Tag Archives: journalism

Using Playboy to Peek into Feminist History

Debbie says:’

Gloria Steinem as Playboy Bunny with feminist captioning

Susan Braudy’s long piece at Jezebel, “Up Against the Centerfold: What It Was Like to Report on Feminism for Playboy in 1969″ is (constructively) less about Playboy than it is about her own feminist trajectory.

When you read these quotations, or Braudy’s whole essay, please bear in mind that, although Roxanne Dunbar(-Ortiz) gets one passing mention, it is entirely about white women, and thus replicates the great failing of contemporary feminism throughout most of its history (Laurie and I have a post in process about this).

Braudy brings in a surprise early:

Jim Goode, Playboy’s articles editor, … explained that Playboy wanted an objective account of the entire spectrum of the brand new “women’s lib” movement. “These women have important things to say, and I want our readers to hear them,” he said. “Let yourself go. Write anything you like but don’t pass judgment. Be fair.”

He concluded, “Write in a tone that’s amused if the author is amused, but never snide.”

He was more open-minded than Braudy was at that time.

At meeting after meeting I heard a wide range of women speak passionately or woodenly about their “women’s rage.” They hurled questions: Why did men insist they were “helping” a woman do her job if they did housework? Should women compete for power outside the home like men? Would women ever be as free to enjoy sex as men?

Yet I wasn’t ready to make the leap from anecdotes to political analysis. Of course I saw my husband as my superior intellectually and socially; that’s largely why I was drawn to him. I hadn’t consciously dared to resent this. I’d been given many votes of no confidence by men trusted with my higher education. My philosophy professor had given me an A before he bought me a chocolate chip ice cream cone and advised me to quit grad school and get married.

Braudy interviewed Ti-Grace Atkinson:

I said I loved my husband and I would have married him eventually, graduate school or no. But I had suffered during the early years of our marriage because my husband seemed so confident in his identity and work as a Yale graduate student of English, whereas I had no goal, except the marriage. “I pity you,” she said tears brimming her eyes. “How can you love the oppressor?”

… she added, though her manner belied the harshness of her words, that since I was taking advantage of the feminist movement to further my ambitions, I should expect little sympathy from her when Playboy put me out with the trash. 

The article takes us through meeting with Gloria Steinem (pictured above as a younf Playboy Bunny in a nightclub) and marching with Betty Friedan. Steinem recently made me and my younger colleagues furious by making  inexcusable comments about young women’s role in the current political process, which she has since retracted.)

While Jim Goode liked Braudy’s article, the story was not over:

I chatted with Nat Lehrman, the associate publisher and self-described “sex editor.” He (joked about castrating women, nervously jingling coins in his pants pockets.

My article had a couple snags, he said. By building my story around three central figures—Betty Friedan, Robin Morgan and Roxanne Dunbar—I’d been too sympathetic to “crazies” within the movement. Lehrman had penciled in a few suggestions which he said pointed up the differences between “the radical crazies and the moderates.” He apologetically read me his “minor” corrections. “It’ll be a snap,” he coaxed.

But within a few hours the experience of debating a Playboy muckety-muck about the existence of the clitoral orgasm lost its charm. I started to suspect our fights were turning Mr. Lehrman on. I was a soft-core interlude.

Hugh Hefner’s vast anti-woman diatribes followed Lehrman’s titillation. The article was cancelled, Shelley Schlicker was fired for trying to copy Hefner’s memos and get them to the press. Read Braudy’s whole piece for fascinating details.

Both Braudy’s trajectory and Playboy‘s panic are completely in line with their times. The article illuminates some of the tensions and complications of the women’s movement in the second half of the 20th century. I think it will be of interest both to people like me who remember those times, and people for whom the article is history rather than memory.

What Matters? The Implant or the Woman?

Laurie and Debbie say:

We first came across this story at the article at the link, a blog post on the L.A. Times site. Newspaper blog posts are paid journalism.

A British woman’s breast implant reportedly exploded after she was hit in the chest by a paintball, which can travel at 190 mph.

picture (from the back of her head) of a woman aiming a paintball gun

UK Paintball has now adjusted  its policies accordingly. “We respectfully ask that any ladies with surgical breast implants notify our team at the time of booking,” according to a statement on its website. “You will be given special information on the dangers of paintballing with enhanced boobs and asked to sign a disclaimer. You will also be issued with extra padding to protect your implants while paintballing.

Yes, their official statement says “enhanced boobs.”

What struck us immediately was that the L.A. Times blog piece (by Amina Khan, who appears to be a regular science blog writer for the newspaper) doesn’t say anything about what happened to the woman. Did she die? Did she suffer minor injuries and go home with no problem? Was it something in between? Googling around yields a little more information. ABC News says that the paintball company says “the woman is likely to make a full recovery.” Well, that sounds fairly serious, but it’s hardly detailed.

The International Business Times says: “Apparently, this injury could end up costing the woman almost $5,000.” That might not sound astonishing to American readers, but in the United Kingdom, spending that kind of money out of pocket for a medical issue is far less common. Again, a  serious comment, but hardly detailed.

Various articles talk about the safety issues regarding paintball and/or the safety issues regarding breast implants. We did a little research ourselves, and it would appear that while some dangers of breast implants have been exaggerated (such as the unsupported belief that there’s a link between breast implants and fibromyalgia), in fact the gel implants don’t have a long life (more than half need attention within 15 years) and the FDA recommends an MRI once every 2-3 years, to be paid for out of the patient’s pocket. (Minimum MRI prices in the U.S. are about $1500.) We wonder how many women with implants are getting those MRIs? And how many end up with either major health problems and/or even more major expenses if they don’t get them.

But regardless of how you feel about breast implants, and how you feel about paintball, it seems clear that everyone is focused on the implant, some people are focused on other breast implant stories, some people are focused on paintball and the company’s response, but no one is very interested in what has happened to the woman.

And here we would have thought that this was her story.