Celebrities on the Newsstand

[Dan Stiffler]

On 7/21/03 6:29 PM, "Alfred Urrutia" <rampagingsloth@yahoo.com> wrote:
 
> Hahaha, I beg to differ.  Most readers have *loads* of preconceived
> fantasies about whatever Playmate he's looking at in Playboy.  They
> are probably pretty similar from month to month but those fantasies
> are legion and they are very detailed.

You clearly have missed my point, Alfred.  Certainly, men have
fantasies about sex with women.  And, of course, they can apply those
fantasies to any attractive (to them) woman, including playmates.  But
the *particular* relationship that is offered by a PLAYBOY playmate,
on account of her playmate story and, since 1977, her data sheet, goes
beyond the primal and instinctual fantasies that men apply to all
women they would like to have sex with.

I will give this one more try.  The original context for my thesis was
feminist critiques of PLAYBOY.  Alfred's response above simply adds
another barrel to their shotgun.

Many people will acknowledge that the female equivalent of male porn
is the romance novel.  Women read these formulaic books because the
stories fire their erotic imaginations.  Most of us understand that
men are often excited by the visual, that women are often excited by a
romantic story.

I am arguing that the playmate--with her story--gives the PLAYBOY
reader a more holistic sexual approach to his fantasy.  He learns
about the girl *at the same time* he sees her body on display.  Sure,
he may have "*loads* of preconceived fantasies" that will come into
play as he desires the playmate, but, if he takes the time to read her
story, he will also be able to fire his imagination in directions that
are not preconceived, that are playmate specific.

In this way, the playmate is a subtle but ingenious cross between male
and female porn.  Of course there is her beautiful body that excites
the male viewer.  But there is also the story about her background,
about her dreams, about her favorite song.  And that story, by all
accounts, is closely akin to the romance novel.

This is the point that feminists have often missed in their
condemnation of the PLAYBOY playmate as simply an object for the male
gaze: the playmate story.

regards,

Dan Stiffler