Megan McArdle

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Playboy, We Hardly Knew Ye

01 Jun 2009 04:24 pm

I could forgive the dripping misogyny, but this isn't even a little bit funny.  And I don't mean that in the feminist, "You shouldn't laugh at dumb blonde jokes!" way.  I mean, it's not funny like listening to your Great Uncle Fred do his Milton Berle impression isn't funny.  Guy Cimbalo doesn't seem to realize that just saying "fuck" a lot is no longer comedy gold.  Yet historical records indicate that it lost its shock value sometime around 1966--eighth grade graduation at the very latest.

My ex-boyfriend and I had a collection of vintage Playboys picked up at a garage sale, which we used to, yes, read for the articles.  (The centerfolds had long since been scissored out, presumably by the chap who sold them to us.)  Those were good articles, written by good writers, about interesting topics--Bill Cosby on race, William F. Buckley on religion and society, Gore Vidal on . . . Gore Vidal.    Now we have Guy Cimbalo and his Frantabulous Late-Nite Borscht Belt Shockeroos. 

Srsly?

Comments (12)

Earnest Iconoclast

Wow... I just read the first one (Michelle Malkin) and the guy is obviously off his meds. They published that? I recall some of the articles in Playboy from my younger days (after I looked at the pictures) and they were impressive (the articles). Some very good authors got their start in Playboy.

Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle (Replying to: Earnest Iconoclast)

Why is he off his meds? I am just a tad surprised that Playboy published it.

Brian Moore

The link, while admirably decorated with scantily clad beautiful women, currently reports:

"We're sorry, we couldn't find the page you requested. "


Matt B (Replying to: Brian Moore)

Yeah. I figured this was a (marginally) higher concept joke like the "miserable failure" google bomb.

Buzz Feedback

I got an error page and a nice bare ass. God Bless America.

aMouseforallSeasons

How would Gore Vidal have ever found his way to Playboy? Was he confused by the title?

Who are you, and what have you done with
Megan McCardle, Economic Illuminata ?

Playboy and Misogyny; Maybe that sells now.

Back in to Day, Things got published there
that could not make it into the MSM.
_Besides_ that, guys. Little Orphan Fanny
was an amusing variant on Candide, not
smart, but with a good heart; Not a figure of fun,
let alone contempt or hatred.

From what I have been able to piece together, I didn't read the article before it was pulled, Guy Cimbalo's piece was neither clever nor in good taste.

However, men under 35 - 25 (I can't speak for other generations) should not pretend that what is shocking about this piece is that Cimbalo thought it or even said it, but that Playboy printed it. The core concept behind this article is standard locker room fare. Every man knows this. To pretend, as some have, that this makes Cimbalo "sick" or a potential rapist is to embrace the PC elements of liberals that conservatives supposedly object to.

goyishekop (Replying to: Karl Smith)

Me, I didn't know it.

I can't speak for guys under 35--I'm 60--but I've never heard this in a locker room.

I have a varsity letter in wrestling from college, I'm a Marine combat veteran, and I've spent plenty of time with stroke mags. People tell me Playboy also has articles. I'll take their word for it.

So I'm not sheltered, and I'd be hard to mistake for a neo-Victorian prude--I promise. Or to shock.

I'm not PC, and could be an HR director's problem child. I hear and say socially unacceptable things. Being in bad taste shouldn't be outlawed.

I have not, for what it's worth, heard folks from any end of the political spectrum joke around about raping women.

That's not judging, just reporting.

Here's judging: If it's standard, locker-room fare for the under-35 crowd, that's pathetic.

Playboy was one of the leading forces that made the hideous pedophilic Bald Eagle look the height of fashion. To hell with them, let them go bankrupt.

I'm noticing a pattern: whenever MM points out a stupid article on Playboy, they take it down...

One of the primary tactics in any conflict, including a political one, is to de-humanize the opposition. Without going to the over-used examples of the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, you can even see this going back to the US Revolution and many political campaigns.

It can be overt, such as when Abe Lincoln was depicted as an ape. It can be subtle, such as when Gerald Ford was depicted as a clumsy oaf.

The intent is the same: make it "OK to hate the other side."

Liberals often use "hip-ness" as their weapon of choice. Note the recent obviously manufactured tittering around "tea bagging."

"Those idiotic conservatives have no idea what tea-bagging is."

Yes, that's right. Even though millions of us have pro-created, it's always involved a bedsheet with a hole cut in it for propriety...

And so it is here. It bothers liberals that there are attractive conservatives, since being attractive is one of the core tenets of being cool. Don't believe me? Then explain how Chauncey is now President. Even his own VP, Mr. Gaffetastic, admitted it.

This was less about Misogyny than it was de-humanizing political foes. If these 10 women are "uptight whores" then their opinions don't matter.

But, of course, their opinions DO matter. Otherwise they wouldn't have warranted being included here.

I wouldn't be happy if the name of one of my loved ones was on that list. Perversely, however, I'd be thrilled if my own name was.

Forgive me, but I do so enjoy knowing that I'm getting under a liberal's skin...

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