Playboy: Principia; and The Next Generation

[Peggy Wilkins]

I have greatly enjoyed reading the various responses to our initial
question, What Is Playboy?  Your contributions confirmed that Playboy
has touched each of us in very personal ways.  We first saw the
magazine out of curiosity, or via happenstance, and found something in
it that we responded to that went beyond initial expectations.  Both
Dan and Raymond remarked on a strong personal identification felt with
the magazine: its content mirrors their interests, the history of
their lives, and even all of American culture for the latter half of
the 20th century.  Dan early on perceived the magazine as something
valuable, actually burying it underground as if it were treasure.  At
first, it was stashed away, hidden from view; later, as we grew up and
saw its value as a total package, it was left out proudly in plain
view and was even displayed on the walls in our homes.  It reflected
and influenced style.  Dan, Alfred, and I each especially remember the
covers, Dan calling his second viewed Playboy cover "unforgettable".
To Juan, Playboy stood out in stark contrast to the censorship in
Argentina and represented a different, better life.  To Dianne,
Playboy stood up publicly to face controversial issues, and in so
doing contributed to making important and sorely needed changes in
American culture.

These points we have made are not insignificant: they point to the
vision that has driven the magazine's content, and to the editorial
zeal (to use Dianne's wonderfully apt phrase) that has been so plainly
evident in that content.

What I would like to do next is twofold.

In my post of October 31, I generalized Playboy's impact on me by
listing five attributes that I thought defined Playboy.  To see that
list, go to the bottom of the message; it is in the message archive at
http://mozart.lib.uchicago.edu/pipermail/playboy50/2002-October/000006.html.
As I have said, I feel that a list of such attributes is valuable
because it explicitly defines the vision that drives Playboy's
content.  My question to you all is, would you add any further points
to these?  Please send anything you can think of and we can discuss.
Don't worry about phrasing them perfectly, we can edit them as we go
along.  I would like to end up with what we feel is as complete and
well-expressed a list as is possible.

For the second topic, I would like to change our point of view from
the past to the future.  What specific changes, new content, or other
innovation would you suggest for Playboy magazine?  To be a bit more
challenging: can you fit these suggestions into the articulated view
of the magazine we are trying to get at in the above paragraph, either
in whole or in part?

If there are particular suggestions that generate a lot of interest,
we can separate them out for more detailed discussion later.

I will be writing about this in some detail, so my own contribution
may be a bit delayed.  This should be very interesting!
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Peggy Wilkins                                         mozart@uchicago.edu
Marilyn on the Web                 http://glamournet.com/legends/Marilyn/
Admin, Playboy Mailing List            http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PML1