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It's too easy to pick on Hefner. Hefner was a natural consequence of seriously repressed society. He was ushered in on the backlash of the society that was so whacked that some thought it was vulgar and dirty to day "pregnant" on television.

It's easy to blame the sexual revolution on the problems we have now. Pity that too few are willing to blame the sexual revolution on the foolishness that started the rebellion in the first place.

He was ushered in on the backlash of the society that was so whacked that some thought it was vulgar and dirty to day "pregnant" on television.

I always thought it was weird that Lucy and Desi, and Dick van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore would sleep in twin beds, my folks, the libertines, slept in the same bed. You're right about the sexual revolution getting all the blame, but Playboy just happened to coincide with another thing that changed the sexual culture, and that was effective birth control. The Pill, introduced in 1960, did more to separate sex from procreation than anything else that happened since human beings discovered that they were connected. The baby boom culture coming of age during that time did a lot to promote the magazine, too.

"Hefner was a natural consequence of seriously repressed society."

That is totally whacked... Hefner was a publisher in a society that was *NOT* repressed enough to stop him from pushing the envelope on it ...

" He was ushered in on the backlash of the society that was so whacked that some thought it was vulgar and dirty to day "pregnant" on television."

until the point where we dont know what vulgar and dirty is anymore (too many cases of bad taste in entertainment to cite)... Methinks you make Cal Thomas' point. Our standards have indeed fallen.

"It's easy to blame the sexual revolution on the problems we have now."

Usually the truth has a way of being hard to refute.

" Pity that too few are willing to blame the sexual revolution on the foolishness that started the rebellion in the first place."

Ah, yes, Liberal logic at work. Dont blame those who believe in divorce abortion and sexual promiscuity - no! - blame those who are against those things for forcing folks against the wall to be for it! This is the same logic that blames the Americans for terrorist attacks on us, blames society and victims for criminal behavior, etc.

It's nonsense. Blame the puritans for uptight society. Blame the sexual revolution on the sexual revolutionaries ... have no fear, Hef would claim full credit for his part!

WAS the culture then so "repressed", or did the media present a fake and narrow image of 1950s society? Speak to people who actually LIVED through it (as I have to my parents). Also, I think the country was better off in those days when the media was "repressive" than it is now with the media the way it is.