Playboy seen as a destructive cultural force

Re “Playboy at 50: A Man’s Notes,” by Reed Johnson, Nov. 28: Hugh Hefner will go down in history as the father of pornography, the promoter of a sleazy national addiction that warps the minds of the men enslaved to it and that, as a result, has destroyed countless relationships with real wives and girlfriends unable to look like a Playboy fantasy that doesn’t even exist.

He is nothing more than a clever pimp who’s made a fortune turning foolish young women into high-priced whores. That’s certainly not a legacy to be proud of.

Mark Bedor

South Pasadena

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Playboy succeeded by disguising our worst instincts in a smoking jacket and cultural pretensions. This helped us to justify our lusts. And it is partially responsible for our near inability as a culture, 50 years after the advent of Playboy, to make and keep our commitments of love to one another.

Andy Comiskey

Yorba Linda

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Shocking! Outrageous! Scandal! Not one mention of the late, great Shel Silverstein in “Playboy at 50.” Surely, Shel was Hef’s in-house hipster; his poems, drawings and cartoons were integral to Playboy’s “hip factor.”

Shel always made me smile when I browsed Playboy as a young teenager. Oh, by the way, I only read it for the superb literary content. Yeah, right!

Robert Leslie Dean

Los Angeles