January 26, 2009
The Original Playboy Aesthetic
From an article about Hefner:
The centerfold’s signature is what we might call the “Playboyaesthetic”—something responsible both for Playboy‘s long run of success and its schmaltziness. As Hefner put it in a letter to Russ Meyer (director of Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill!), the ideal centerfold is one in which “a situation is suggested, the presence of someone not in the picture.” The goal was to transform “a straight pinup into an intimate interlude, something personal and special.” Playboy readers are meant to be participants, not voyeurs. Hefner’s vision of American sexuality was a distinctly pasteurized one—sex cleansed of its ugly (and often exciting) power plays. “Clean sex,” he insisted, “has greater appeal than tawdry sex.” Strippers, threesomes and S&M had no place in his magazine. The Playboy centerfold was a world away from the European ideal of a sexually-sophisticated temptress. Hefner’s girls were always girls, first of all, or bunnies— not women. There was no knowing gleam in a centerfold’s eye.
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Gauzy coronas of pubic hair, technicolor dreampubes of every shade.
It’s become my guilty pleasure to check out the reviewer’s Tumblr blog each day. Girl has chops.
Fantastic link, Mike! Girl does have chops.