cliterature

I am all for freedom of expression but sometimes I think: why? Just: why?

The freedom to do anything does not make being crass a virtue. It doesn’t mean using insult as a marketing strategy cool. But here I am aiding and colluding just by talking about it.

Here is the guts of it.  Mexican Playboy did some pictures clearly referencing classic methods for depicting the Virgin Mary.  You don’t have to be a genius to realise that: 1) a lot of people are going to hate this.  2) That their disgust will generate modo free publicity especially as they released it just before the Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe (not to mention Christams on the way).  And that 3) Playboy won’t lose to many customers in the process, unless there is a huge Roman Catholic soft core market that I am naively unaware of who would give up their booby on the basis of implied sacrilege.

 Playboy central office apologised.  Yeah, right.  The pictures are everywhere and I doubt sales suffered–because they weren’t exactly sorry enough to withdraw the issue.  And if they did they would get even more crap form the ‘freedom of speech’ brigade (and yes, I am a card carrying member).

 So, my bottom line (or bossom line, in this case) is that the magazine staff had every right to run with this provocative but effective approach, and I am going to talk about it just like they wanted.  But neither of us are showing a whole lot of class or consideration in the process.  We are doing what people in our roles do. they are selling magazines, I am talking about a topical issue, but the high ground is nowhere in sight.

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