University of Virginia Library

'Playboy'

Of the magazines dealing in this
"legal pornography," "Playboy"
funs loose where "perverts" fear to
tread, there must be something
about this magazine that distinguishes
it from those of the
"smut-peddler." And it doesn't
take the critical observer long to
spot what it is. Simply, it captures
idealized sex.

It helps our clean-cut young
men to remain beholden to the
naive, idolized, puerile sexual conceptions
formed during adolescence.
Young males are reassured
that they need only copulate with
smooth, feline women with big
bosoms. The magazine merely
depicts average American girls
caught in candid poses as they go
about their everyday business.

And its subjects are necessarily
cleaned fish, purged of ugliness.
Gone are public hairs, flat chests,
penises, and sexual aberrances. This
idealized portrayal is generally common
to the other forms of "legal
pornography," and is what insures
them their immunity from legal
sanctions.