When the Dirty Magazines Were Kept in the Back of the Store
Sigmund Freud said there’s “a primary sexual drive that would not be ultimately curbed by law, education or standards of decorum.” Hell, anybody who’s ever had an “eyes across the room” moment knows that! The Beatles sang about it: My heart went Boom when I crossed that room. And yet the sexual revolution was launched to address “American religious repression, censorship, sexuality, and all manner of personal freedom,” as per Hugh Hefner’s “The Playboy Philosophy.” It wasn’t enough for Hefner to sell a girly magazine, he fancied himself a Knight-errant rescuing all from the clutches of prudery. For someone so concerned about repression he had a very strict dress code for the Playboy Bunnies. Their work attire was made up of a satin strapless bodysuit worn over a Merry Widow corset, men’s bow-tie and cuffs, bunny ears, black pantyhose, satin pumps and a fluffy cottontail. A cottontail? Good thing Elmer Fudd didn’t get past the bouncer. (Wabbits!) But seriously, wouldn’t you say Hefner was repressive? That no matter how much he pontificated about wanting to see women freed from puritanical sexual restraints, the real freedom he cared about was that his insecure male clientele be able to enjoy drop-dead gorgeous women subjugated by a humiliating get-up.
Was Sigmund Freud a libertine? A PBS presentation Program 2 – Libido, includes this:
Narrator: Although he was called a sexual libertine, in his private life, Freud was a typical
straight-laced member of the middle class. He had six children with his wife, Martha, and found true pleasure in family life.
Freud: We psychoanalysts are unable to see anything forbidden or sinful in sexual satisfaction. But it must be said to believe that psychoanalysis seeks a cure for neurotic disorders by giving a free reign to sexuality is a serious misunderstanding, which can only be excused by ignorance …The making conscious of repressed sexual desires in analysis makes it possible to obtain a mastery over them. It can be said that analysis sets the neurotic free from the chains of his sexuality.
So, in simple terms Freud felt that sex is nothing to be ashamed of and keeping subconscious sexual issues bottled up inside because you’re embarrassed, rather than talking things out, is unnecessary and may lead to problems—not that he advocated debauchery. Speaking of unresolved subconscious issues, how would a scene with Hugh Hefner “on the couch” go?
Freud: Und zo, Herr Hefner, you like to zee die fräulein dressed up like das kaninchen?
Hugh taps his pipe against his shoe, ashes fall on the rug, he gives a thin smile.
Hugh: Um, Heineken?
Freud: Nein, nein! Die women dress as rabbits mit baumwollschwanz… (Freud pantomimes making a snowball and sticking it on his behind) … with, with cottontail on die hinterbacken!
Hugh: Oh, that. Well, it’s not like I shoot them.
Freud sighs.
Back to my original, somewhat tongue-in-cheek observation: Since human desire is such a force on its own (my heart went boom), did anybody really need to ride to its rescue? Doesn’t it make more sense to have brakes than no brakes, even if, truth be told, we are more likely to tap them than slam them on? And in the large scheme of things, doesn’t tapping have merit? Fire and brimstone preachers have merit too, even though nobody really listens to them, and the wise ones know it. But it’s good to rattle the rafters now and then to make up for our (sometimes delightfully) sinful natures, to even things out, to put things on an even keel. And to make sure that “Do the right thing!” always has a place at the table. Had. There was a seismic change fifty years ago.
It’s my opinion that the beginning of the end of the hippie movement can be pinpointed to when the “Summer of Love” resulted in a bunch of hippie chicks getting pregnant, and their hippie dudes exclaiming excitedly: “Cool! You get to give birth in a teepee!” and from coast-to-coast gals in their peasant blouses and love beads all issued a collective Eh?? And then put their foot down. “You’re going to be a father. Get a job. Cut your hair. Do the right thing!” And most of them did. But in 1973 it changed. Then they said: “Me get a job? Nah, you get an abortion.” So much for peace and love.
There was a time when the dirty magazines were kept in the back of the store. A forbidden library of adult mysteries tightly locked away from the eyes of curious children, right? Not really. The shopkeeper would notice three or four recent arrivals to puberty saunter in with faux nonchalance and hands in pockets. He smiles and checks his watch. The boys, not daring to look around, ease their way to the back of the store. In a tight huddle they pour over the pictures of Naked Ladies! Mind you it was cheesecake, not, oh … rape, bondage, and cannibalism! Or a “sexual revolution” manifesto. After five minutes the shopkeeper yells with faux bluster: “Hey, that’s not for you! Get outta my store!” and the kids run off, perhaps as excited by being caught and then escaping as by the taboo itself. But they got the message. This peer group sex education included us girls by way of the boys using dirty words around us with bravado (we ran home giggling “Stupid boys!”). They got the message. I remember one particularly scatologically gifted youngster who was called “Sudsy” because his mouth was washed out with soap so often, or so the story goes. This makeshift sex education would offend today’s left-wing-agenda-driven schoolboards; an important element in social development left to knowing shopkeepers, kids like Sudsy, and giggling girls? Why, it’s criminally negligent! So now the dirty magazines aren’t in the back of the store, they’re on school library shelves. As if internet pornography doesn’t do enough damage. And teachers indoctrinating little kids, who still think adults are God, with outlandish and confusing gender categories? It’s the very definition of Satan: unlimited resources and respect for nothing. Slam the brakes on that.
In other news, no one need fear that the sex drive will ever become a damsel in distress needing rescue. Boom!
About the Author
Diane Moriarty is a free-lance writer living in Manhattan. She previously wrote an art review column for Able Newspaper as well as articles outside the column. At the close of the last century DISH!, an independent film she wrote, produced, and directed was given a run at Anthology Film Archives by Jonas Mekus.
I really liked most of this article. The author takes Hefner to task on his pretend concern about sexual repression (it’s about time someone did). He was simply a misogynist and possibly worse. I do disagree with the comment about the left wing agenda driven school boards. That time has passed. We now have right wing book banning (and I don’t mean porographic) agendas. Thanks for the article
The left-wing agenda-driven school board situation is NOT a “time that has passed” just because good parents are pushing back against this evil with some success in some places. Book banning??? Provocative language and nothing but, designed to get a knee-jerk reaction in an election cycle, hence “that time has passed.” All the filth on school library shelves is available at the public library (along with Drag Queen Story Hour for toddlers), and easily purchased at brick-and-mortar stores and through the Internet. It simply does not belong in schools.
People are so concerned about censorship. You do know that most of the censorship goes on at the publishing level, right? You can present a well-reasoned, well-researched, well-written book with a couple of dozen pages of refernces. But if it does not fit the agenda and world view of the large publishing companies, it may, at best, be picked up by a small press. That small press may be religious (the kiss of death for sales). It will not be reviewed by the companies that provide book reviews to help librarians in their selection process. The book will never get the sales numbers that would put it on the New York Times Best Seller list, and most of the public will never be exposed to an alternative point of view. That, I would say, is censorship at the most effective level.
Thank you Ms. Gere for this important background information. “Agendas and world views”…Yikes! It sounds like you have traveled this path. Are you writing about it? I hope so.
The Beatles gave their blessing to the abortion wimp men with their album posing with babies and butcher knives.
Apparently, this 1966 album cover did happen. It was during a “wacky” photo shoot where all sorts of strange posing took place, including Paul McCartney appearing to hammer nails into John Lennon’s head. There was raw meat lying around, some butcher coats, and broken dolls, put it all together and you have one of the takes from that afternoon’s shoot. A bunch of shots were sent to Capital Records. They preferred a more conventional shot with steamer trunks, but Lennon wanted the gory one and they appeased him. The covers went out and retailers and radio station interviewers were horrified, and it was recalled. To save money a different cover was pasted over the old one. Some still exist. It’s a very hot item on the collector’s market, and there’s professional advice out there about how to remove the top cover safely so as to not damage the “precious” collector’s item.
They thought they were being “silly,” who knows what, and how much was being imbibed at that photo shoot. Being 1966, long before Roe v. Wade, perhaps they and the execs at Capital didn’t connect it that way. But at least the stores and radio stations nixed it on general principles. And with things being so callous today, the only thing of concern is their value as a collectible.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Susan. I had no idea. I’m guessing few people did. But I doubt that it was to bless “abortion wimp men” back then. It was a tasteless stunt by unthinking 20-somethings. The Capital Records execs, presumably adults, are another thing. Maybe they figured the “arty” types knew what was cool and didn’t question too much. But at least it was stopped by other more intelligent folks.
To quote your article: ” and the kids run off, perhaps as excited by being caught and then escaping as by the taboo itself. But they got the message. ”
All that had to happen was that a few key influencers found that fab 4 favored the transgressive *idea*. Thus, like a nuclear chain reaction, the slippery slope cascaded to Roe.