Monday, September 19, 2011

Hugh Hefner is an Emasculated Drone

Update: In honor of the new TV series, The Playboy Club, I'm bumping this post from May of 2010. Enjoy.


... that's one of the things I learned from watching this video from the Witherspoon Institute's report on the Social Cost of Pornography. While clinical in nature, the portion of the video I'm referring to is still not safe for work nor is it safe for children. Go to 45:05 to hear how Hugh gets off.
Update: The video has since been moved to a private area. Suffice it to say that Hugh requires the ministrations of several playmates in sequence followed by a viewing of porn followed by more ministrations. Getting Hugh to fruition requires slightly more work than writing a 15-page paper analyzing Paradise Lost and seems to be less satisfying for all concerned.
The video originally interested me because the researcher was discussing brain plasticity (I used to do research in neural network artificial intelligence) as it applies to pornography rewiring neural pathways. It's sparked an interest in brain plasticity that might generate some blog posts here, but after thinking about this vignette for a while, something else occurred to me.

Hugh Hefner has totally emasculated himself. His own porn has rewired his brain to the point that he can no longer function as a normal, healthy man. The researcher describes the irony quite well, but doesn't take it the final step.

Hugh helped destroy all of our social norms and remove barriers to open sexuality. Now he's a wimp, a sissy, a girly-man. All of the music stars who make videos where girls with fake boobs are draped all over them in various states of undress, suggesting an orgy to come are simply walking down the road to total emasculation. All the flexing of muscles, the primping in front of the camera, the guns and fast cars and other trappings of masculine success are just props in what amounts to a reenactment of Poe's Masque of the Red Death. They're poisoning themselves, slowly but surely until in the end, the pleasures they pursued so hotly are denied to them forever.
He (the chief rapper or rock star) bore aloft a drawn dagger, and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure (the porn filling his video and his life), when the latter, having attained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly and confronted his pursuer. There was a sharp cry -- and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet, upon which most instantly afterward, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero. Then summoning the wild courage of despair, a throng of the revellers at once threw themselves into the black apartment, and seizing the mummer whose tall figure stood erect and motionless within the shadow of the ebony clock, gasped in unutterable horror at finding the grave cerements and corpse-like mask, which they handled with so violent a rudeness, untenanted by any tangible form.

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.
Party on, dudes.

16 comments:

Jedi Knight Ivyan said...

Philippians 4:8
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

The Bible: It's not just for the 1st millenium.

Jeff Burton said...

Unfortunately, though his observations are interesting, his interpretive framework is based on that of the the greatest charlatan of fin de siecle Europe - namely that villainous humbug Sigmund Freud. It surprises me a bit, because my understanding is that psychoanalysis is rapidly going the way of alchemy.

K T Cat said...

Jeff, Dr. Doidge was a strange combination - an expert in neurobiology and a defender of Freud. He made some attempts to correct misconceptions about Freud which really should have been done in another talk.

As for psychoanalysis in general, I've dealt with two practitioners. One was wonderful and is still counted among my friends and mentors and the other was incompetent to the point of evil and should be disbarred, sued and then run out of town on a rail.

Neurobiology and brain plasticity research strongly suggest that you can think your way into a better life. That's echoed in the goals books I've been reading. It's not too great of a leap to then want a good a coach to help you rearchitect your thought processes.

K T Cat said...

Jedi, right on, brother. While technology has changed in the past 2000 years, people haven't. The sages of the year 50 are just as appropriate today as they were then. There's a reason that the teachings of Christ have not just survived, but thrived over time. It's another indication the Bible is true.

K T Cat said...

By the way, Jeff, I'm no fan of Freud. I just don't know enough to criticize him with confidence.

Jeff Burton said...

You can start with the observation that his schema of psychology has not been backed up by empirical research. You can then move on to his outright quackery and the damage it did.

K T Cat said...

Jeff, thanks for the link. I thought I had seen that kind of thing before, but I was more interested in the other components of the talk and didn't chase it down.

Dean said...

Re: Hef. Depressing on several levels.

Let's face it, any red-blooded American male by some degree and/or at some stage in his life desired that life. And now to find out, it has all been reduced to some bizarre, nihilistic, X-rated David Lynch movie scene.

At a time in his life when he should be doting on grandchildren, he's vainly pursuing his own ghost with women that would probably be not much older than his grandchildren.

Thanks for shattering the mystique. Seriously.

K T Cat said...

Dean, I think men are designed to want it. It's just our good fortune that most of us can't get it.

Lesley Bateman said...

Thank you for posting this video. Would you be so kind as to include a disclaimer: The following videos may contain graphic language that conveys the reality of contemporary pornography and its impact on men, women, and children.

Jedi Knight Ivyan said...

I've been noticing how the standard of beauty has shifted over time. It seems that nowadays, a plain woman is considered ugly. Men, like Heffner, have become so accustomed to airbrushed, nipped/tucked perfection that the average real-life woman is at a serious disadvantage. As an example, I've heard men describe Kristen Stewart (female lead in Twilight) as ugly. She may not be gorgeous, but she's far from unattractive.

tim eisele said...

On the one hand, Hefner probably has desensitized his brain pretty badly. And I don't have any particular respect for him.

But, on the other hand, Wikipedia says he's 85 (and had a stroke when he was 59). Most men that age can't enjoy sex anymore, because they're dead. And while I'm not into watching octogenarian porn, I gather that most of the ones who are alive (particularly the stroke survivors) aren't exactly wild ladies' men by that point.

I haven't watched the video, but unless his arousal scene was shot more than a decade or two ago (preferably pre-stroke), I'm not sure how much we should read into it, other than "Really old men just don't enjoy sex the way they did when they were younger".

K T Cat said...

Tim, Hugh's perversions permeate his life, both pre- and post-stroke. The dude is seriously messed up.

K T Cat said...

Ivyan, I totally agree. The mutiliation inflicted on women by piercings, tatoos and plastic surgery is appalling.

Jedi Master Ivyan said...

KT,

I linked this post in the comments on another blog. I hope you don't mind. The subject of porn (bad vs. normal male behavior) came up.

http://www.weaselzippers.us/236704-wimps/#disqus_thread

K T Cat said...

Ivyan, you did that because you're awesome. :-)