1. I have a few thoughts on the political economy of Playboy (vis a vis the Golden Age of American capitalism & baby boom).
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6. To all these newly married men in suburbs, Playboy sold an aspirational fantasy: think of how much fun you could have if you were single
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7. There were plenty of girlie magazines around before Playboy. Hefner's innovation was to tie soft-core porn to upscale consumer lifestyle
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8. Barbara Ehrenreich's "Hearts of Men" is the best account we have of Playboy as male consumerist utopian project.pic.twitter.com/F8YbZeV3eF
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9. Playboy's circulation peaked in mid-1970s, just as Golden Age Capitalism hit its apogee & began its long decline.
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10. Post Affluent Society, Playboy persists but it's no longer aspirational (who can afford lifestyle?). Rather it is nostalgic.
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11. This is a crucial point: the fantasy is not just enjoying the Playboy lifestyle but being envied for doing so: https://twitter.com/trash__fire/status/913791334405824512 …
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12. One of the reasons to revisit Ehrenreich's great 1983 book is she makes clear that Hefner's project was a consciously capitalist onepic.twitter.com/nrUkYDnwai
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13. It's not just Hefner wanted to make money (duh!) but that he believed (correctly!) Playboy lifestyle would bolster capitalist system
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14. Industrial capitalism merely colonized the physical world. Hefner was one of the pioneers of colonizing the dream life of humanity.
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15. More thoughts on Hefner, Ehrenreich, and Playboy's place in history:https://newrepublic.com/article/145097/hugh-hefners-incomplete-sexual-revolution …
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End of conversation
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