PLAYGIRL IN 1974 

In 1974, besides President Nixon's resignation over the Watergate scandal and the making of the vintage porn classic Morning, Noon & Night (available only through Bijou Video), women were writing openly about their orgasms, and men were trying to be both macho and sensitive. The emphasis: a return to (really a reinterpretation of) of the "primitive" or "native," often associated with traditions outside of Western culture, as a source of self-healing and interpersonal interaction. A couple of Playgirl magazines from that year illustrate some of these cultural trends.

In January of 1974, an article on "Cosmic Orgasm" discusses a technique for orgasms that involves not touching each other, "motionless sex," supposedly derived from Eastern Tantrism. The sexual revolution of course by this time was in full swing, but this article combines the interest in open discussion about sexuality, especially female sexuality, with the burgeoning (pre-Oprah!) pop psychology/self-help movement. Apparently this technique, the article claims, can assisting sexual problems like premature ejaculation and also massage (mentally) the vagina, loosening it up for the admittedly more intense female orgasm. Though the article does claim this technique is not for everyone, it does connect it to what was becoming a popular practice during this period, yoga. This practice is kind of a "higher" level of yoga. In sum, the cliched expression that the most erotic part of the body is the mind becomes literal when one practices motionless sex.

In the March issue, masturbation becomes a healer in an article giving details on group sessions for "non-orgasmic women." Both taboos are confronted in this article with the 1970s emphasis on group therapy (not the women masturbating in groups, though I do remember Joan Rivers in the 1980s interviewing someone who conducted sessions like this!). The women do "practice" masturbating alone and with partner watching them as part of the therapy, which starts with the assumption that most women still experience feelings of shame and "trauma" about masturbation (and many women never even had done it, much less to orgasm).

Playgirl was billed during this period as "the magazine for women," but the main attraction for women (and gay men, probably) was the men. The centerfolds of Playgirl during this period reflected both women's views of masculinity during this period as well as men's perceptions of their own maleness based on women responses, larger cultural trends, and their own psychosocial constructs.

Jon Ericson, "the four-page foldout" in the January issue, exemplifies the 1970s male image, muscular, masculine: strong features, especially the jaw; chest hair, and plenty of hair on top. He is muscular, but his muscles don't look "gym pumped," rather the result of "natural" outdoor activities. He also is artistic, but not in the high-culture (and its associations with effeminacy) sense: he paints on his front porch; does carpentry projects too. By working with his hands, he is also reinterpreting the traditional American masculine archetype, using sociologist Michael Kimmel's terminology, of the "Heroic Artisan," the independent man who works for himself, usually in more physical tasks, defying the more group-thinking, corporate organization man who goes to an office every day. He poses holding a young lion cub, using the cat to cover up his cock (some of the centerfolds during this period did not show genitalia). The "Discovery of the Month," another macho guy, poses with a dog, thus juxtaposing a more domestic image with one of potential wildness..

Even the décor of some of the showcase living spaces juxtaposes a busy artifice with a "primitive touches," like plants, African sculptures, and early American pseudo-artifacts.

To conclude, the article in the March 1974 issue entitled "Diary of an Almost Made Housewife" could serve as a kind of 1970s time capsule (a proto-blog?), somewhat satiric:

On July 1, she proclaims: "Hey! I'm into meditation!" Other entries mention that her friend has VD twice and that she reread Sylvia Plath's angst-ridden The Bell Jar. Her last comment shows the tensions women were experiencing in a time when women's liberation was still a relatively new cultural trend: "Why do men base so much significance on sex? .. I honestly do enjoy it." Women were beginning to question what they considered to be the male emphasis on physical sex rather than other components of a relationship, but at the same time openly acknowledging that they enjoyed sex. And orgasms. And masculine men who can build furniture.