You've got to love America. We're an optimistic country. We get served a lemon, we turn it into nude photos in Playboy.
 
You know the story on Enron. They were a $100 billion energy-trading firm that was ranked 7th in the Fortune 500. Stock was trading at more than $90 a share. Then they got caught over-reporting profits and concealing billions in debt, and the company went bust.

And "bust" is where Playboy entered the picture. Back in March, Playboy wanted to tell the "story" of Enron's employees. All the Enron people had to do was be gorgeous and willing to shed their business attire faster than you can say Clinton. Of 300 applicants, ten were selected for the August issue.

That got me to thinking about the real story here.

If you go back in time 30 or 40 years, most women would smack you across the face if you asked them to pose nude. We were squares in those days and nudity, and sex, were mostly private activities.

Then Hef came along. He left his wife, daughter and middle class job to start Playboy. His concept was clever: create a real magazine with good writing, but include tasteful nude photos of strikingly beautiful women. The concept was a hit and Hef became a very wealthy man.

And the genie was out of the bottle. Soon, there were many other nude magazines. Hef and others railed against our prudishness, and over the years it's obvious that they won the argument. Just flip on the television any time and you'll see people talking about "it" more than they do the weather.

But at the same time we loosened our attitudes towards sex on one hand, we were tightening them up on the other. The feminist movement attacked Hef and his minions. They said he objectified women, treated them as though they were but a piece of meat.

In fact, the feminists took their battles to Congress and the courts, and they won. They said women were not treated equally in the workplace, and they weren't. They said women were being sexually harassed by boorish men, and that there should be laws to prevent this, and Congress agreed.

In recent years, we've seen women make tremendous strides in the workplace. They have worked hard to hone their talents and skills and earn the respect of their male peers. We've seen boorish men get sued for pinching, lusting after and making verbal suggestions to their female peers. Women have finally made progress in America's companies, even mostly male-run companies like Enron.

Until those women took their clothes off for Playboy.

All ten are beautiful women, to be sure, but they come across as shallow and unreal. Playboy airbrushed out every physical imperfection, but they weren't able to conceal the more revealing imperfections.

One woman, a security administrator, was shot in several different angles on top of the Enron parking garage. But her plastic surgeon wasn't very good, as her upper parts were obviously surgically enhanced. Her figure is more artificial than the final one printed in Enron's annual report. 

Another woman, a former energy salesperson, says indignantly that we were born nude and there is nothing wrong with a woman's body. I agree. There is nothing more gorgeous than a nude female. But in the boardroom?

One of the women was asked what she felt about the Enron scandal and she said it wouldn't be right to go public with her opinion. Huh? You'll publicly display your parts at angles even your doctor hasn't seen, but you're guarded about your thoughts?

The great irony of the "Women of Enron" is that it is so telling about who Enron was and who we really are. Enron is a reflection of the lowest human behavior: greed, lust, dishonesty. But how is this issue of Playboy any different?

Playboy doesn't really care about the story of these women, they want to make money. 
The only reason the Enron women are posing naked is because they're being paid a lot dough. They're being paid a lot of dough because a lot of men want to see them naked. To wit: greed, lust, dishonesty.

So, Ladies of Enron, you act like you've come a long way - like you can be a CEO if you want AND disrobe for millions if you want - but the joke is on you.

You've been "Enroned" twice: once by Enron and once by Playboy.

Tom Purcell