I must admit that I had never heard of Cindy Margolis until I read the Associated Press wire this afternoon. But I must be one of very few, since Guinness Book of World Records has dubbed Mrs. Margolis “Queen of the Internet” because of how many times her “girl next door” pictures are downloaded from the Internet. And now, at the age of forty, Margolis tells the the Associated Press she’s ready to go to the next level: a nude photo layout in Playboy magazine.
But it is all for the children.
Margolis assures us she never wanted to pose nude before “because my mom would kill me, and I thought it was more mysterious keeping my clothes on.” This year, however, things have changed. As Margolis puts it:
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.
But the real reason, Margolis says, she was willing to sell pictures of her nakedness for the men who subscribe to Playboy is because “I am posing for a purpose: a portion of the proceeds from each issue sold is going to go to my charity.”
The charity? A group that helps women procure in vitro fertilization and surrogate mother technologies, the technologies Margolis herself used to bring about her children. These babies are “one hundred thousand dollar babies,” Margolis says, even before they are born.
Does Margolis not see the sad irony that her “empowerment” comes about because Hugh Hefner “still wants her,” even though she’s forty? Does she think about the sadness of her becoming a sex object for other women’s husbands, other women’s fathers, in order to, through Frankensteinian modern techonology, help other women become mothers?
Welcome to Hugh Hefner’s America. We love women, as long as they are still hot. We love babies, as long as we can control them.
Let’s pray for churches that will honor and respect women, even those too old and too modest for Mr. Hefner’s appetite. Let’s pray for churches that will welcome children, praying with infertile couples and helping them with adoption. And let’s pray that one day, maybe when Mrs. Margolis is no longer considered “sexy” by the playboys, she’ll find her way to a community of the Kingdom, a church that will welcome her as a sister and not as a plaything.
