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This version was published on July 1, 2008
Journal of Urban History, Vol. 34, No. 5, 747-774 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0096144208316712

The Answer to Suburbia: Playboy's Urban Lifestyle

Elizabeth Fraterrigo

University of Nevada-Las Vegas

This article examines images of urban and domestic space that appeared in Playboy magazine in the 1950s and 1960s. It argues that in crafting the bachelor's ideal habitat, Playboy engaged in a popular discourse on changing roles for men and women, transformations in the urban landscape, and a consolidating ethos of consumption. Readers encountered a vision of urban life and domesticity that served as a gendered response to the perceived "feminization" of society and widespread suburbanization while also countering images of urban decline. Playboy's representations of the bachelor pad and the city provide insight into the meanings attached to the evolution of the metropolitan landscape in the postwar period and reveal the cultural foundations for the construction of a masculine identity based on leisure and consumption.

Key Words: popular culture • suburbanization • gender • Playboy • domesticity • masculinity


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