Speaking of Bad Parenting: Cindy Margolis, Playboy, and "It's for Charity"

Oh my goodness! Isaiah 5:20.

Cindy Margolis has been helping millions of men kill kittens since 1996 when she first began posting images of her almost nude body on the Internet. I first remember seeing her in those Don Lapre ads on late night TV where you too could make thousands of dollars by placing ads in newspapers out of your tiny one bedroom apartment. Now, 40, Mrs. Margolis has decided to finally take off all her clothes and reveal her goods to the world. Not that the tiny bikinis and lingerie she wore before left anything to the imagination, but now she’s going to bare all. I will respond to her comments in this interview line by line.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/31/celeb.qa.cindymargolis.ap/index.html

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- She's been heralded for years as the most downloaded person on the Internet, which means... aw, heck, you know what it means. People love looking at Cindy Margolis.

People don’t just look at images of Cindy Margolis because they “love looking at” her. She eroticizes herself, and let’s face it, she has the Barbie ideal body that magazines like Playboy trumpet as desirable. She is tall, thin, blonde (with long hair), big boobs, long legs, hourglass waist, in short she embodies many men’s idea of sexual partner perfection. She has to know that making herself the object of spectacle in an erotic way means that those millions that download her photo are using it for their own sexual gratification. In essence she is making herself the imaginary sexual partner of every man that masturbates while looking at her photo and fantasizing about her.

What it hasn't meant, all these years, though, as all those millions of lookers know, is seeing even one picture of this 21st-century pinup queen without at least a little something covering her.

She has already been undressed, metaphysically penetrated, and debased countless times by her “fans.” The fact that she has now chosen to go nude in an answer to some sort of fine-lines middle aged mid-life crisis speaks volumes. I’ll elaborate later on….

At 40, Margolis, who has been titillating fans since she was an undergrad at Cal State Northridge with her own line of greeting cards, has posed very au natural for Playboy. The December issue, with her on the cover, hits newsstands Friday. The pages of pictures on the inside leave nothing to the imagination.
It was for a good cause, Margolis explained when The Associated Press caught up with her, fully clothed, at her home in Tarzana.

Q: Why now?

CINDY MARGOLIS: My decision to do Playboy is literally 20 years in the making. I've always prided myself in keeping my clothes on, being the girl next door. I've had the number-one downloaded (celebrity) Web site, and for years I've been known as the "Queen of the Internet" in the "Guinness Book of World Records," America Online, Yahoo!, (all while) keeping my clothes on, and I've been very proud of that. Every couple years when Mr. Hefner would call, I would very graciously decline, because my mom would kill me, and I thought it was more mysterious keeping my clothes on.

But, this year, when I got the call from Mr. Hefner, it was my 40th birthday. So I thought, "Wow -- at 40, they still want me?" And I thought it's almost an inspiration -- like a "you go, girl" moment. I feel empowered that you can be married and have three children and still be sexy and confident and look great.

My mom would have killed me before, but I'm an adult woman now, and I'm ready to show the world that you can have it all at 40 -- be fabulous, 40, and pose for Playboy.

So, by virtue of getting older and starting to worry about the ravages of time on her body, and before plastic surgery ruins it all, she has decided to strip for money….sort of....the fact that she feels “proud of” the fact that she has kept her clothes on before matters little really. What is the difference, really, between knowingly allowing yourself (and charging for it) to be the object of someone else’s lust clothed or unclothed? I see none. Both know that the end result of their posing is a prurient enslaving moment of false passion. The almost nude model and the nude model are no different in my mind. Perhaps there is a psychological parsing by the model herself, but it is an artificial construct…..her sense of shame long ago left her.

Q: So, what was it like?

MARGOLIS: I made my career off posing in swimsuits and doing all the swimsuit issues and posters, but I will tell you that that little bit of material on an itsy bitsy bikini -- taking that off was very nerve-racking the first time. ... But I felt proud of myself. I worked out really hard, and the reason I wanted to do it the most is because I am posing for a purpose: a portion of the proceeds from each issue sold is going to go to my charity.

Taking off the little triangle was difficult for a reason. We are born with a sense of modesty that is only dulled as we trample all over it, as she did so often that taking the next step was nothing to her. She had allowed herself to slowly and carefully be led along a path that leads to Playboy. People don’t just decide to pose nude. Something happens to them or they make choices that lead them to that path. C. S. Lewis gave us his keen insight into devilish tactics; in the Screwtape Letters, the master devil, Screwtape, instructs his apprentice devil Wormwood:

“You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. … It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. … Indeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."

Cindy Margolis has long trodden this path, that she even felt nervous is practically a miracle considering the power over herself she has ceded to her “career.”

Q: That would be...?

MARGOLIS: I am the celebrity spokesperson for Resolve, the national infertility association, and my three precious children were born through infertility procedures. I struggled for many years trying to have children. My beautiful son was born through in vitro fertilization. I had my beautiful twins via a surrogate. So I wanted to give back.

Wait wasn’t she just talking about how proud she was of being 40, having had three children, and still looking as sexy as she does? I do not think that you get to brag about “having three children” and still looking good if they were born to a surrogate mother. That’s like naming someone else your proxy/champion and taking the glory when they win the Boston Marathon in your name.

That is very important to me, to make fertility mainstream so everyone understands it. If you want to have your miracle child, there are options: adoption, surrogacy, fertility procedures. It is also sadly very expensive, and not all insurance companies cover it.

So the ends justify the means? You’re going to help people have children by making yourself into pornography which enslaves people to addiction and surely breaks up countless marriages every year.

Q: How does your posing add to the cause?

MARGOLIS: First we're going to sell a certain amount, and then all the rest after that will go to Resolve. That was important to my husband, as well.
As a man, the thought of millions of people lusting after my wife would make me jealous. I could never countenance my wife, my sexual partner, allowing herself to be ogled by other men.

Q: Do you have an idea how much might be raised?

MARGOLIS: Our point is that America is so family oriented and President Bush is very pro-family, but so many people have to leave America to have their families, and that's not really fair. Our hope is to help at least 20 to 30 families out there to have their precious babies.

There are few times when the term “filthy lucre” is more apropos.

Q: What would those costs amount to?

MARGOLIS: Infertility costs an average of about $16-20,000 per procedure, and you don't always get pregnant the first time. I had to go through it seven times. And adoption and surrogacy are not covered through insurance companies. I call my children "My Hundred Thousand Dollar Babies Before They Were Even Born"! Nine million Americans a year, that we know of, struggle with infertility.

And every one of those hundred thousand dollars is tainted. Pornographers’ children are the New Bastards. Their existence is tainted, through no fault of their own. Can you imagine if Madonna were your mom?

Q: How did you become the Web world wonder woman?

MARGOLIS: It was just perfect timing. Back in '96, I was on "The Price is Right" pointing at refrigerators, and "Extra," the TV show, came down. They were the first entertainment entity that put people up on the Internet, so they put my picture up, and America Online called the next day and said I got a zillion or whatever downloads. I didn't know what a download was!
I have my loyal cyber-buddies out there, and I really do answer my e-mail. I'm in my pajamas at 3 in the morning with my zit medicine on. I owe everything to them.

Surely! They're in their pajamas at 3 in the morning, and if they're typing while talking to you, it's one handed.

And I'm hoping that everyone who's come to my site over the years will be behind me in my decision to do Playboy. And when I'm asked what my girls will think when they grow up, I'll tell them that they have to keep their clothes on till they're 40. But when they're 40, they can make their own decisions.

You have zero moral ground to stand on with them Cindy. If I were her child I could always use this excuse to get out of trouble:

Mom—Why did you hit your sister?

Me—Well Mom, I don’t know, but I never took my clothes off for money. Everyone who has, please raise their hands.