John Mayer's Controversial Playboy Interview: Shaun Hautly

If people are going to read Playboy and then come away saying they're offended, they shouldn't read Playboy. If they're going to say that something in Playboy is sexist, I suggest they look at the adjacent pages where women are objectified to make money. Sort of like Jessica Simpson's music videos, stage performances, appearances in movies, and print ads. After spending much of her life in panties at the business end of a camera, I'm sure Jessica is losing sleep after such a comment. In my brief, informal search, there have been well over 650 Playmates, and only 21 have been Black. So let's not be too shocked by racial skews in the magazine either.

Now, onto Mayer. The guy can play guitar. Really well. Unfortunately for me, he chooses to play mostly lame love songs (this is an op-ed piece, remember?). The kind of songs that get him girls like Simpson and Aniston. Not songs like Cobain who got Courtney Love. That's a trade-off he was willing to make. Now, his musical talents I can appreciate without focusing too much on his superior women-wrangling abilities. Like with most celebrities, I tend to avoid caring too much about their relationships because in most cases (Paris Hilton excluded) they're famous for a reason other than their sexual behavior.

So Mayer said his penis was white supremacist. That should have been excluded. Just for its potential for controversy. However, he was speaking on his taste in women. Other penises are blonde supremacist, or breast supremacist. This isn't saying anything about discrimination on any other level than the woman he's attracted to. Mayer doesn't dig on black girls. Fine. That's not racist. He doesn't like them, others do. Gabriel Aubry (Halle Berry), Justin Chambers (Greys Anatomy), Wolfgang Puck, Robin Thicke, Robert DeNiro, David Bowie, and Thomas Jefferson. We all have our tastes, no reason to hate someone because they're attracted to a different type of person than you. 

As far as him using the n-word. He's on his own. That's one way that blacks and whites will NEVER be equal: whites never get to use that word. So keep on waiting for the world to change, just know it's never going to change to allow you to use that word.

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