"Women get upset by this because 99 percent of us can't live up to this standard and are bothered by the idea that the men in our lives find it attractive. And many of us, myself included, don't even find these women beautiful."

uh. i don't know anyone who "reads" playboy anymore except for the articles with the ubiquity of internet porn, but you're overanalyzing it if you think that guys checking out playboy for the pictures are encapsulating some sort of beauty ideal or anything particular substantive like this. the issue is just to develop and image which will induce orgasm ASAP after masturbation. comparing women in our real lives to porn is like apples and oranges.

I hadn't seen Zobenica's essay until you linked it, and yes, it is incredible.

Your criticisms of it are a bit off the mark, though. My personal tastes run much more to the SuicideGirls side of the aisle than the Playboy Centerfold, but the fact remains that *every man has his fantasies*, and that the unattainable nature of those fantasies is what makes them so special.

I was reading an interview with a stripper once where she made a very smart point. A woman shouldn't worry if her man sometimes fantasizes about a stripper -- because the husband and/or boyfriend of that stripper is off fantasizing about someone *else*.

A fantasy doesn't mean that a 'real woman' isn't desirable - it means we're hard-wired as a species (or at least, as a gender) to still want what we can't have.

Let's not forget the democratization of airbrushing these days, too, thanks to a glorious little program called PhotoShop.

In real life, when you strip off the makeup, the heels, and the tacky outfits, those Playboy Centerfolds look a lot more like... real women.

And so-called 'real women', thanks to the wonders of PhotoShop, can all have pictures up on their MySpace where they look more like a centerfold.

Most men know that real girls don't look like Playboy Centerfolds. They don't mind that. Most men wouldn't want to date a Playboy Centerfold, honestly (at least, not for long).

Most men know that sex doesn't usually work the same in real life as it does in porn movies. And yet, despite all the hand-wringing in some quarters (Not from you, I know) about the proliferation of porn, the human race still continues to bump uglies just fine.


In short, having an unattainable fantasy doesn't denigrate real women, nor threaten their position - to achieve the fantasy would be to ruin it. Looking at Hugh Hefner, a guy who claims to "live the dream", it's hard not to feel a little *sad* for the guy. It's ruined for him.

It's the same bittersweetness that I imagine someone like Ray Bradbury or Walt Disney felt - being the creator, he's the only one who will never truly know what it's like to have that experience of looking in from the outside for the very first time.

Could you please direct me to a magazine that provides mature, sensitive, responsible fantasies that will help guys like me get off? If you don't know one, just what are you saying a mensch should do with himself?

And while you're at it, which of the popular magazines would you recommend to young women looking for a sober, trustworthy, realistic perspective?

"child-like vaginas (Playboy seems to have a policy to never show women with visible vaginal lips)"

Uncluttered vaginas are 'child-like'? Damn, I feel dirty now. I just thought they tasted better.

If it makes you feel any better, I much prefer vaginas with hair because I prefer to have sex with real women. The problem is that too many women are shaving their vaginas.

"So I think that when talking about Playboy, it's always pretty disingenuous to overlook the pictures. Because really, when reading the magazine, nobody ever does."

Really? With all the porn on the internet, I'd be surprised if most men do more than glance at the pictures in playboy. Why would one subscribe to a magazine when equally tame content is free elsewhere? Because there is some content provided by playboy that is unique, progressive, and provacative. BECAUSE OF THE ARTICLES.

If you want to complain about fake breasts and flat stomachs, you could complain about almost every single magazine that features pictures of women. You could complain about almost every television program featuring women. You could complain about the entire fashion industry, women's magazines, the health and fitness industry, and on and on. You could spend your whole day complaining.

As for hair-less vaginas, well that seems to be a reflection of the times. Looking at a pre 1995 Playboy would certainly show that this has not always been the case. But I cannot walk down the street in New York City without some salon or spa suggesting that I rid various parts of my body of hair and that my girlfriend do the same. Fashions change. Maybe I should complain that hairy men like Sean Connery are no longer the sex symbols they once were. Should I be upset and bothered that I do not have a chest like Brad Pitt's and my girlfriend thinks he is extremely attractive?

And your point suggesting that men who enjoy looking at/masturbating to picutes of women of which you do not appove cannot respect women in their lives is just ridiculous. Perhaps some cannot. But I trust and love my girfriend enough to know that she can engage in fantasies occasionally and still love and respect me.

"So I think that when talking about Playboy, it's always pretty disingenuous to overlook the pictures. Because really, when reading the magazine, nobody ever does."

As hard as it may be to believe, I have read the articles in the magazine....over and over and over. This is done so sublimely,aesthetically and dilligently..

Actually, Playbody has an incredible history of publishing the very best thinkers, writers and philosophers since the 50's.

I can't list them all here but so many of our best authors have had their work published in Heff's magazine.

Normal Mailer, Thomas Wolfe, etc. etc. just to name a few.

They've also kept a broad perspective by publishing writers who produce poems, novels and short stories based on "fiction" while incorporating non-fiction as well.

Liberation is a great thing for us guys on this one. Viva, Playboy. Just another reason to renew my subscription.

Respectfully,
vitality

I wrote a post re Zobenica, Playboy, and Maxim that's much too long to past here, so:
Link