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Feminists vs. Playboy Playmates Essay

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Feminists vs. Playboy Playmates

Naked women have been in the front of feminist's minds for several decades. Especially when they are pictured in soft-pornography magazine Playboy. Feminists for years have been yelling that Playboy is harmful to both men and women. Males around the country have countered that there is nothing wrong with their Playboy, it is merely a harmless vice. The problem I see with Playboy is not that it demeans women or subjugates them, and its not that it leads to violence. The main problem is that it fosters unrealistic images and expectation in men's minds about women. But since there is little we can do about it now, we merely need to take that first step and recognize Playboy for what it …show more content…

I interviewed one person on each side of this issue, to get the token opinion that is popular on their side of the issue. On this side is Ursula, an extremely quotable quasi-feminist who makes a strong case for her side.[1] Ursula sums up the feminist argument by saying, "Guys see the idealized sex goddess, how can women compete?" First and foremost feminists argue that the idea of a naked woman in a magazine is degrading to that woman in particular and to women as a whole; Playboy and men's magazines in general make women out to be sex objects (Burstyn, 42). Playboy objectifies women, leaving out the human side (Burstyn, 43). Feminists also say that soft-pornography leads to hard-pornography which can then lead to violent crimes against women. Rick Heibert in his article "A hard line against soft porn" says that psychologists have found that viewing soft-pornography inevitably leads to harder material (par 4). Others would take this a step further and contend that the viewing of violent pornography then leads to an increased likelihood of committing a violent sexual crime (Cramer 202). These articles would present statistical research backing themselves up, more likely than not the Meese Commission will make it in to any feminist critique.

Feminists present a third argument saying that magazines such as Playboy lead to depression or anorexia in women, especially amongst impressionable young women (Chancer, 85). There is little argument against teenagers

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