Danelle Cook

Dr Bruner

4/19/2011

Comp II

Hugh Hefner: Saint or Satan?

Sex, nudity, loads of money, pool parties at the Mansion. Those are all

some of the first things that come to mind when a person thinks of the founder of Playboy

Magazine, Hugh Hefner. What most people do not think of is the Playboy Foundation, the

charitable part of Playboy that has donated millions of dollars since the foundation’s

founding in 1965 to charitable, literacy, religious, scientific and educational causes, and the

many other non-profit organizations, as well as the many other positive contributions

Playboy Enterprises has made since the founding of the magazine on October 1, 1953.

Playboy Enterprises have done many things to positively influence the way that the

American society is today, including passing abortion laws and helping with desegregation

of African Americans and Caucasian Americans (Playboy Enterprises). Many Americans

have a large misconception of Playboy magazine. The majority of Americans, informed by

modern day feminists, believe that Playboy magazine is simply degrading to women. In

reality Playboy Enterprises has had a largely positive influence on the way Americans

view sex, as well as many other social issues our country has faced.

There are many different sources of research about how Hugh Hefner and Playboy

have affected our society since the company was first founded. Sociologists and magazine

journalists are two of the most commonly known sources that discuss this topic in their

work. There are many articles in psychology journals, health and body publications as well
as pop-culture and news magazines. There have been many scientific studies done to show

the effects Playboy has had on the way women and men view the female body. The

research concerning the effect of Playboy Magazine on the American society can be

grouped in two main groups; research by feminists and general interviews with Hugh

Hefner in many different types of magazines. Each of these sources has its own view on

whether or not Hefner is a positive or negative role model.

There are many different stances on Playboy taken by the feminist groups. One

point of view is that Hugh Hefner’s famous adult entertainment magazine has a largely

negative effect on women. In the scholarly journal article “Cultural Representations of

Thinness in Women, redux: Playboy Magazine’s Depiction of Beauty from 1979 to 1999”

the authors compare the centerfolds of Playboy Magazine directly to how average

American women view their own bodies. The research showed that Playboy does support

an ideal for women of being thin, but their research also showed that many of their

centerfolds were above the healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) for their height and weight

according to measurements that were obtained directly from the models. Another stance

that some feminist researchers take is quite the opposite. In “The Battle in Every Man’s

Bed: Playboy and the Fiery Feminists” the author, Carrie Pitzulo, discusses the ways that

Playboy has positively affected women’s rights and the way women regard themselves.

Pitzulo states that the Playboy Company took a progressive stance on the rights of women.

Mackenzie Cato and Francesca Renee Dillman Carpentier argued in their article

“Conceptualizations of Female Empowerment and Enjoyment of Sexualized Characters in

Reality Television” that the women in the reality show “The Girls Next Door” attract as
many, if not more, women to the show as men because the sexual nature of Hef’s

girlfriends in the show is empowering to women.

Most of the research that hade been conducted has only touched on the subject of

the positive effect Playboy Enterprises, as well as Hugh Hefner himself, have had on the

world. I feel that any future research should include a more in depth look into the positive

actions that Hugh Hefner and Playboy have taken in the directions of progress for

inequalities in America. It needs to explain specifically what the company’s influences

have been through all of their struggles with the United States government and postal

system to the positive influences it has on women of all ages and backgrounds.

This essay will include discussion of exactly what positive influences Hugh Hefner

and the Playboy Company have had on America since their founding up until the present

as well as their effect on the rest of the world. The research will include the women’s rights

movement, African American rights and any other positive expansions the Playboy

Company has had on our society. My research will include all of the things that the

company has done to help liberate Americans from their simple minded ways.

It seems that Americans have been making their assumptions under many false

pretenses. “Playboy did not speak to women. Women were used as masturbatory fantasies.

I don’t see how any woman would be liberated.” These are the word from feminist Susan

Brownmiller. On this topic, Hugh Hefner replied that the magazine was started because

“beauty was everywhere” (Hugh Hefner:Playboy Activist and Rebel.) He believed that

women should all feel beautiful, whether they are the typical girl next door or a glamorous

movie star. The thought that any woman can be a sex icon was intended to be invigorating
to women everywhere, to make them feel like they can be sexy even if they are not a

certain body type or have certain hair or certain facial features.

“It’s amazing to me, quite frankly, that we had such a revolutionary impact in the

1950s and 60s. To still be around and have a voice of some significance more than half a

century later is unusual.” Hugh Hefner said this to John Wenzel in an interview he did for

the Denver post. Hefner never intended to have the impact on the world that he did. When

Hugh Hefner was young, his parents raised him in a very puritan home. He has said many

times that he was not hugged when he was a boy, and that his parents were not affectionate

with one another. Because of this, he threw himself into his school activities. This is when

he developed his interest that would make him pursue his degree in psychology. He said he

wanted “to find why people hurt one another and why they don’t love one another as they

should” (Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel). This was his driving force when he

started thinking about starting the magazine. He was working for a children’s magazine by

day and for Esquire men’s magazine by night. He felt that something was missing. He

didn’t want to create a magazine that was just naked girls; he wanted to bring some

literature into the works of the magazine. “My feeling from the very beginning was not that

we were creating a sex magazine. It’s a magazine the focus of which is a romantic

relationship between a man and a woman and the lifestyle surrounding it.” Hefner kept at it

through battles with the government including personal letters from President Ronald

Reagan, conflicts with getting a second class mailing permit for the magazines and even

being arrested one time for publicly opposing some government stances.

“I was a feminist before there was such a thing as feminism.” This is a quote from

Mr. Hefner himself in one of his magazines. The Playboy Foundation has funded sex
research and sex education programs, such as the work of Masters and Johnson and

SIECUS, the Sex Information and Education Council of the United States. The foundation

also supported birth control and abortion rights cases. The foundation was amicus curiae to

the Roe v. Wade case. Amicus curiae is an outside professional, who has nothing to do with

the case, that volunteer to offer information to assist the court in deciding a matter before

they actually make a ruling. Besides simply supporting abortion rights and promoting the

availability of birth control, Playboy Enterprises also opened up several day cares to help

out single women who were trying to work and make a living but were unable to make

ends meet. The day cares were free of charge, and helped promote women empowerment

by letting the women work their jobs so they could be successful and would not have to

rely on a man (Pitzulo).

Hugh Hefner has always said that he wants girls who are NOT professional models.

He believes in the notion that “beauty is everywhere,” empowering women to believe they

are attractive. To the feminists that believe that the Playboy centerfolds and bunny

costumes are minimizing women to simply being sexual objects, Hef says that it should not

be taken in a degrading way. “We should celebrate our sexuality. We should celebrate the

differences between the sexes” (Fraterrigo).

Murray Fisher, a senior editor of Playboy Magazine, put it bluntly. “The

Magazine… is an intelligent magazine. It is also interested in tits and ass. So are men…

Playboy didn’t think one more important than the other, nor see and contradiction between

them” (Pitzulo). Young women now enjoy partying at the Playboy Club, wearing shirts

and sunglasses that have the famous Playboy rabbit head logo and follow the televised

exploits on The Girls Next Door. These young women are reaping the benefits from the
fruitsof the millions of men and women who have been a part of the women’s movement.

Women now have greater access to education and better jobs, to birth control, abortion and

sex education. Women born after the 1960s have had more of these opportunities to further

their lives into whatever they could dream of (Fraterrigo). John Clellon Holmes wrote a

playful essay published in January of 1968 and in it described Playboy as “an appreciated

appraisal of the emergent modern female… self emancipated, unabashedly sexy,

charmingly individualistic and a joy to the men in her life” (Pitzulo).

Playboy Enterprises recently purchased a channel for soft core gay male porn.

Even in today’s day and age, this is somewhat of a controversial issue. The truth be told,

Hef loves controversy, and this is not the first time the company has been a supporter of

loving whoever a person feels like loving, no matter the sex of the individuals.

In the August 1955, Playboy published a controversial science fiction story called

“The Crooked Man” by Charles Beaumont where being homosexual was the norm, and

where heterosexuals were prosecuted. Beaumont had tried to put the story in Esquire

magazine, but they turned it down because it was too controversial for their taste. Hugh

Hefner received the story, and put it in the magazine. Hefner has always said that his

magazine and all of Playboy Enterprises has thrived on controversy, so of course if

Esquire turned it down because of the controversial aspect, Hefner wanted it inside the

pages of Playboy. The story was very controversial for the time because anything other

than the American norm, the typical segregated, heterosexual society

Playboy also boasts to having the first ever desegregated cable television show,

where “desegregated” means that African Americans and Caucasian Americans appeared

on the same show at the same time. This had been unheard of before the show’s air date of
October 24, 1959. The show was a blend of talking, different music varieties and comedic

acts. The show celebrated stars like Sammy Davis Jr. and Dizzy Gillespie as well as lesser

known interracial acts like the Gateway Singers, a folk group, and Lambert, Hendricks and

Ross, a jazz vocal trio. These groups were breaking some very large borders in the society

of the times; groups with people of multiple races in it were practically shunned by many

Americans even if they weren’t racist, because they were afraid of what their peers thought

about them. Interracial groups were not allowed on cable television stations because the

networks felt they were too controversial. Hefner didn’t seem to mind controversy; he was

known to test political boundaries within the show. He allowed many controversial bands

and people on his show; for example, the show often visited the topic of the Vietnam War,

and sometimes seemed to be a supporter in the protest against it (Hugh Hefner: Playboy,

Activist, Rebel).

On February 29, 1960 Hugh Hefner committed another very controversial act; he

opened up the first Playboy Club in Chicago. In a time of great segregation, he opened the

club up to everyone, no matter what their race. Hefner received a great amount of

opposition for this choice. After an incident in the New Orleans Playboy Club, regarding

two “tan citizens” being kicked out of the club, Hefner wrote a letter to Tommy Picou, the

sports editor of the Daily Defender and key holder at the Chicago Playboy Club, who had

also been denied admission to the French Quarter locale. The letter stated, “We believe in

the acceptance of all persons in all aspects of life on the basis of individual merit and

without any regard to race, color, or religion. Do I mean that we are ‘tolerant’ and that we

believe in economic integration but not social integration? No, Mr. Picou, I mean we

believe in being ‘colorblind’ straight down the line!” Soon after, the Miami Playboy Club
was desegregated followed within months by Playboy Clubs International repurchasing the

New Orleans Club and integrated their membership.

Playboy Enterprises is also a very large supporter of the first-amendment rights.

The company hosts many different events throughout the year to support the everyday

people who work to support the first-amendment rights. One award is the Hugh M. Hefner

award. The Hugh M. Hefner award was first presented in 1979 by the members of the

Playboy Foundation to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in effort

to keep sacred the first-amendment rights for all Americans now and in the future. More

than one hundred individuals have been honored since the award was established,

including high school students, lawyers, journalists and educators. Each award winner is

presented with 10,000 dollars and a commemorative plaque.

The Playboy Foundation also has what is called the Freedom of Expression award.

It is a 25,000-dollar cash prize awarded to a person who has started a program or project

that is dedicated to defending, advocating or supporting the first-amendment through their

personal or professional pursuits. The emphasis will be placed on nominees who would

benefit from receiving the financing to relieve inhibitions or burdens of pursuing the first-

amendment ideals of their project of program (Playboy Enterprises).

The Foundation has also recognized and supported socially aware documentary

filmmakers. This program started in 1977 and has been awarding grants for production and

distribution of a range of social change documentary films. The Foundation presented the

Freedom of Expression award at the Sundance Film Festival from 1993-2004 to honor the

documentary film that would best educate the public on an issue of social concern

(Playboy Enterprises).
 These awards have all helped to further protect the rights of Americans. Hugh

Hefner and the Playboy Foundation have far exceeded what anyone expected from the

company. From the beginning Hefner has always only wanted to have a positive effect on

America.

Sure, Hugh Hefner may be the ultimate Playboy, known for having more than one

girlfriend at a time, once having as many as seven at a single time. He has also tested the

limits of Americans beliefs and how much they were willing to tolerate someone opposing

their way of life on multiple occasions. But would anything ever change or grow in the

world if someone at some point did not test boundaries and push our comfort zones to the

max? Hefner has made great strides in improving the American society as a whole through

his work for the women’s rights movement, for gay rights and African American rights,

and for protecting the first amendment of the American constitution. He made it possible

for the people who live in our country to enjoy many freedoms that without him, we may

have never had the privilege to experience them. Many Americans have a large

misconception of Playboy magazine. The majority of Americans, informed by modern day

feminists, believe that Playboy magazine is simply degrading to women. In reality Playboy

Enterprises has had a largely positive influence on the way Americans view sex, as well as

many other social issues our country has faced. Never judge a book by its cover, nor a man

simply by the books that he edits.

 Works Cited

Cato, Mackenzie and Carpentier, Francesca Renee Dillman. “Conceptualizations of Female

Empowerment and Enjoyment of Sexualized Characters in Reality Television.”

Fraterrigo, Elizabeth. “Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America.” Oxford

University Press. USA. 5 Nov. 2009. Amazon.com. Web. 17 April. 2011.

Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel. Dir. Brigitte Berman. Metaphor Films, 2008. DVD.

Playboy Enterprises. 2011. Playboy Enterprises, Inc. Web. 14 Apr. 2011

Ingram, Billy. “Playboy After Dark/Playboy’s Penthouse.” TV Party. Web. 12 Apr. 2011.

http://www.tvparty.com/recplayboy.html

Pitzulo, Carrie. “The Battle in Every Mans’ Bed: Playboy and the Fiery Feminists.” Journal of the

History of Sexuality 17.2 (2008) 259-289.

Sypeck, Mia Foley, et al. “Cultural Representations of Thinness in Women, redux: Playboy

Magazine’s depiction of beauty from 1979 to 1999.” Science Direct 3.3 (2006): 229-235.

Web. 1 March 2011.

Wenzel, John. “Fantasy Hugh Hefner is Comfortable with His Place in the History Books and

Legacy.” Denver Post. Denver Post, 25 January, 2009. Web. 8 March, 2011.