Playboy: I Read the Articles

Now as many of you may know I have made no bones about my love of the famous Men’s Magazine and I have never tried to cover it up when people come to my home and this has been met by various reactions though not as many as you may think.

I am reminded of a Decade and a half ago when I was 20 hanging out with The Gang and my girl and she was giving me a hard time when she saw the stack of Playboys sitting on my desk to which I stated “I Read the Articles”. This fact was soon verified by my friend Slick who stated it as an almost annoying part of my personality. 

Yes I read the Articles. I’ve been saying it for years now…it has had its fair share of controversies. The truth is that many who see the Brand of Playboy or the iconic Bunny find themselves unable to see past the fact that there are pictures of women without their clothes inside the magazine.

The Lifestyle is what appeals to me. Great Times Beautiful women and intelligent conversations and views on life and freedoms. I like the music and the movie recommendations and the leisure.  

I remember getting my first Playboy in the mid-1990s and like many young boys you think it is going to be cover to cover naked ladies and then you open the pages and after sifting through the many advertisements there are far more articles on politics, relationships, life and the pursuit of the good materials. 

Not too long after this when I would flip through the pages some articles would catch my attention and I would stop and read them and eventually I was buying the magazine more for the articles rather than the pictures especially after the internet came along and you can get much better nudie pics there.

Founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner, Playboy became the magazine for upwardly mobile young men who lived hard and partied hard as well. Leading to television shows like Playboy after Dark, a TV channel and Clubs and Casinos all across the earth.

The Lifestyle presented within it’s pages was that of the Jet Setting bachelor that lived well had a great time and the ladies adored. Jazz music was loved and Literature abounded.

Playboy’s articles range from the in-depth interviews with various personalities to drink recipes utilizing which liquor is sponsored by the magazine. 

The Magazine would also feature Adult cartoons and illustrations such as Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder's Little Annie Fanny and The works of Dean Yeagle and many more artists.

I personally like the work of Doug Sneyd

I like the interviews due to the fact that sometimes the subject goes off on topics from their work or politics and anything goes in them.   Many will claim that Jimmy Carter was cost reelection due to his interview in Playboy. Jesse Ventura’s interview stirred up much controversy as did recently Gary Oldman.  My favorite was Pierce Brosnan's interview from 2005 

The fiction in the magazine featured many of the best writers of our time Many of Ray Bradbury’s works were published in the magazine as Arthur C. Clarke, Chuck Palahniuk, Ian Flemming’s 007 stories and many other fictional greats of the modern age.  

I have always held the pictures to a different Standard. There was a day when being selected to be a Playmate was a honor and it looked great on the resume for a young model and took your career to a different level.

I personally prefer the artistic direction of the pictures such as the fact that many of them tell a story for the subjects and their personality and the camera itself is a character and the object of the model’s affections.

I mostly like the work of Arny Freytag as I have always wanted to shoot in his style and lately I have become a fan of Cassandra Keyes.

The truth is that admitting that you were a reader  has not always simple because at some point the powers that be deemed playboy to be pornography and I have never considered this to be true and at one point I had a “friend” threaten my life because I would not adhere to his views on the subject.

There was even an article in the September 1997 Issue where in the Forum there is an article where the writer logs his experiences while publicly reading the magazine with the reactions of those around him. While many simply ignored him he seemed to take more angry looks from men that were with their women than the ones that you would expect to have these problems.

All that I have encountered with  reading the magazine in public are various snickers and comments from various males and it is also the experience with buying it in stores as when you were younger there was always the funny exchange in trying to be nonchalant. Granted I never had this problem as I was never embarrassed when buying an issue. As a matter of fact there was a memorable occasion where I had a funny exchange with the checkout girl at Barnes and Noble where I was buying an issue, She agreed that there were better pictures on the Internet.

Now in the past couple of years it has gotten easier with the use of an IPad or Tablet of your choosing with the IPlayboy as you can read any issue including the current issue and the back issues all for the monthly price of $8.99 which is the price of a single issue which I will recommend to all of you 

In recent years there have been quite a few changes in the company. In 2009 Hugh Hefner’s daughter resigned from the company which she had worked as CEO for decades and the current CEO Scott Flanders has stated to the Wallstreet Journal that the company was quickly becoming a primarily a branding company.

This would explain why you are often seeing the logo pop up on many products from Cologne,  Energy Drinks, Tobacco Products, Barware and ,mostly women’s clothes and accessories.

Playboy Magazine’s primary compeditor is none other than Maxim which has gained ground in the past two decades and is able to expand it’s distribution due to the fact more newsstands are willing to carry them, Where Playboy’s distribution has gone down in recent years due to the opposite effect as many news vendors consider this as adult content. Also let us face it the newsstand is quite frankly going the way of the Dodo.

There also had been some recent changes to the website. The creation of the Playboy Now App and Smoking Jacket.com which has now become Playboy.com featuring articles, games, etc. The Website has also dropped nudity with the exception of PlayboyPlus.com.

It was recently announced that Playboy Magazine will no longer be publishing nudity in the magazine and while I understand this direction I have to say that I am not too happy with it.  Not just due to the lack of nude playmates but I like the nude cartoons as well. I honestly like the more adult magazine that I can read without Standards and Practices.

Now that PlayboyPlus has openly stated that it will keep the nudes ,it isn’t that too big of a deal and will be a great way to sell memberships to the site.

What I will miss is the cartoons and illustrations and the Adult Humor in the magazine. I hope that this aspect of the magazine remains but I will miss the nudity there.

Playboy now has the chance to prove that it is the articles and the lifestyle that carries it and not the nudity and I am curious in the direction that this will take.