The last time I paid attention to the Playboy empire was in 1963 when feminist superstar Gloria Steinem went undercover as a Playboy Club Bunny to expose the sexism of that tawdry world.
Fast forward 45 years and Gloria Steinem is still kicking up trouble but Playboy has gone gay. Perhaps Heff has run out of big-breasted women and decided to dabble in dick for a while. I should have paid closer attention; perhaps I would have seen the signs and been more prepared, emotionally-speaking.
That pink dollar is so damned attractive even the most hetero of hetero institutions is going after it.
I must confess that I'm about as comfortable with Playboy producing gay entertainment as I am with organized crime owning and operating gay bars.
Nonetheless Playboy Enterprises, with revenues down 8 percent against last year's numbers and domestic TV revenue down by $2.6 billion in the first three months of 2008, has decided to pursue the pink dollar and will move into the gay market cum June with soft core cable video-on-demand.
With a working title of Gay Targeted VOD Package Service, Playboy plans to initially
offer Time Warner Cable subscribers 20 hours of gay male programming.
Playboy, of course, is still Playboy, the home of airbrushing, Bikini waxing and idealized sex objects. And the creatives over at Heff's sex empire remind us that the Playboy approach is not about sex and raunch, it's about "sexiness and style"--so the new gay programming will have it's limits.
Each program in the package “may depict erect genitalia, male-on-male fellatio and simulated or implied sexual intercourse.”
But, according to Playboy, content “shall not depict actual anal penetration, licking or anal sexual play of any kind.”
Male ejaculation and forced bondage also will be off limits. Sounds like sex with Ted Haggard.
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