Playgirl Folds

We will resist the urge -- no matter how powerful -- to make auto-fellation jokes on the sad occasion of Playgirl's "folding (Averted Gaze)." But we would be so bold as to ask the question: What was Playgirl's target demographic? Was it the "Samantha Joneses" of the world? Logic suggests, strongly, that subscription lists of Vogue probably had little commonality with the lists at Playgirl.

In fact Playgirl struck us as more of the gay guy who is on the fence about coming out of the closet. Publicly the magazine is interested in women, but in actuality the gaze if fixed on "beef cheeks." Playboy, of which Playgirl is derivative, is more like the big, stupid fratboy expertly navigating between keggers, "The Gentleman's C," March Madness and Spring Break (Exaggerated cough suggesting feigned detachment). And while Playboy arguably gets some B-List celebrities to pose in the buff -- Joan Collins, LaToya Jackson in her prime and Farah Fawcett, Playgirl -- and how does one say this nicely? -- struggles:



Scott Bakula quantum leaped into a very bad place. He looks to be as comfortable there as Irene Cara was in her infamous "screen test" scene in Fame ("Come on, Coco. Smile, smile. Smile for me. Now take your thumb and put it in .."). Do you think posing in Playgirl topless in Playgirl was a bigger embarrassment to Bakula than fucking up the entire Star Trek television franchise?

And then there is the always classy Brett Michaels from Poison:



Ev'ry rose has it's thorn. But were there more women looking to see his thorn than, we suspect, men?