Footnotes
Review of Accidental Playboy and Some Thoughts on Feminism and Playboy
Accidental Playboy: Caught in the Ultimate Male Fantasy
Warner Books
By Leif Ueland

Reviewed by Krista Jacob
There is a complex nexus of views of pornography.

1 "Sexing the Political" readership is perhaps most familiar with the anti-pornography feminist argument that says all pornography - from Hustler to Swank to Playboy - degrades and dehumanizes women, invariably causing them sexual harm and an overall sexual disempowerment.

And then there's another less interesting but more prevalent argument based on puritanical Christian values, which posits all non-procreative sex and any sexual representation - from Penthouse to Maplethorpe - as sinful, which means (of course) it should be censored. Sound like a nice world?

And then there's the feminist-liberal hybrid types who say sexual representation is erotic (a good thing by most standards). Further, it can financially benefit the models, predominantly women (who still make 75 cents on the man's dollar). A subcategory of this group, the semi-apologetic " lesser-of-the-two-evils" camp, say that mainstream pornography is here to stay, and since it isn't as bad as the more "extreme" forms of pornography like Swank and Hustler, Playboy's less glamorous siblings, let's all let bygones be bygones.

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