-
Not Ready for Primetime Players
May 17, 2013 | 117 comments
-
Manny Pacquiao vs. The IRS
May 10, 2013 | 25 comments
-
Salt of the Earth?
May 3, 2013 | 44 comments
-
The Death of an Artist in Everybody’s Collection
April 26, 2013 | 6 comments
-
The Meaning of Patriots’ Day
April 19, 2013 | 88 comments
Eminentoes
Pay to Play
Authoritarian libertine Hugh Hefner turns 85 this weekend.
Hugh Hefner turns 85 this weekend. Like the creepy guy cruising the high school hangouts long after he has graduated, Hef keeps getting older but the girls stay the same age. Toupees, and their latter-day counterpart, Viagra, maintain the illusion of virility for only so long.
But it’s not the chimerical picture of youth projected by the Playboy mansion that its former denizens have seized upon for criticism. Instead, Hefner’s harem has unveiled the Playboy lifestyle’s mirage of freedom as salaried confinement.
Nobody told Izabella St. James that sexual liberation came with curfews, monitors, and allowances. A former live-in girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, St. James has come clean on the dirty life inside the Playboy mansion. The Hefner girlfriends log-out upon departing the mansion and log-in upon returning. Security personnel monitor their movements, with a strict 9 p.m. curfew imposed. Weekly allowances of $1,000, and gratis plastic surgery, keep the ladies in line. The busty blonde reflected in the Daily Mail earlier this year, “Little did I realize that by moving into the mansion I was losing all the freedom I associated with the Playboy lifestyle.”
The picture painted of the Playboy mansion by St. James and other playmates is one of joyless, obligatory orgies, dog-mess littered carpets, hall-monitor snitches, and a control-freak master of the house. Reality-television star Kendra Wilkinson, a five-year resident of the mansion, recalls: “It was way more strict than my parents had ever been.”
An authoritarian libertine is not as unusual as one might think. American history is littered with immoral moralists seeking gratification through the domination of others. As Chesterton put it, “A man must be something of a moralist if he is to preach, even if he is to preach immorality.”
Hugh Hefner is one in a long line of preachy perverts.
John Humphrey Noyes crafted a religion out of his sexual impulses. When a widow caught his eye during the late 1830s, the married Noyes devised the theological idea of Complex Marriage. Though the weirded-out widow demurred, Noyes eventually convinced other wives’ men to submit to his theological proposition of group marriage. Ultimately, he settled in Oneida, New York, and housed hundreds of his “Bible Communist” followers in his mansion-commune. There, he established a dictatorship: “I shall watch and admonish all with whom I am associated until they are without fault.” Noyes laid claim to his followers’ property, their children, and their sex lives. He chaired a committee reviewing proposals for sex, set down “Rules for Sexual Intercourse,” and ordered relatives and underage girls to share his bed. Noyes is credited with coining the phrase “free love.” Love at Oneida was anything but.
Alfred Kinsey manipulated science to give its imprimatur to his perversions. His famous postwar sexual surveys stacked sample groups with inmates, prostitutes, and gay-bar patrons to make the sex lives of the rest of society seem more like his. The Indiana University professor pushed people around like he did statistics. He demanded the sexual histories of his workers and their families — and then demanded he become part of their sexual histories. One wife recalled the pressure as “sickening,” saying she “felt like my husband’s career at the Institute [of Sex Research] depended on it.”
Wilhelm Reich believed he could free men by placing them in a box. His phonebooth-sized Orgone Energy Accumulator wasn’t the strangest thing about this strange man. The crank psychiatrist ordered his patients to undress. He later began touching them as part of therapy, and finally insisted that they attain orgasms in treatment. The domineering nature of his public practice manifested itself in his private life, in which he compelled paramours — one died in the process — to abort his children. The student of Freud’s preached freedom from the repression of civilization, but civilization took his freedom away by imprisoning him for medical fraud in the mid-1950s. His body died in prison, but his spirit resurrected during the next decade’s bacchanalia.
If you want to dominate, call yourself a liberator.
The Palestine Liberation Organization, Symbionese Liberation Army, and the Earth Liberation Front are among the self-proclaimed liberationists who have sought to impose their will on others. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner is another who has expropriated the word from its meaning.
Like most revolutionaries, the playboy general of the sexual revolution ultimately got overrun by the revolution he helped unleash. Playboy’s destruction lies less in any morals the magazine pillaged than in the barbarians it let in the gates behind it. It seems a violence to language, and to the 85-year-old publisher, to use the same word — “pornographer” — to describe both Max Hardcore and Hugh Hefner. The beautiful girls in Playboy’s pages rarely did ugly things. But the mainstreaming of one skin magazine led to the emergence of publications — and DVDs, internet sites, and phone apps — obscene but everywhere on scene.
One is tempted to view life at the Playboy mansion as a metaphor for the sexual revolution that its deed-holder did so much to bring about. What appears sexy on the surface is revealed underneath as unwanted pregnancy, social disease, and empty relationships — just as the veneer of the-House-That-Hef-Built hides the revolting sights (and smells) of dog-crap labyrinths and octogenarian orgies. But that may be too unfair to the sexual revolution, which wasn’t uniformly negative, and to Hef, whose publication of Ray Bradbury stories and thoughtful interviews with the likes of Milton Freidman made his the rare girlie magazine that occasionally made plausible the cliché about subscribing to it for the articles.
But between Playboy’s covers, as under the mansion’s covers, the women are there to serve.
Keith Richards calls Hugh Hefner a “pimp” in his recent autobiography. He’s warm, but “john” is probably a more apt description. The marketed illusion of life as the ultimate bachelor was obtained the same way gratification from a street walker is: cash. When did prostitution become sexual liberation?
Seedy is the new glamorous. An eightysomething playboy’s paid girlfriends know this better than most.
One man’s emancipation can be another’s enslavement. In Hugh Hefner’s case, one old man’s sexual liberation is a whole harem’s subjugation.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America. He blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (88) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Daniel J. Flynn
More Articles From Eminentoes
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/04/08/pay-to-play
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
The Bishop| 4.8.11 @ 7:17AM
As the od saying goes: "There's no fool like an old fool!"
Tina B| 4.8.11 @ 7:18AM
I grew up as PB grew mainstream. I was in the LA area for the formative years of my life, 4 through 26, in So Cal. Mid 1950s through late 70s.
It drug me down. Even with wonderful people, European Catholics, for parents, parochial schooling throughout, by the time I got to UC Santa Barbara I was ready to try all those things that the culture around me celebrated.
From Hefner's mansion to the rest of Hollyweird I was heavily influenced to believe the priests and nuns were hypervigilant (like my dear Dad) and the culture was right. Fun fun fun. What a lie lie lie.
The Bishop| 4.8.11 @ 7:18AM
Make that OLD. Old fingers and iPads sometimes don't mix.
Mutt the Hoople| 4.8.11 @ 7:48AM
"Fun" is a cruel god.
Kingfish | 4.8.11 @ 7:55AM
Given how stupid most of those girlfriends are, I can't say I blame him for imposing the strict rules. You can just imagine the trouble that would happen if he didn't.
RT| 4.8.11 @ 7:58AM
Tinia B., thanks for your post. You are not alone; a lot of us bought the lie, for a time, at least.
WRTolkas| 4.8.11 @ 8:01AM
Dear Mutt the Hoople,
I've just added your post to my my "Words of Wisdom" list.
Everyone, have a safe weekend,
WRTolkas
Teaghan| 4.8.11 @ 8:23AM
Women's Groups, do I hear you anywhere?
crickets........
Kristyn Komarnicki| 4.29.11 @ 3:55PM
I'll respond for the women (and sane men) I know, love, and represent: HALLELUJAH. It's so refreshing to hear a man tell the truth about this stuff. Thank you, Mr. Flynn!
If you want to know what women's groups have to say about porn, pls check out these excellent websites:
ThePinkCross.org
OneAngryGirl.net
Excellent stuff!
Mick Lee| 4.8.11 @ 8:27AM
It is a sad fact at how young women leave home for the bright lights only to drop their pants for so little. It is so depraved how men will dangle "the carrot" to take advantage of these young women.
Bill Sundling| 4.8.11 @ 8:47AM
Hugh Hefner is evil and he preached evil. Someday he'll pay for it in hell.
Nightmare on Obama Street| 4.8.11 @ 8:54AM
Among the smells catalogued in the article, the author forgot to list "old man stink" and the worse stench of all "moral decay".
The Spinster Agnes Gooch| 4.8.11 @ 9:00AM
All Men Are Beasts And We Women Are Their Innocent Victims.
Patzer| 4.8.11 @ 9:10AM
[i]Reality-television star Kendra Wilkinson, a five-year resident of the mansion, recalls: "It was way more strict than my parents had ever been,[i/]
That might have been the problem.
Anthony| 4.8.11 @ 9:17AM
Slick Willie, we've just found your next career!!!
PolishKnight| 4.8.11 @ 9:38AM
Although a grand a week doesn't sound like a lot, that is probably tax free money equivalent to a $75K a year salary with free room and board.
Considering the mess California's economy is in, these women are getting a pretty good deal.
Something I noticed about The Girls' Next Door and illustrated by the cover photo of the article: Hef's girlfriends aren't that pretty. They're ok, but they're bottle blondes with ok faces and not terribly great bodies.
Eric Cartman| 4.8.11 @ 9:44AM
Nothing like Old Spice, dog pooh, 85-year old penises and VD to turn ya on! Where's my PB key?! Are we officially over yet? If not, we're damn close.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.8.11 @ 9:47AM
Well.............
I saw my first nipple, (post weaning), in Playboy.
Yippee!
I've always liked looking at pretty girls. Even the greatest classical artists didn't have the technology of the "air-brush".
Oh my goodness, those girls were flawless. Little did I know until years later that all my adolescent fantasies had..........warts.
Heh, in Robert Heinlein's epic "Time Enough For Love" there was a hilarious discussion of the M word. I will only paraphrase. " clean, fun, never hurt anyone, but lonely".
I suspect Mr. Hef has been desperately lonely his entire life.
Eric Cartman| 4.8.11 @ 9:51AM
And whose brilliant idea at AmSpec was it to take away the "reply to this post" button? Now I have to scroll down a 100 posts to see a reply to a great post from, say, Occam's Tool, Appleby of Grz? Humph! I don't like this at all . . . nope . . . . not one bit.
Drunken Sailor| 4.8.11 @ 10:06AM
I'm with you Eric.
And it is hard to feel sorry for those girls. They wanted the glamorous lifestyle and obviously were not afraid to show their bodies to get it. They can walk out at anytime but don't because they are willing to pay the immoral price.
Ned| 4.8.11 @ 10:11AM
I just buy it for the articles. No, really...
Eric Cartman| 4.8.11 @ 10:12AM
Yup! And if they are willing to pay that price, then they shouldn't write a book complaining about it - don't want to hear it. It took me a while, but I finally understood the saying "There's no rest for the wicked". (As you may have guessed, I was tied a lot lol).
buckeyeman| 4.8.11 @ 10:13AM
RIGHT ON, ERIC CARTMAN!!!!
One of the best aspects of American Spectator has been the tasty repartee made possible by the previous format. Did some Obama voter government employee decide this? Was it vtwin?? Take it back to the way it was or else I'm going to hold my breath until the universe explodes.
Steve B | 4.8.11 @ 10:15AM
This oddly reminds me of when I was teaching English in Miss St. James home country.
A young lady had come across the word "jaded" in her reading and asked me to explain it.
I had never actually thought about it before, but off the cuff I asked her, "If you could have as much as you wanted, of everything you wanted, would you still enjoy it?"
Nunya| 4.8.11 @ 10:45AM
I'm with Cartman, I liked the "reply to this post" button, I thought it helped out the discussion and debate.
As to Playboy and Hef, like Ken (Old Texican) I too enjoy looking at beautiful women, though I was never a subsriber to any such magazine. I was thankful for the PB interview with John Lennon, but otherwise never spent much time with it.
Ken (Old Texican)| 4.8.11 @ 11:03AM
Nunya...........
I NEVER SUBSCRIBED FOR GOODNESS SAKE!
(I snuck 'em out one at a time...for cash ( snicker).
mames| 4.8.11 @ 11:06AM
When Keith Richards finds you repugnant you are really in trouble. Hugh has been the epitome of depravity and the acceptance of him in some circles of our society marked the decline of our country. He doesn't "love" women he objectifies them. Hugh brought what used to be hidden behind a counter out into the open where shame no longer exists. Unfortuneatly he is in for a shock when he meets his maker.
Seek| 4.8.11 @ 11:17AM
Daniel:
You're just jealous, baby.
"Culture war" is to moralists on the Right what "class struggle" is to moralists on the Left -- the projection of evil onto those who have more. What does Hef have to apologize for? He runs a classy magazine and reportedly gets along fine with all of his kids.
Start your own magazine and see how easy it is to run it profitably for nearly 60 years.
StarTripper| 4.8.11 @ 11:39AM
Saddest thing I ever saw was a clip of Hef's reality show when Barbi Benton visited. For all you youngsters, Barbi was Hef's main squeeze for over a year back in the 70's. When Barbi was there she started talking with Hef about some of the celebrities they knew (e.g., Mort Sahl) and Hef kind of came to life with the reminincing. His current girl friend Holly couldn't follow any of it. It was Hef getting a glimpse of one of the special joys of a commited relationship that he had traded for the sham, Viagra fueled lifestyle. Sad.
WRJonas| 4.8.11 @ 11:46AM
I guess we could say the womens movement we observe in society today is a result of the sexual liberation era . The casual and blatant use of personal sexual appeal is a staple on television, advertising , entertainment, ,real estate selling, Fox News and practically any human endeavor from tiddly winks to factory employment.
It rather degrades the phrase " merit achievement " if big teats and blond hair becomes the first criteria.
I saw a clip on Greta last night of Eva Longorias partly dressed appearance on Letterman. I was embarrassed just sitting in my living room.
Occam's Tool| 4.8.11 @ 11:46AM
This is not meant to brag, but I actually was a friendly acquaintance of The Playboy Playmate of the 1970s, Cindy Wood (the Playboy Playmate in the USO scene in Apocalypse Now. I shared a house with her sister in LA).
Cindy was actually fairly straightlaced; more so than her sister. She wasn't a brilliant woman, but she was reasonably friendly and kind. Very pretty, but some of my girlfriends were better looking.
In short, this is really just hype and garbage. Find a woman you're attracted to who you can trust to make decisions about your ventilator. You do that, you're doing much better than Hef.
Occam's Tool| 4.8.11 @ 11:47AM
Eric, thank you for the kind words. YOU are greatly appreciated here, my friend.
Padoux| 4.8.11 @ 11:49AM
At age 65 I've seen the Playboy fantasy business over the years. It has always seemed a childish, silly, trivialization of human sexuality. Seeing old Hef with all the young bodies he surrounds himself with is pathetic. I guess some people, even in their eighties never grow up.
vtwin| 4.8.11 @ 12:01PM
What, y’all expect middle class values from the RICH?
Bob Grant| 4.8.11 @ 12:09PM
This explains alot about Ken's( Old Texican) obsession with Mrs. Palin.
Tom| 4.8.11 @ 12:16PM
My Grandmother was friends with hefner's Mother. They attended the same church. After her death, I discovered a trove of letters and greeting cards from hefner's Mother to my Grandmother. They dated from the "fifties up through the 'seventies.
Her Chrismas Cards were of the "This Year's Family Happenings" style. There were LOTS of "tidbits" about "hef" and his "exploits".
"hef's" Mom was NOT "thrilled" with his "lifestyle" and had NO compunctions about sharing that with my Grandmother.
I tossed the archive. In retrospect, I almost wish I'd published them.
ConChef(NB) | 4.8.11 @ 1:04PM
I'm with the rest of the regulars here. Where's the "Reply to This" button? I haven't been here in ages & they change the format up on me? What the heck?
As for Playboy, I'm a little younger than some posters here (32), but that magazine was pretty good when I was in high school & first in college. And I'll never forget that the 2 best articles I read in it were about the Moscow theater siege/debacle & the MIT Blackjack Team. Both TERRIFFIC articles. But Ole Heff needs to hang it up, methinks.
(The Poster Formerly Known As NavyBrat)
Dixie Pixie| 4.8.11 @ 1:39PM
Hugh Hefner has pulled of the ultimate Liberal con job.
He has convinced the public to supply him with a hedonistic life style second only to the Roman Emperor Tiberius and his pleasure palace on Capri.
By convincing the public he was a defender of First Amendment Rights against Middle Class Righteousness, Hefner established that a hedonistic life was the embodiment of Liberty.
Hypocrisy could not be more twisted than Hugh Hefner's life.
He is the ultimate Kennedy Democrat!
PS....Webmaster Please bring back the (Reply To) function.
Liberalism can only be helped by the stifling of Conservative debate and repartee.
The Widow Fenstermacher| 4.8.11 @ 1:47PM
Women should wear modest clothing, practical shoes, their hair in a bun & stay well clear of most men or they too could meet a similar fate.
Steve B | 4.8.11 @ 2:06PM
Yet what really puzzles me is, why have a harem if they're all of a type? In Hef's case, hyperpneumatic blonds.
Doesn't he see the variety of beauty in Asian, Amerindian, Somali, Balinese, etc women?
CalMark| 4.8.11 @ 2:09PM
Some years ago, Hefner was featured on the Biography Channel. It shows a sickening scene of him wearing a thick sweater thrown professorially over his shoulder--blaming his parents for what he had become, whining that they were good, decent people but didn't hug him enough.
He is a wicked old degenerate who has done tremendous damage to our society.
Joe D.| 4.8.11 @ 2:40PM
Mr. Flynn, your article is good for bring out the hypocrisy of Hugh. However, you did not need to water it down with moral relativion. What he and others like him did to American is nothing short of evil. And there is nothing good about sick, pervert of a man.
vtwin| 4.8.11 @ 3:24PM
buckeyema, wasn’t my idea to change the format. I really miss the back and forth with my conservatives friends.
Dixie Pixie| 4.8.11 @ 3:52PM
Hugh Hefner is the ultimate Kennedy Democrat
What else would explain the Marilyn Monroe clone.
PS....Not having the (Reply To) function is really annoying Webmaster.
Not being able to place it in context with the proper post makes a quip cryptic.
The Big E| 4.8.11 @ 4:17PM
Let me throw my two cents worth in on the most important subject being discussed in these comments:
PLEASE BRING THE REPLY TO COMMENT BUTTON BACK!!!!!!!
Derek Leaberry| 4.8.11 @ 4:37PM
Sad to say, Hefner has had a greater influence on American society than most of the presidents of his lifetime. Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Dwight Eisenhower and George HW Bush are afterthoughts in comparison and Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy's list of accomplishments pale in comparison. Western morals have steadily declined since the rise of Hefner. Even Antonio Gramsci could not have made up the personage of Hefner in his wildest, perverse dreams.
Tina B| 4.8.11 @ 5:55PM
I don't get the whole REPLY TO button thing.. Call me stupid, but not to my face, how does it work differently?
You see I'm a baby at this, I've only been responding since my hubby died last May, and I never noticed what was different then, when I saw the button regularly. I guess I just read aricles, usually go to the responses and enjoy all of them, except Jharp and his G-- you people are whatever bs. And Seek you're comments and challenges are pretty pathetic too, in MHO.
However I enjoy reading you all, and when I feel the passion strike me I post a response. I know I get preachy, but 'm like that and all my homies love me anyway.
But you all, especially you well educated and articulate, and often oh so funny, posters are a delight to me, and yes I sometimes go hunting for "REPLies TO" me and love it. Even if I am called a lazy, or ignorant or currupt liberal school teacher, I know I am really amazingly busy all day long, I am world traveled and both self and university educated, I bought none of the shit sold by the liberal profs I studied for in the 7 colleges/unies I attended, I am well versed in apologetics (thanks to Ravi Z and his crew at RZIM) and I teach good solid math and Life 101 all day long and have for 20 of my 61 yrs on this gorgeous planet made by my Best Friend,
so tell me about the missing "REPLY TO" button again??? :-]
Tina B| 4.8.11 @ 5:57PM
oopsie, to Seek : *your (wrong usage of the apostrophe version, my faux pas)
reader| 4.8.11 @ 6:24PM
It's one thing to write about Hugh Hefner, but why must you lard up the piece with untrue claims about Alfred Kinsey. It is appalling to claim that a scientist would manipulate statistics without providing any substantiation. For shame.
Tina B| 4.8.11 @ 6:47PM
Are you whack? Manipulate stats isn't the half of it. He manipulated the people in the name of science. It is well known by now, and, if you had been around then, you would know that no normal person would have allowed the research he conducted on both adults (weak minded or just plain lame-os) and inncoent children.
Then he pursued his evil plan and published the tripe and sold it to polite society, just like old Hef. I too can't wait for the day Hef has to say "Helloooooooooooooo God!"
DonBaltimore| 4.8.11 @ 7:12PM
I loved Playboy in the Sixties when I was a Submarine Sailor, and occasionally looked at it over the years with delight. I assumed the girls were having a good time too. Two years ago I bought another dirt cheap subscription.... I could not stand it, it turned me off. I see how Liberal, and left they really are. So now I'm reading Popular Mechanics....much more conservative. I must be old!
scythe| 4.8.11 @ 7:12PM
"If you want to dominate, call yourself a liberator." - Just like the Soviet Union and all the fellow travelers in America today. The left follows Orwell: slavery is freedom. Looking for that ol' time religion? Check out the preacher man...Harry Reid.
Dixie Pixie| 4.8.11 @ 7:14PM
Tina....It is a pity I can not properly reply to your question ;-)
The TAS Webmaster has taken away the (Reply To) function :-(
The (Reply To) function allowed a back and forth debate and repartee in response to the original thread poster :-)
A TAS reader could take original author's ideas or concepts in new directions by commenting on the comment :-}
Instead, I am reduced to posting on the main thread instead of branching off your post to answer your question :-|
As a result you may or may not know the attempt was made to answer you :~(
It is also confusing to the other TAS Readers as the Main Thread now consists of a stream of disjointed conversations :~|
Worse, the TAS Readership is reduced to shouting lectures at each other without any feedback :~[
PS....Webmaster, Please bring back the (Reply To) function, as little Tina B's growth as a TAS Reader has been stifled.
And you don't want Tina B to be stifled do you ?:-)
BadMonkey| 4.8.11 @ 7:42PM
I'd take pornography over religion any day!
Frisbee| 4.8.11 @ 7:51PM
Excellent article Daniel. Kinsey aside, I think nobody did more harm to culture in America than Hefner. Without his 20 years of soft core porn, there would have been no abortion license in 1973.
Frisbee| 4.8.11 @ 7:53PM
By the way, that wax dummy on the right looks a lot like Hefner's first victim, Marilyn Monroe.
PCP Smoker| 4.8.11 @ 8:44PM
Not a bad deal if you are on the good side of the orgy.
Petronius| 4.8.11 @ 9:04PM
Another one to file under
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be. The facade continues to weather. Satisfaction grows more elusive. And true happiness is unmentioned as it is almost unknown.
What Hef and his company accomplished was a primer of self indulgence to those who succumbed to the forbidden fruit syndrome on the cheap. Ferraris being above Homer's pay grade, he was quite sated with the centerfold and the jokes. We considered Playboy a fringe benefit in the post office. There was always a "dead", (undeliverable) copy in the break room back then. No More. Does anyone still subscribe? Does anyone over 50 remember anyone who did? Sic biscutis dissintegra.
Alan Brooks| 4.8.11 @ 9:44PM
Sex in the 21st century isn't wicked-- it's only boring. If only sex were wicked-- boy, that would be fun! bring back the dirty old man in the park wearing a raincoat and peddling dirty photographs.
Dee See| 4.8.11 @ 10:46PM
'These people have no nakedness,
and never did."
D H Lawrence
essays
1919
Hefner, with a family bakground in the
long Freemason/Arminian controlled
Baptist church was almost certainly 'set up'.
CHECK IT OUT
Clint| 4.8.11 @ 11:08PM
As They Say In Boston." Brooks is Wicked Boring."
Rowdy Boots| 4.8.11 @ 11:46PM
The tragedy is that
NOT ONE OF THESE WOMEN KNOW HOW STUPID THEY LOOK WITH THIS CLOWN.
and,
that many of the young naive girls that will look up to them will be made vulnerable by what these crass, ignorant women model.
SHAME ON YOU AMERICA
Rowdy Boots| 4.8.11 @ 11:46PM
The tragedy is that
NOT ONE OF THESE WOMEN KNOW HOW STUPID THEY LOOK WITH THIS CLOWN.
and,
that many of the young naive girls that will look up to them will be made vulnerable by what these crass, ignorant women model.
SHAME ON YOU AMERICA
somnolence| 4.9.11 @ 12:28AM
I stopped subscribing to Sports Illustrated years ago because of the annual Swimsuit Issue, as I felt that this had nothing to do with athletics. But I guess in the mind of someone like Hefner it has everything to do with athletics. Class is in the eye of the beholder. I do know that Al Goldstein and Screw Magazine were much more honest than Hefner could ever dream of being.
Pelligrino| 4.9.11 @ 3:37AM
Hey, scum at Am. Spectator Online, dump this trashy article photo of Pimp Hef with the four blonde bimbos. NOW!
Flynn wants to say Hef's life and lifestye are seedy...well so is American Spectator. Once more, you stoop. You demonstrate the media's ever-present, disgusting "sex sells" strategy.
Dump the photo. Show one of just Hef, just him. Show how he really looks now at 85. A craven, depraved, bent, vile, meaningless excuse for a man.
Yes, the one with the empty eyes. That's the truth. Not this made-up glam picture.
Or do you really envy the man and his hedonism?
Dump the bimbos photo. Or do you want to be taken seriously as a news and commentary site?
This had to be your lead story for a Friday to Sunday? (Ah, yes, even soft sex sells.)
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.9.11 @ 4:30AM
The women on Hefner's left have breasts that are much larger then the women on his right. Is he left handed?
somnolence| 4.9.11 @ 9:37AM
You are right about the advertising media and in fact, the MSM at large being infatuated with sex. Just take a look at the recent Hardees commercials with Miss Turkey, and the one they had several months back with the Texas Cowgirl. Cialis and Viagra are peddled like candy at all hours of night. America has indeed become an endless bacchanal complete with STDs and all kinds of illegitimacy generation following generation, courtesy of "icons" like the pitiful portrait of the person above who has laughed all the way to the bank since the early Fifties. Pitiful for all of us indeed.
Grandmother Gertrude Crabtree| 4.9.11 @ 10:49AM
Ladies, I've found that it's best to have relations with most of my clothes on, the lights turned out and my eyes closed, while humming, "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar".
Then we can get back to our other women's work.
somnolence| 4.9.11 @ 11:09AM
I'm sure that Grandmother Crabtree would agree that intimacy is just that, intimate. It really isn't to be shared with the rest of the world. I don't really give a damn how often someone copulates, or its depictions of how its done, clothed or unclothed, whether its my next door neighbor or Hugh Hefner trying to raise a hard. My point is that true intimacy flies out the window and a topic that should be the domain of rational adults has been trivialized to candy store availability or meat market perusal. The whole NOW movement and its anthem by Reddy has actually been shown to have been very shallow, but sadly, it trifled with the minds of many a macho man who started wondering since I got mine she hates me because she didn't get hers nonsense, and Carmen, Delilah, and Salome still laugh about like overgrown schoolgirls. My, what nice lace stockings you have, Grandma.
Grandmother Gertrude Crabtree| 4.9.11 @ 11:16AM
I always made Mr.Crabtree put money in the cookie jar after we did the horizontal mambo. He was a frugal man and it made him think twice before he jumped my bones.
Glein| 4.9.11 @ 12:36PM
The trouble today is that people confuse sex with love and intimacy. Without love and intimacy, sex is just a mechanical act. The wisdom is knowing the difference. Hefner still has not figured that out after all these years. Sad!
Slingshot| 4.9.11 @ 2:52PM
That is not Hugh Hefner. Hefner died years ago. That is either a mannequin or a cardboard cut-out. If you don't believe me, just look at any photo of "Hef" taken in the last several years. Is that not a prop? The exact same facial expression, the same goofy grin? He's fake, I tell you, just something to keep the Playboy myth alive with. Would a real man want four copies of exactly the same woman, a Monroe clone? No, a real live man would want some variety. I rest my case.
Truth is King| 4.9.11 @ 6:33PM
"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:11 & 12.
It is often said that us Right Wing Christians want to tell everybody else what to do. Nah, it ain't true. We say do as you must. Vengeance belongs to God.
Toodles.
Pelligrino| 4.9.11 @ 7:50PM
American Spectator staff:
It is now the close of the day Saturday EST.
And you did not listen. So I will negatively impact you where I can, via lost readership, web hits, potential subscriptions.
Please inform your online readers why the Hugh Pimp Hef story AND larger color picture had to be the HEADLINER for an entire 3-day period.
While you do, I will steer away students who I used to suggest American Spectator as a very viable, useful, serious new source.
No more.
Obviously you are not. Adios.
You see, I don't want to look like an idiot guiding young minds, talents, and lives toward something that wallows in the gutters.
Oh, you couldn't do a story on the sleeze without offering a full-color pictoral?
Yes, you'll do anything for a tease and MONEY. Great ethics. Empty souls = no substance.
Mark R| 4.9.11 @ 8:40PM
A man takes to lust;
The lust takes to more lust;
The lust takes the man---
A play on the old AA saying but true none the less- men like Hefner are empty suits who as they grow older become only facsimiles of what they used to be. Their soul was sold for a lie- "eternal youth". Men in their youth look to these men in awe thinking "If only...." Not realizing that they will pay a soul destroying price- as the need for the fix of more never is satiated. Today we live in a world that worships the body and ignores the soul. Walk into a room with a cigarette in your mouth and see the look a person used to incur for profanities proceeding from their mouths. Now its an inversion of morality- its immoral or weird (same in our society) to be moral sexually and its moral to worship the dying body. Go figure. Funny: that I heard in the latter times things would progress this way.
Dacron Mather| 4.9.11 @ 9:33PM
Heffner's decline into dementia seems to parallel Mr. Flynn's ; another decade of decline, and both may fall victim to Mormon missionaries .
WGMOW| 4.10.11 @ 12:51PM
Hey, nobody nobody drugged them and dragged them into the Playboy Mansion: they went on their own free will. They could have left too, but I suppose most of these dumb bunnies were marginally smart enough to know that they didn't stand too much of a chance at getting a high-paying gig anywhere else. I am just really, REALLY tired of sex kittens and rich men's wives whining about how they were ill-treated and abused. He girls, if you wanted to be an astronaut, banker, or brain surgeon you should have at least graduated from high school. If you had spent just 20% on your brain that you did on your t!t$ and a$$ you could have been something else. So, now just shut up and play...
Alan Brooks| 4.10.11 @ 7:44PM
I could have been a playboy bunny but I never had the money for an operation, instead I spent my life servicing drug addicts, drunken celebrities and liberal policticans in public toilets. I want the government to pay for my back and knee problems.
Dennis| 4.10.11 @ 8:37PM
I'd like to have one test: take away Hef's money, mansions, etc and see how long those buxom blonds hang around. Not very I suspect...
cari| 4.10.11 @ 10:34PM
Diseased Old Man, wonder how many women he infected with his various STD's?
Dee See| 4.10.11 @ 10:52PM
AGAIN, like so many in the 60's 'counterculture'
Hefner was, like Gloria Steinem and Timothy
Leary and William Burroughs etc. etc. ---an in the loop, totally connected, totally on board, totally engineered front op..
EUGENICS (i.e. population extermination) via
social decay and degradation was the aim.
The question is no longer who was a front ---but rather was there anyone who wasn't?
Alan Brooks| 4.11.11 @ 12:48AM
"I could have been a playboy bunny but I never had the money for an operation, instead I spent my life servicing drug addicts, drunken celebrities and liberal policticans in public toilets. I want the government to pay for my back and knee problems."
Clint, when you write something like this using another's name, you are worse than a libertine, you are an ID thief.
And a catamite.
LED Tube | 4.11.11 @ 1:46AM
dear America next time dont elect undeclared muslim radical anti Americans as your leader ok?
assuming you make it until next time because come this or that your leader is trying to gut your country and its standing in the world
KyMouse| 4.11.11 @ 10:14AM
Those of us who came of age in the Sixties realized, if we had any sense at all, that the right to say "yes" to a guy was quickly becoming the obligation to say "yes" (just as with abortion, the right to kill a baby often becomes the obligation to do so).
My parents taught me that, when I young man took me out on a date, all that he should expect from me was the pleasure of my company. I was never to accept gifts of a personal or expensive nature, including jewelry or clothing (cf. today's gifts of pajamas or underwear) unless the young man and I were engaged.
And we were never to be in a house (or a bedroom, if others were around) alone together.
I wonder how many guys date a gal if there is no chance for sex. When a young female friend lamented to me that she felt pressure from guys she dated, I advised her never to go to their rooms or apartments, and to double date.
She looked at me as if I were crazy. Not go to a man's apartment with him? "But he'll dump me," she said.
It has been men who have benefitted from the "sexual revolution," because they can have all the sex they want without any accountability -- gone are the days of "having to get married" and "doing the honorable thing." A woman who enters into a sexual relationship with a man, hoping it will lead to marriage, is likely to put up with more than she would otherwise, including abuse. Breaking up is much easier to do if sex has not been part of the relationship.
Wise up, women.
Lisa| 4.11.11 @ 3:15PM
I can't muster too much sympathy for St. James, Wilkinson, and the other bleached blonde bimbos who made a deal with this devil. Would Wilkinson be marginally-famous today had she not been one of Hefner's professional girlfriends?
Lisa| 4.11.11 @ 3:21PM
@Frisbee -- Hefner and Monroe never met. He bought the publishing rights to two of the pics shot during the now-notorious nude calendar shoot Monroe did in 1948, and used them in the first issue of Playboy.
kingsmill| 4.11.11 @ 4:56PM
"Sex is the mysticism of materialism and the only possible religion in a materialistic society."-Malcolm Muggeridge
“The orgasm has replaced the cross as the focus of longing and fulfillment”-Malcolm Muggeridge
Creative Recreation | 8.10.11 @ 10:36PM
is good