Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America

* Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America. Elizabeth Fraterrigo. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2009. 320 pp. $29.95 hbk. Hugh Hefner's Playboy, founded in 1953, has been subjected to extensive analysis and criticism from the likes of feminist scholar Andrea Dworkin, the new journalism of Gay Talese, and Hefner biographer Steven Watts. So, is there anything more to be said about this magazine? Fortunately for Elizabeth Fraterrigo, the answer is yes. Fraterrigo, an assistant professor of history at Loyola University in Chicago, uses old issues of Playboy, newspaper articles, Hefner's scrapbooks, letters, and an interview with Hefner himself to illuminate a transitional time in America when women were entering the workforce, demanding equal pay, and taking on roles once occupied solely by males. She argues convincingly that Playboy promoted a model of masculinity that emphasized bachelorhood, apartment-living, and promiscuity in opposition to the traditional 1950s ideal of marriage, two children, and a suburban house. At the same time, Fraterrigo argues that Hefner's philosophy of uriinhibited sexuality was also in line with mainstream society because the goal of "prolonged bachelorhood," in Hefner's opinion, was to "ultimately strengthen marital bonds. " Where previously the typical consumer had been female, Hefner made male conspicuous consumption socially acceptable, a male consumerism that was individually oriented as opposed to "conservative," family-oriented purchasing. Here Fraterrigo makes one of her strongest points when she says that "Hefner offered an optimistic vision that defined American citizenship in terms of the freedom to consume. " She challenges the conventional wisdom that Playboy's biggest influence was on notions of sexuality, and posits that Playboy had just as great an effect on changing ideas of consumption and consumerism. Playboy's ideal masculine lifestyle was tied to consumption, she argues: Men who bought the right stuff - hi-fi stereos, leather armchairs, Rolex watches - could get the girl(s). Playboy's assertions that clothes and other consumer goods made the man meshed nicely with post-World War II culture created by American advertisers. Playboy celebrated hedonism and changed spending patterns from purchasing for the whole family to individual buying. To her credit, Fraterrigo resists the temptation to overstate Playboy's influence. Although the magazine "played a catalytic role in the refashioning of gender roles and sexuality mores," these changes were also caused by such larger societal movements as women entering the workplace and mass consumption. Fraterrigo uses Hefner's personal life as a mirror to the postwar society. In his 20s, Hefner followed the expected patterns of American culture: he married his college sweetheart and fathered two children before finding domestic life overly repressive; inspired by his work at Esquire and by other magazine pubUshers, he launched Playboy, an adult magazine that "borrowed heavily from the path breaking formula of Esquire in the 1930's, which promoted a vision of upscale, masculine consumption and heterosexual vitality. …