So recently, I watched this documentary called the ‘American Playboy’ on Amazon Prime. I stumbled upon this documentary totally by chance. But the term and the name attached to it felt somehow relative for two reasons, firstly for the name of the celebrated Hugh Heffner and second, the fashionably infamous magazine,” Playboy”. I said infamous because I remember this one time that I went to a bookstore, and unlike every other magazine which was on a display this magazine was kept with its back facing the stand. So I turned and looked it up. I saw this incredibly sexy woman I did not know the name of. To a fourteen year old’s amuse, I thought its a flashy mushy magazine which parents don’t want to see their kids to read but they read themselves in private. So ‘Playboy wasn’t just a flashy mush magazine” but also a dirty secret, also as I knew it.
When I pressed play the first episode of the documentary I did not know what I was signing up for. The scene opened with an incredibly hot woman (agian) humping on this man as the manager breaks into the room announcing a meeting he was late for. The first scene of the documentary laid the premises quite strong of what his life was like. The life of Hugh Heffner was filled with woman, both strong and nude, it was filled with ambition with a strong sense of abandon, it had a lot of heart breaks but none of which could not be sedated with enough alcohol and sex. If I had to put the story of Hugh Heffner, the best way in which I could put it was, he lived the American dream which other people just dream about.
Going through the episodes one by one, with hardly taking any time in between as I wanted to live the story of this amusing man in full, the story turned out to be nothing like what I expected it to be.
Hugh started as a humble man who wanted to make it big, he had his head his whack in place to go for what he wants. One of the markers of his ambitious nature was how he used to draw cartoons of this hedonistic person who had abundance of money and people, an individual who was a celebrated public figure living his dream. What seemed like a distant dream to this man, was soon imprinted its baby steps on the kitchen table one day and with a few people to help him bring out the first issue, the journey or rather history of “playboy” begun to form.
One of the most interesting parts of watching the documentary was how the evolution of the magazine carried out in the years that went by. One aspect of ‘Playboy which intrigued me the most was the fact that they kept changing with the times, they were much more than a porn magazine which the fourteen year old self set a reservation against. Like a true masterpiece of art it was a product of its time and with every passage of the changing times the magazine kept on changing, growing, making a statement, taking a stand while straying true to the essence of the Playboy magazine which was woman, cartoons and editorials. The magazine started as being a compilation of everything that a man loved wrapped into one magazine but what it grew out to be was much much more than that.
Since I talked about essence, it would be wrong to not mention the how the ‘Playboy’ magazine started. So Hugh’s father had rather orthodox thoughts about sex and it imprinted on the young mind of Hugh and thus he began his fashionable endeavou r of bringing sex in mainstream. Playboy being all the things that it was it was also a product of rebellion in opposition of the thoughts that he was fostered with. He wanted women to take pride in their sexuality and feminism while giving man to talk about something. Playboy was one of the first magazines of his times to do that. it was later taken by many magazines like ‘Penthouse’ and others but none of them created a cult, a community like Playboy did. Playboy expanded his empire living every fantasy that a man or rather an ambitious individual would ever have. There was a playboy magazine, a periodical, a record label, playboy bars, playboy pagents, a TV show of playboy and to top it all they had its merchandise. Looking at this from the lens of a commerce graduate all I can say that he was a man way ahead of his times.
Like all good things the documentary too came to an end and as soon as it did, I opened a new tab and typed in the search” The Playboy Magazine” . Ironically I had the images mode one and I could see all the magazine jackets of the magazine in thumbnails format, if not a critical statement I could at least stay it was a testament to every beauty standard, feminist norms, political upheavel and changing taste of consumer and readers at large. If people had to track political history history they would use the wars that happened, similarly, if they had to what the people talked about in four decades starting from the fifties they would pick the “Playboy” magazine.
In the isolation of my empty room while I am punching my words in the dim light of my laptop, I would like to raise a toast to the learning and exploration that the “The Playboy story” has been for me. I urge not just the people in media or show business to watch it but to every individual who has ambition and the chutzpah to go after it.
Cheers!!
ALMOST ADWOMAN 