a cause and effect relationship between promiscuous sex and venereal disease, divorce, 40 million abortions in this country, depression and suicide among teenagers who thought they had a right to grow up in a two-parent home. The Hefner message to constantly pursue "greener grass" mocks the message I grew up with. Then, if your marital "lawn" turned brown, you fed it nutrients. Now, if it starts to die, you move to a new "yard."
In many ways our politics mirrors the Playboy philosophy. Once, a divorced man could not be elected president. Recently, a president had sex with an itern in the Oval Office and millions thought it was a private matter and no one else's business.
Madonna writes children's books and her heir-apparent to the crown of slut queen- Britney Spears- engages her in a lip lock on national television. David Letterman proudly announces the birth of his out-of-wedlock child and the audience erupts in wild applause. Marriage announcement to come, or not. It doesn't matter. Gwyneth Paltrow and her "boyfriend" announce she is pregnant. They got married last week. Maybey they'll get divorced next week or next year. It's all the same to devotees of the Playboy philosophy.
Hefner and his philosophy have demeaned women, turning them into the sexual toys the feminist movement decries. Because Hefner is pro-abortion (he would have to be, given the consequences of what he promotes) and because of his financial donations to numerous liberal causes, he gets a free pass from feminists.
Many think Hefner is cool as he hands over his "little black books" to be auctioned and lounges in bed in a New York Times picture and article that ignore the cultural havoc he has unleashed on America.
Hefner has said he freed Americans from their uptight attitudes about sex. Given what replaced it, restraint, fidelity, character and chivalry never looked so good.
Copyright 2003 Tribune Media Services
He'll do alright this Christmas. The six year old gets a new bike and has been asking for a Bibleman action hero since July. His favorite activity is going to church (they've got great snacks after the service).
LOL!
I actually bought Playboy to read the Bond books. Believe it or not.
Thank you, I'm an okay dad who just tells his kids who their real Dad is....
Here's a link to a short but excellent book on the topic of modesty from a Christian perspective.
It sure didn't do Dorothy Stratton any good.
Star Stowe (1977 Playmate) was passed around by many rock musicians, and finally ended up being a street whore. She was murdered. Willey Rey (1971), who was on the cover of the Playboy stock certificates, died of a drug overdose in her parents bathroom two years later. Her parents blamed the crowd she ran with, most of whom were from Playboy. Dorothy Stratten was murdered by her husband. Her husband was furious because Hefner had pretty much taken her away from him, introduced her to Peter Bogdonavich, and they were a hot item. Her husband was a small-time pimp. Elissa Bridges (1994) died of a drug overdose last year. Of course, there have been several busted for prostitution.
Hefner, from everything I've read about him is a pretty lame piece of work. He had rules, for example, that the Playboy bunnies couldn't be picked up by their husbands or boyfriends at the club, so they had to walk several blocks by themselves at night in downtown Chicago to get a ride. Male employees were not allowed to date playmates or bunnies. They also were not allowed to talk to Hefner, and if Hefner thought they were too good looking, he'd have them fired. There were rumors that he boinked one of his daughter's friends he met at her 16th birthday party (yes, a classmate of hers), and playmates were invited to mansion parties, but couldn't bring their husbands. They were encouraged to bring female friends, but if the friends weren't attractive enough, they'd be advised not to bring them back. Most of this is in a book titled "Bunny", and although Hefner threatened to sue over it's publication, there was enough documentation that they couldn't prove anything false.
I was disappointed at how sleazy Playboy was behind the scenes, but when I was a kid, I was naive enough to believe the stuff written in there.
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