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
They're all symptoms of the same, larger problem.
Exactly! That is what my parents say too. I am disappointed by the way the 60s and 70s are portrayed too. If a person believes what the media tells them, the 60s were all about hippies and Woodstock, when that didn't even hit the mainstream til about 67, and the 70s are all about disco, which most people had nothing to do with.
When I was working in a hospital there was an old woman of 87 who broke her hip. Her husband was a great old guy who used to visit her ever day. They had children 70 years old. She called me a monkey when I used to tease her. They were 30+ years old at the turn of the century and were still devoted to each other.
I had two friends who were then in their 60s. Virginia told me she had been married to Earl for 47 years and as far as she was concered it wasn't nearly long enough.
What do Hefner and his eternal teenage followers have? In my life I have found a better all-around psychological adjustment in those generations while studies show a wave of serious mental disorder by a factor of five to 10 beginning with people who were teenages or young adults in the '60s.
I grew up in the 50s and early 60s. Hefner and his "Playboy Philosophy" had a lot of adherents (to my shame, myself included). As Thomas points out, he did more than most to p!ss in our moral punchbowl and deconstruct our sound social underpinnings. He was an active promoter of the hedonistic lifestyle, was proud of it, and made many millions promoting it.
The results of his efforts may in some ways be "fun", but they're certainly not "funny".
Hefner deserves a place at the table along with the worst scoundrels in American history. He has solidly earned a place at the Head Table. He played his own large part in the miserable moral decay which has overtaken our society. He was not alone and he had plenty of help, but he was at the head of the charge!
I didn't realize that Playboy magazine had such a huge circulation in the jungles of Africa???
They also get magazines from all over the world, besides putting out their own. Why are you assuming that Playboy isn't sold all over the world? It unfortuantely is.
Remember, too, that you can't separate sexual morality or immorality from general morality or immorality, in an individual or a society. There has been a massive breakdown in overall morality and simple consideration for others over the past 40 years. In the much maligned 50s, there was little crime despite a higher rate of poverty. A friend of mine, who grew up in Washington Heights, New York, told me that even in the early 60s the door to his family apartment was left unlocked during the day. The crime rate began to go up in the mid-60s. People in general were better behaved, politer and even dressed better.
I agree completely with your post and have absolutely nothing to add.
Merry Christmas. :-)
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