The Playboy milieu in post-socialist Hungary

Abstract

By the 1960s, consumer habits focused on the freedom of selfrealisation, independence and the spending of leisure time became solid values in American culture. Values related to sexuality went through dramatic changes and erotics became part of mass culture as magazines designed for men were introduced onto the market. Playboy magazine, the pioneer of a new segment of the printed press, was born in this environment. Read by masses of people, this magazine had a very strong influence on public life in the second half of the twentieth century, and also served as a model for new lifestyle magazines launched onto the gradually expanding publishing market. If we consider the changes taking place in society as being key to its overwhelming success, then the magazine and the set of values represented by it can be subject to scientific investigation. The purpose of this study is to prove the existence of this correlation by comparing the sociological characteristics of two societies situated in different geographic locations at different times.