Keep the nudes; mock the prudes

[Brian Sorgatz]

Dan Stiffler wrote:
>This might be my most radical--and reluctant--suggestion, but I know the
>concept is on the table anyway, so I am going to address it: kill explicit
>nudity in the magazine. . . . I don't think I would
>be inclined in this direction, however, if it were not for playboy.com and
>the Special Editions.  I can envision the magazine providing the "tease" to
>a broader audience; the cyber club would be the place where the playmate
>"delivers." . . . [Then] it will be generally accepted in
>all but the most radical right or radical feminist households.

I couldn't disagree more. I appreciate the Internet as a tool for spreading 
words and images, but nothing in cyberspace is as tangible, as substantial, 
or as "real" as a printed magazine. A web site is a temporary arrangement of 
electrons, as helplessly impermanent as a sand sculpture before an advancing 
tide. I think we can all agree that a magazine gives an impression of 
solidity and permanence that warms the cockles of the heart. Therefore, as 
far as content and style are concerned, the Cyber Club (and Special 
Editions) should be mere satellites revolving around the magazine proper. 
Even if the former two are bigger money-makers, the latter ought to be the 
aesthetic center of gravity.

Generally speaking, Dan makes a valid point about more explicit photos not 
necessarily being sexier. Sometimes, less is more. But toning down the 
nudity in Playboy would be a pointless concession to people who don't pay 
close attention to its contents, anyway. Even if Playboy eliminated full 
frontal nudity overnight, such people would fail to distinguish it from 
Hustler for years to come.

To make Playboy respectable to the educated middle class again, I suggest TV 
commercials presenting the magazine as the ideal combination of daring and 
good taste, an alternative to lily-white political correctness on the one 
hand and frat-boy sleaze on the other. They might do well to ridicule the 
extreme feminists and Bible-thumping fundamentalists who condemn Playboy. In 
the '80s, MTV bought ads on other networks with the slogan, "Some people 
just don't get it." Does anyone else remember these commercials? They could 
serve as models. Such mockery could be well received as long as it was clear 
that it didn't target feminists in general or Christians in general.

Brian Sorgatz