What Playboy got right about men – Lust and literacy can coexist

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10 pointspseudolus3 comments

As a closeted gay kid, I had zero interest in the nude ladies in Playboy.

However, I remember being absorbed in the fantastic interview with John Lennon (in an issue that came out weeks before or weeks after his shooting death) and being blown away by the things the interviewer got Lennon to talk about (a song-by-song analysis, and Lennon's shocking claim that McCartney tried to sabotage some of his best songs during the recording process, in particular Strawberry Fields Forever).

Here in Norway we had a "Playboy light" magazine called "Vi menn", literally "Us guys". It followed much the same pattern but a tad less nudity.

Back when I worked at a grocery store while studying, we could borrow magazines during our lunch break. A female coworker picked up a copy of "Vi menn", and I raised an eyebrow. She sighed and said she really hated how none of the magazines for women had any interesting writing. She didn't enjoy the nudity (but wasn't bothered either), but she enjoyed the interviews and articles in "Vi menn".

As anyone who has seen a Playboy can attest to, photo's made up a minority of the content. 60-80% of material was non-photo content.

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