Inspiration - Hugh Hefner

I do not think of Playboy in religious terms but in spiritual ones. I might be accused of specious differentiation in this but the difference between the former and the latter, as I see it, rests in the distinction between hard codification and gentle appreciation of the world and its beauty.

Hugh Hefner may have never thought of himself as a prophet and yet he has done more to bring beauty in its purest and most spiritually uplifting form to the mainstream than any of his contemporaries. He has provided us countless opportunities to meditate upon beauty in a manner akin an artist's protracted meditation upon a model.



Hefner's work has been assailed by the far right and the extreme left. Social conservatives (fear-worshipping anti-sexual puritans and prudes) have condemned it as sinful and leading to sin. Some feminists have condemned it for perpetuating stereotypes of women and objectifying them. I suppose both sides would condemn the classical art and sculpture that does the same. Hefner remained true to his original vision.



In "The Playboy Philosophy," Hefner affirms, "when well-wishers sometimes praise us for the way in which our magazine has changed, we must shake our head in disagreement. The fact is that in its basic concepts and its editorial attitude, in its view of itself and its view of life, its feelings about its readers and—we believe—their feelings toward it, the magazine called Playboy is the same today as it was nine years ago. Improved—yes, we like to think. Altered in its aims and outlook—definitely no."

What is meant by a playboy? In the same article, Hefner explains, "When Professor Archibald Henderson titled his definitive biography of George Bernard Shaw Playboy and Prophet, he probably came closer to using the word Playboy as we conceive it than is common today. Certainly, he did not mean that the highly prolific playwright-critic was an all-play-no-work sybarite. He certainly did not mean to suggest that Shaw led a pleasure-seeking life of indolent ease, nor that the platonically inclined vegetarian was leading a secret life of the seraglio. He did mean—and he told us so when he visited our offices on the occasion of the founding of the Shaw Society in Chicago—that Shaw was a man who approached life with immense gusto and relish. As a word, playboy has suffered semantic abuse: Its most frequent usage in the press is to characterize those functionless strivers after pleasure whom Federico Fellini, in La Dolce Vita, showed to be so joylessly diligent in their pursuit of self-pleasuring as to be more deserving of sympathy than righteous condemnation."

To be continued.