Silly Thinking

For over a hundred years the industrialists have been devising cleverer and cleverer plans, using flowcharts and diagrams, grids and projections, numbers and letters, all in an effort to perfect the exploitation of humanity. In the late 1800's geniuses like Fredrick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford devised the assembly line and the company town. Using the latest scientific methods they made every second of labor count and counted ever second. Still, neither of these men compare to the mastermind who arrived on the scene nearly a century later.

Who was that mastermind?

HUGH HEFNER

Hef reached the consumer where he lived while simultaneously living, and sleeping, with his workers. His company town may have been nothing more than a cleaned up brothel, but his factory was sold as paradise.

In Hefner's factory the worker was not merely alilenated from the fruits of her labor, but was also separated from her own skin. Whatever personal stake the playboy bunny may have had in her sexuality, whatever enjoyment she took in her body, was quickly subordinated to the needs of the mansion. And the mansion needed to sell the bunny and her body.

What Hef never paid attention to, however, was the dialectics of pornographic work. He never imagined that the girl who was gaping for the centerfold today might be on the picket line tomorrow. And while the movement may have started at the Lusty Lady and not the mansion, it was bound to catch up to Hef eventually.

By 1996 not a single bunny still lived exclusively at the mansion, and all the playboy dollars had been burned.

When I turned up at the Mansion earlier this month I unfortunately didn't find a gaggle of would-be movie actresses ready to service my needs in exchange for the promise of a role in the film version of Shopping at the End of the World. No! To my chagrin all I found was an unhappy and not too pretty Pamela Anderson look-a-like and the elderly Hefner himself. He looked like a character from a Samuel Beckett play.

Hef, like Taylor before you, your Empire, your Mansion, was always destined to become a Ghost Town.




	Silly Thinking with Jim Farris Home Get Email Updates Admin Password Remember Me 2011391 Curiosities served Share on Facebook				2003-09-24 12:08 AM Taylorism and Those Sexy Bunnies Previous Entry :: Next Entry Read/Post Comments (2) For over a hundred years the industrialists have been devising cleverer and cleverer plans, using flowcharts and diagrams, grids and projections, numbers and letters, all in an effort to perfect the exploitation of humanity. In the late 1800's geniuses like Fredrick Winslow Taylor and Henry Ford devised the assembly line and the company town. Using the latest scientific methods they made every second of labor count and counted ever second. Still, neither of these men compare to the mastermind who arrived on the scene nearly a century later. Who was that mastermind? HUGH HEFNER Hef reached the consumer where he lived while simultaneously living, and sleeping, with his workers. His company town may have been nothing more than a cleaned up brothel, but his factory was sold as paradise. In Hefner's factory the worker was not merely alilenated from the fruits of her labor, but was also separated from her own skin. Whatever personal stake the playboy bunny may have had in her sexuality, whatever enjoyment she took in her body, was quickly subordinated to the needs of the mansion. And the mansion needed to sell the bunny and her body. What Hef never paid attention to, however, was the dialectics of pornographic work. He never imagined that the girl who was gaping for the centerfold today might be on the picket line tomorrow. And while the movement may have started at the Lusty Lady and not the mansion, it was bound to catch up to Hef eventually. By 1996 not a single bunny still lived exclusively at the mansion, and all the playboy dollars had been burned. When I turned up at the Mansion earlier this month I unfortunately didn't find a gaggle of would-be movie actresses ready to service my needs in exchange for the promise of a role in the film version of Shopping at the End of the World. No! To my chagrin all I found was an unhappy and not too pretty Pamela Anderson look-a-like and the elderly Hefner himself. He looked like a character from a Samuel Beckett play. Hef, like Taylor before you, your Empire, your Mansion, was always destined to become a Ghost Town. Read/Post Comments (2) Previous Entry :: Next Entry Back to Top