Summary of Playboy Required Reading for lecture 14 Oct 29, 2019 PDF

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SOC 1004 Introductory Sociology
Fall 2019
Instructor: Neal King
Summary of "Playboy" required reading for Lecture 14: 29 October 2019
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Summary of Playboy _ Required Reading for lecture 14_ Oct 29, 2019 1 PLAYBOY JOINS THE BATTLE OF THE SEXES 1st issue of playboy, attacks concept of alimony Playboy  loves women, hates wives A MEN AS DOMESTIC CONSUMERS  

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First issue of the Playboy Mag. Was a success, writer of “Miss Gold Digger” and Hug Hefner got really rich Playboy as the “bible of beleaguered male” o Encouraged the sense of fraternity of male rebels o Male readers join playboy clubs, include rabbit ears insignia on car rear windows etc. o Does not need to worry about pleasing women (general audience essentially) o Used as propaganda to reclaim rights for men indoors,  Women are welcomed but only as guests Fun morality o Belief that Americans should be allowed to enjoy and feel moral, even when they are spending money o Playboy magazine took fun morality as a way of life (direct contradiction to conformity and maturity)  Completely shattered the burdensome aspects of the adult male role Playboy’s attack on conventional male roles o Owner of playboy, Hugh Hefner is against the conformity men are supposed to follow o As breadwinners and only supposed to be in monogamous marriage o Fun morality does not cover requirement of men working o Playboy claims that there can be enjoyment at work  Credited to getting Americans to work harder  Work as path to wealth, wealth as means to personal pleasure o Playboy’s philosophy on men working =/= Dale Carnegie style of male success o Playboy: Men should make money, but do not need to share it Money as battle cry for Playboy o Men made money, women want money o Men can get sex by paying a sex per pay service, no need to get marry Bottom line: playboy says men should not get married because women will take his money

B WOMEN (WIVES) AS THE OPPRESSORS 

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Playboy do not want the traditional role of dominant husband, they only want out of relationship o Married men will say they are happy in marriage, natural action because men do not want to be seen as making mistake o Making this point during a time when migration was happening in suburbs, where idea of “togetherness” is celebrated Women were against the rhetoric presented in Playboy mgs., but men love those rhetoric

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Playboy: men are slaving away at home, women as housewives enjoy cushy lives because of men’s sacrifices (saying that women unlikely to leave cushy housewives’ role even with feminist movement) o Encourage men to revolt against traditional roles of men working to support wives o Encouragement via sexy ladies to attract men to liberate themselves o Encouragement included liquor, foreign cars and fine clothes (happen on a later time than the sexy ladies) o Try to show that men can possess status of occupational hierarchy without family and wife Playboy’s critique against marriage o Vision of liberation and utopian (men reclaiming indoors and possessing unique commodity) o Playboy’s stance was never about eroticism o Playboy’s theme was always about escape  Escape from bondage of breadwinning  Eroticism was required to protect the magazine and to sell the magazine  To show that you do not need to marry to have sex

2 THE DEMOGRAPHICS OF MALE FREEDOM  

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Men used to not oppose marriage as much But in the recent years, different lifestyles appear: o Singles lifestyle and industry  bars, vacation clubs etc. o Unmarried people no longer seen as sick people Divorce no longer stigma o More likely to happen when women earn more than men in marriage o Men can leave with clean conscience Playboy encourages men to appreciate women’s assertiveness in marriage o Much easier to divorce (less guilt on the men’s part) Despite all these, men usually leave divorce with a better financial position o Men become singles o Women become single mothers

3 THE TRANSFORMATION: SOFT AND STRAIGHT 

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gays becoming more visible o no longer something that is possible to all men o but something that is visible to a specific group of men o grew to become a “racial”, minority group  gay marches, gay rights etc. acceptance of gays increases men who identify as gays: o sense of collective pride, o but also, vulnerability from harassment  replace Jews as victims of far-right people’s harassments...