It's hip to be square

[Brian Sorgatz]

Steve Sloca wrote:
>By not standing up to this backlash and by failing to support the
>movement to more sexual openness, Playboy has not only abdicated its
>former leadership of the Sexual Revolution, but it has become
>identified more with the repressers than with the liberated.

Do you ever read the PLAYBOY Forum?  That part of the magazine has never 
stopped fighting the religious right and the p.c. left.

I would argue that PLAYBOY's refusal to push the envelope of explicitness ad 
infinitum shows a more truly sophisticated attitude towards sexuality.  
Margaret Mead, under the influence of the "Blank Slate" and "Noble Savage" 
doctrines of twentieth-century social science, claimed that Samoan youths 
have a free-love culture, but she was absolutely wrong.  All over the world, 
sex is tinged with mystery, ambivalence, anxiety, and, yes, shame.  PLAYBOY 
photography needs to be at least a little bit coy to tell the truth about 
the human condition.

Moreover, I would like to see PLAYBOY abandon any pretense of being at the 
forefront of the sexual revolution (except, perhaps, in its politics).  Such 
a role is admirable for a ten- or twenty-year-old institution but 
inappropriate for a fifty-year-old one.  I think PLAYBOY could turn its 
geezer image into an asset with a vigorous ad campaign identifying itself as 
"classic", similar to the liquor ads that said, "You always go back to the 
basics."

>A large reason for its
>loss of readers (and the consequent growth of non-nude men's magazines
>like Maxim) comes from Playboy's rejection by women, who have the
>power to influence their mates to avoid any association with what they
>believe to be Playboy's anti-feminism.

Maybe I don't know women as well as I think I do, but I can't believe that 
very many women see Maxim as more feminist than PLAYBOY.  If they like -- or 
at least tolerate -- Maxim more, they probably just have a problem with 
nudity.  I would guess that most women prefer PLAYBOY's touch of class to 
Maxim's unabashed sleaze.  And a "classic" ad campaign would probably 
increase PLAYBOY's cachet among women, wouldn't it?  Aren't women more 
sentimental than men about old-fashioned stuff?

Note to Peggy:  I echo Steve's hope that the text of your report is "not set 
in stone" quite yet.

Brian Sorgatz