Alright, friends, I’m going to do something that I don’t usually do! I’m going to make a giant ass comment that’s gonna get me shat on but I don’t care. Y’all just seem to have historical amnesia just like you do for MOST exploitative rich men.
Hugh Hefner is the fucking devil. A person who ‘does right’ because it’s profitable and good for his image is NOT a good person, and some people are having a difficult time conceptualizing that.
The man was a fucking pedophile! He used underage girls - “In 1975 Playboy Press published nude photographs of 10-year-old Brooke Shields. The photographer, who took them with parental consent, described his subject as ‘the first prepubescent sex symbol in the world’ and prints of his portraits soon became highly sought after and very expensive.“ — Ian O’Donnell & Claire Milner Child Pornography: Crime, Computers & Society
And in an international issue, there was an 11 year old girl posed nude and covered in makeup as well. Don’t even get me started on the shit with Dorothy Stratten. She was underage and was tricked and manipulated into doing photoshoots and those photos (as well as access to her body) was sold to Hefner and he molested her.
Are y’all also going to forget how he has historically and to his fucking death treated the playmates? COUNTLESS women came forward talking about how they were wooed into becoming bunnies and getting into his house (and his clubs) only to find out that there were restrictions on every aspect of their lives (including their bodies and personal lives - no boyfriends, curfews, etc.) and they were coerced into sex with him, each other, and also (noted by Linda Lovelace as well as many playmates) dogs. He would keep 7 or more women in his house at a time that are completely at his disposal and that are completely reliant on him for their livelihood. If they left, where were they to go? He KNEW he had that kind of power and he abused it - much like MOST of the porn industry. This is not new. Women said they felt trapped and like they were fucking prisoners. He would pimp them out to his friends, give them qualudes, and generally treated them like shit. Holly Madison wrote an ENTIRE BOOK about the shit that went on in that house and no one listened, just like no one listened to the numerous women before her either - because Hef is ‘fun’, ‘sexy’, and ““““““progressive”“““““““““““““ and no one wants to critique something they enjoy even if it means someone is facing the consequences for it. These women are manipulated and used. Hefner would treat them with “respect and decency” until they were no longer of value - and value being either beautiful or profitable.
In the year of 1963, Gloria Steinem went undercover to discover what it was like to be a bunny at these so called ‘iconic’ night clubs’. (http://dlib.nyu.edu/undercover/sites/default/files/documents/uploads/editors/Show-A%20Bunny%27s%20Tale-Part%20One-May%201963.pdf) she noted how poorly they were treated, they got demerits for not wearing high heels, they had to arch their back certain ways when standing, they had to give up half of their tips, and much much more. And that’s just in the clubs.
This vile creature has been given credit for the “sexual revolution” and to be quite frank, what he sold was no where near that or else he would have sold pictures of men as well, would’ve had more than just busty, thin, young women, and generally wouldn’t have been as shitty. What he sold was a fantasy - a fantasy of women being objects that are for for his consumption (and men in general), usable, and disposable. When one gets old and tired, don’t worry, there’s a newer, younger, and more palatable woman that he can use for his profit. This man made MILLIONS off of this fantasy and women’s bodies. Do you think any of the playmates received even a FRACTION of what he earned?
I could honestly go on and on and on, so no, he was not “an ally”, he was not “ahead of his time”, he was a man who did things to protect his image and say “oh? how can you call me a bad man when I’ve done this and this???” Like no… donating a small fraction of the millions of dollars you make from exploitation and by saying “Hey! Gays are people too!” does not absolve him from everything he’s done.
Fuck that noise.
dailybridgerton
germansingergirl
blakekathryn
tangentwithtanner
