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General discussion

Did Hugh Hefner win the culture wars?

Dec 2, 2003 6:29AM PST

Christianity Today recently ran an article marking the 50th anniversary of Playboy magazine. Yes, you read that right. The article, Hugh Hefner's Hollow Victory
makes for interesting reading. I've quoted from a passage early in the article:
[quote]
It's pretty hard to deny the complete cultural victory of pornography in America today. Hollywood releases 400 films each year, while the pornography industry releases 700 movies each month. The domain name business.com recently sold for a record-breaking $7.5 million?but in a recent court case, sex.com was valued at $65 million. Not surprising, since porn is, at a minimum, a $10 billion a year business. Porn stars are making their way off the screen into mainstream culture, showing up everywhere from Cannes to Maxim. Fifty years ago an American girl would have been ashamed to be seen in public with too little on. Now she's embarrassed to be seen with too much on?even if she's in church.

What we are witnessing is the work of a master, a virtuoso of the id who has wielded profound psychological insight. Thus he has altered culture with dangerous ease. Recently Hefner was asked if there was a difference between today's public response to Internet pornography and the response to those first issues of Playboy. His response:

"Well, I suppose you could find some parallels. But much of [the difference] has to do with technology. Everything, including sexual imagery, is out there now. And it's kind of like Pandora's box?you can't close it anymore." And a devilishly clever guy with a genius for marketing was the one who opened the box.[/quote]

I don't think any registration is required for the site, but IIRC the links are only good for a couple of weeks.

Discussion is locked

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I don't think so.
Dec 2, 2003 11:50PM PST

I think the war was lost much earlier when the theology of the mainline churches was gutted by the liberals, and the conservatives which remained turned their attention 'inward'.

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Re:Did Hugh Hefner win the culture wars?
Dec 3, 2003 12:02AM PST

I didn't know there was a culture war, but porn has been around since long before Playboy magazine started publication. It existed more in the shadows then, in the form of stag films and such. And of course strippers go way back and we all know what the "oldest profession" is. I went to Italy a few years ago and in Pompeii are the ruins of a brothel, complete with sexually explicit paintings on the walls. It was the only building amongst the ruins with a line waiting to get in, LOL.

Sexual repression was so stifling by the mid 50s that it's no wonder a revolution began. Are the products of that revolution good or bad? I'd say a bit of both.

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Re:Did Hugh Hefner win the culture wars?
Dec 3, 2003 12:07AM PST

I heard the other day that in the old west a picture of a naked girl was more expensive than spending time with a prostitute. Think what an issue of Playbow would have gone for!

Dan

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Re:Did Hugh Hefner win the culture wars?
Dec 3, 2003 1:19AM PST

Hi Kidd,

Not sure if Hugh is wholly responsible, but I do find it sad that all these years after suffrage and the so-called feminist women's movement, we now have adult skin-bearing fashions for pre-teen girls. I continue to be amazed by some of the clothes my female students wear (or don't wear as the case may be) in their academic pursuits. Pretty sad really.

Yeah, maybe some of our culture was overly repressive, but the current climate IMO is the ultimate expression of selfishness with a good dose of elitist rationalization.

Evie Happy