PLAYBOY in a marriage culture

[Bachelor NumberOne]

Peggy said:

>The bachelor is no longer such an endangered species,
>and times have changed such that men no longer require a championing
>voice leading them away from the oppressive altar.


This isn't necessarily true. All my friends are married and I am still the 
butt of every "singles" joke. Their wives believe that there must be 
something wrong with me, since I don't have a steady girlfriend, but they 
won't set me up with any of their girlfriends because, since I'm a bachelor, 
then I must be a "player". Their wives don't trust me to go out with their 
husbands on so called "boys night out" because they believe I will lead 
their husbands astray. Yet, it's always the married guys who get the idea to 
go to the gentlemen's club and look at strippers. As well,  most of these 
guys just complain to me about being married when we do get out. If these 
women only knew!  Attitudes haven't really changed.

I don't mind this attitude toward the bachelor lifestyle since being a 
bachelor is great! Playboy should revive this attitude in their magazine. 
Hugh Hefner used to be a symbol of the ultimate bachelor, but now I think he 
is too old for this image and his partying and acting like a thirty year old 
just emphasizes the "grandfather" image of the magazine. He needs to step 
down and create a new "mascot" to represent the bachelor lifestyle. In fact, 
the whole magazine needs a facelift.

I agree that Playboy should stay out of frat houses, since most of these 
young men don't have the maturity and confidence to be called bachelors yet, 
but I think that Playboy should still model itself as the ultimate handbook 
for the bachelor. Magazine's like GQ and Esquire or even Maxim, all touch a 
little bit on the theme, but none are as all encompassing as Playboy used to 
be. Remember the old ads?  What sort of man reads Playboy?  This is the 
essence of what Playboy should model itself after; the bachelor lifestyle. 
Although that lifestyle has changed because of changing attitudes toward 
marriage, I believe that Playboy should still represent what a single, 
sophisticated male would want out of life.

If Playboy was a little mix of The Economist, GQ, Esquire, Maxim, Stuff and 
Sports Illustrated plus lots of Playmates all rolled into one magazine, I 
think it would be the ultimate male magazine that all others would model 
themselves after, Unfortunately this is not the case. I think it has failed 
in its level of sophistication and still has a problem with its image. It 
needs to set the bar, not follow it!

Kaminsky has failed in that he has just modeled the magazine after Maxim and 
as Hefner puts it "dumbed down the articles" This is a huge mistake.  I could 
go on and on about this and write an essay on Playboy's image, but I believe 
a lot of people probably get my point.

Martin