If you’re a new subscriber, welcome! This is a serialized longform essay about two pivotal issues of Playboy magazine in the late 1970s. Click here to read the introduction to the series; here to see the archive of past issues. Live an authentic life and you don’t have to worry about your reputation.
I learned so much from this series... the tone of Ellen Goodman's op-ed stays with me. Nothing about women monitoring what other women do or say, "because feminism," is new, and that is depressing, but also strangely reassuring, to know that my gen (millennials) aren't the first to experience this. (For a contemporary case study, look up Ballerina Farm...)
Loved the exploration of what the former bunnies had to say about their experience in light of the Steinem piece. Great series, Melanie.
Thanks for reading! I can't tell you how much I appreciate Substack for giving me the platform to serialize the essay.
I learned so much from this series... the tone of Ellen Goodman's op-ed stays with me. Nothing about women monitoring what other women do or say, "because feminism," is new, and that is depressing, but also strangely reassuring, to know that my gen (millennials) aren't the first to experience this. (For a contemporary case study, look up Ballerina Farm...)