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Magdalene Taylor is the senior editor of Playboy and creator of the Substack e-newsletter Many Such Cases, which explores intercourse and relationships. Under Taylor, Playboy just lately launched a Substack, providing a mix of latest writing alongside a mixture of archival materials, fiction, private essays, and longform content material.Â
This interview has been edited.
Mark Stenberg: Why did Playboy launch a Substack?
Magdalene Taylor: We need to reintroduce Playboy as a literary publication to an viewers of people that learn. I see what we’re doing as very a lot within the custom of what Playboy has traditionally performed. We needed it to be as up to date and enjoyable and horny as is smart, but additionally have lots of respect and a little bit of nostalgia.
Mark: Is this a part of a broader shift on the writer? The writing has felt very up to date.
Magdalene: Since I joined in April, we now have targeted on what it means for Playboy to exist in an editorial capability. We have launched two print points, one thing on hiatus since 2020, and revitalized the web site. We are on TikTok, on Reddit, and now on Substack. Really although, Playboy has at all times been a spot that publishes actually good writing, alongside horny footage.
Mark: It looks like we live by way of a very fraught second for intercourse and romance. What makes Playboy certified to try to make sense of it?
Magdalene: I’ve been attempting to dissect this second for years, to untangle what has occurred with gender. I really feel aligned with Playboy in that mission. On the one hand there’s gooning, and on the opposite there are folks afraid of intercourse scenes in motion pictures. There is a polarity between hypersexuality and puritanism. Playboy is a imaginative and prescient of sexuality that may be enjoyable and playful and unashamed with out being extreme.
Mark: I had heard the jokes about how good the writing was however by no means truly learn any of it earlier than. I used to be shocked to see an interview with the Reverend Jesse Jackson that you just resurfaced after his loss of life.
Magdalene: If someone was a major determine from 1955 onward, there’s an excellent likelihood that they have been interviewed for Playboy, wrote for Playboy, or posed for Playboy. It has an extended custom of publishing each erotic content material and tales that have been the primary of their variety to defend civil liberties and articulate political stances that folks now see as a given. Playboy has at all times been a selected voice of sexuality’s place in a civilized world.
Mark: Did you attain out to Substack earlier than launching, simply to be sure to have been within the clear?Â
Magdalene: We did discuss with Substack forward of the launch, largely to see what they thought can be finest practices. We needed to be sure that we wouldn’t be shadow-banned or get in any bother for having nudity—we don’t have any kind of exception, that’s simply their coverage.
Mark: Do you’ve a dream interview or story you want to see written? Magdalene: My dream can be to interview Camille Paglia.