Playboy (lifestyle)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A playboy is a modern version of a public Casanova — a hedonistic womanizer who, being of means and with ample time for leisure, is able to demonstratively appreciate the pleasures of the world. The term has been more loosely applied to a flashy womanizer, such as a player, pappagallo, or Don Juan.
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Development
Initially the term was used in the eighteenth century for boys who performed in the theatre, By the end of the nineteenth century it also implied the connotations of “gambler” and “musician”. By 1907, in J. M. Synge’s comedy The Playboy of the Western World, the term had acquired the notion of a womanizer. According to Shawn Levy, the term reached its full meaning in the interwar years and early post WWII years. Postwar intercontinental travel allowed playboys to meet at international nightclubs and famous "playgrounds" such as the Riviera or Palm Beach where they were trailed by papparazzi (immortalized in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita) who supplied the tabloids with material to be fed to an eager audience. Their sexual conquests are rich, beautiful, and famous. In 1953, Hugh Hefner caught the wave and created the Playboy magazine.
Famous playboys
Porfirio Rubirosa who died in a car crash in 1965 epitomizes the essence of a playboy. Having been called both the "ultimate" and "last" playboy, the Dominican diplomat claimed to have no time to work being busy charming and impressing the ladies, getting married (briefly and in sequence) to the two richest women in the world, drinking and gambling with his buddies, playing polo, racing cars, and flying his airplane from party to party. He was linked to other famous playboys of his day, Aly Khan, “Baby” Francisco Pignatari, and, later, Gunther Sachs, his acolyte, who termed himself a homo ludens. Other people who adopted the playboy lifestyle included Howard Hughes, Errol Flynn, Conrad “Nicky” Hilton, Fernando Lamas, and Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.
Decline
With feminism, mass tourism, and an expanding "culture of leisure", the role of the playboy has declined.
See also
