Redbook Badbook

Marcia Segelstein, who has written a couple of articles for Touchstone over the years, writes today as a guest columnist over at One News Now about the last issue of Redbook that she perused while at the doctor's office. She thinks we ought to know about it, but warns:

Before you read this column, be warned that it may contain material you find offensive. But what you might find truly shocking is that all the potentially offensive material comes straight from the pages of the July issue of Redbook magazine.

I will not repeat the details (I did read them). I have no idea whether such "material" would have (dis)graced the pages of Playboy 40 years ago. Maybe not. But Redbook, I am sure, has no qualms. Someone from Playboy recently said that Playboy is not pornography, so mainstream has it become that it's sometimes had to tell the difference between the sewer lines and water main.

Comments

[Rob Grano]

I recently read somewhere that some of what used to be regular skin mags showing naked women and simulated sex now are full-blown (ahem) hard-core porn, showing real sex acts with penetration, etc., which used to be taboo in such drugstore rags.

And so the descent into the diamond-lined septic tank continues....

[jquinby]

Redbook got called out a little while back when some before-and-after pictures of their Faith Hill cover showed up on a blog. I take it for granted that all women's magazine covers are airbrushed and Photoshopped, but it was pretty eye-opening to see such a detailed list of the changes. The original post can be seen here, but I warn you in advance that the language of the site is on the salty side.

[Clifford Simon]

We don't speak out enough on pornography. I wish we'd have brave volunteers out there picketing Albertson's etc. because of the stuff they've got on their magazine racks. Like Muslims do when somebody sounds like he might, possibly, be insulting the Prophet. We don't care about the health of our men, not to mention the dignity of our women - not half as much as Muslims care about their Prophet. We should be ashamed.

I heard somewhere that the Church banned Bottecelli's *Birth of Venus*. I hope it's true. We need to bring that back.

A well-meaning church in my area did an anti-porn rally that didn't seem to go too well. The first problem was, they puclicized themselves by writing on bathroom walls. Seriously - this church printed beautiful, glossy flyers and left them strategically in the men's rooms. I didn't see the event, but also seeing as they never tried it again, I guess it was all downhill from there. :) But you gotta try what you can.

[Clifford Simon]

puclicized -> publicized

[Scott Walker]

"I heard somewhere that the Church banned Botecelli's "The Birth of Venus". I hope it's true. We need to bring that back." No, we don't. I'm sorry if you cannot discern the difference between "Hustler" and Botticelli, Mr. Simon. Be assured that most of humanity can. Maybe you would prefer pants on MIchalengelo's "David" as well?

[GL]

Getting us back to some sense here, this is not a new issue. See David Mills, Choosing Love & Making Life: Sex, Love, Marriage & the Culture of Death, January/February, 2003 issue of Touchstone, in which he wrote:

The culture of death is not simply one in which babies are aborted and old people put to sleep like stray dogs. It is not just a culture that kills in obvious ways. It is one that kills life in much less obvious ways. It is one in which sexual life is willfully made sterile, not just of children but of all that grows from chastity, not least the home. The teenagers enjoying each other in a college dorm room, the man on a business trip picking up a woman at the bar, the woman reading Cosmopolitan, all advance the culture of death as surely as the abortionist.

He could have just as easily listed Redbook in place of Cosmopolitan.

See http://touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-01-023-f

[Juli]

Got a breathless (shocked!!) post from AFA about Redbook today - the folks at AFA seem to love sending these links to their subscription list,
usually with a sensational (if not salacious) subject line and always, of course, with an appeal for "a small gift."

[Clifford Simon]

My apologies for a hyperbole that flopped.

[Neil Gussman]

I will skip looking at Redbook and take your word for it. But talking about doctor's office porn does bring up the subject of People magazine. How is it that reading People is acceptable for believers and Cosmo/Redbook/etc. is not? People is vilely envious. Read the letters to the editor. They could be quoting from the shades at the bus stop in The Great Divorce. The purpose of People et al seems to me to promote the spiritual sin of envy. I have often thought Screwtape must howl when a woman with a tattered white ribbon on her SUV buys People, The Enquirer etc at the grocery store. It seems to me just another instance in which we accept spiritual sin while condemning sins of the flesh. But maybe I am missing something. I am defending neither, I simply have never understood why envy is not as bad as lust.

[Neil Gussman]

I will skip looking at Redbook and take your word for it. But talking about doctor's office porn does bring up the subject of People magazine. How is it that reading People is acceptable for believers and Cosmo/Redbook/etc. is not? People is vilely envious. Read the letters to the editor. They could be quoting from the shades at the bus stop in The Great Divorce. The purpose of People et al seems to me to promote the spiritual sin of envy. I have often thought Screwtape must howl when a woman with a tattered white ribbon on her SUV buys People, The Enquirer etc at the grocery store. It seems to me just another instance in which we accept spiritual sin while condemning sins of the flesh. But maybe I am missing something. I am defending neither, I simply have never understood why envy is not as bad as lust.

[Judy Warner]

Neil, your comment reminds me what a great tragedy it is that the Weekly World News has ceased publication. Unlike the magazines you mention, the WWN just celebrated weirdness, and was great fun to read. I was amazed to see a l-o-n-g Style section article on it in the Washington Post. Apparently journalists took note of it, if only for the enormous blast its writers had creating it every week.

[GL]

Judy,

Say it ain't so. My two favorite WWN headlines: "Elvis is Dead!" (ca. early 1990s) and "Famed Psychic's Head Explodes." Oh, WWN, we hardly knew ye.

[GL]

I just have to share this. I have a friend (or at least he was a friend before I pulled this off ;-)) who took a job at a fairly high ranking law school a few years ago. As a going away "gift," I subscribed him to WWN and had it mailed to his new work address.

[Mrs. B.]

Hey, GL, I don't think it's the culture of death that pervades Redbook, it's the culture of Perpetual Adolescence.

"We must be young until we die! We must continue to act just like teenagers, because to act any different would be to admit that we are - gasp - AGING."

[Judy Warner]

My husband worked in the Reagan administration, in the Office of Policy Development. Everyone else kept the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, etc. on their coffee tables. Jim kept the Weekly World News.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>My husband worked in the Reagan administration, in the Office of Policy Development. Everyone else kept the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, etc. on their coffee tables. Jim kept the Weekly World News.<<<

One of my favorite moments in the movie "Men in Black" is when Agent K (the hillariously deadpan Tommy Lee Jones) goes to a newstand with Agent J (Will Smith) and picks up copies of the National Inquirer, News of the World, and a dozen other tabloids. He looks at the incredulous J, then tells him its the best source of intelligence they have on the activities of the space aliens living among us.

Another fabulous moment is when J is shown the multiple television screens on which they monitor those aliens--and you see flashes of people like Michael Jackson, Sylvester Stallone, Ross Perot, etc. Also J's 3rd grade English Teacher. Agent K tells him, "I know it makes no sense. . .", but J responds, "No. No--it all makes perfect sense."

[Bobby Winters]

Stuart,
My middle daughter and I have watched MIB I & II multiple times together. Tommy Lee Jones is perfect; I've loved his work ever since Lonesome Dove. Will Smith cracks me up, especially in the roles like MIB which have an action element to them.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>. Tommy Lee Jones is perfect<<<

The funniest scene in any movie is in MIB-II, when the camera slowly pans up to show Tommy Lee Jones in mailman's shorts.

[Neil Gussman]

Stuart,
you usually answer a line with an essay. Now I ask a question and you give me Tommy Lee Jones in mailman's shorts? I'll be OK though, I'm in Torino today and will be in Paris tomorrow night.
Neil

[Angela]

I take it for granted that all women magazine covers are airbrushed and Photo shopped, but it was pretty eye-opening to see such a detailed list of the changes.