RIP Hugh Hefner

hedonist said:

Just saw this, and told my husband I need to watch the Smoking Jacket episode of Curb (yet again).

What a life Hef lived.  A really nice one, I think.  Set precedents and held quite a hand in the boners of many (no pun intended).  Plus, to walk around in silk PJ's all day?  Surrounded by lovely and usually bare-chested women? AND THE GROTTO?!

I had the odd and pleasurable experience of visiting his mansion as a kid when he and my dad - and others of course - worked together on a fundraiser there for the City of Hope.  During the planning stages, my sister and I hung in the arcade room and snuck out for a bit to see the flamingos and monkeys and other assorted animals.  Pretty fucking cool.

RIP indeed.  A good 91 years.

I really hope we cross paths at some point so I can hear your life experiences. 

amethgr8 said:

He did a lot to objectify women, among many other things.

Can't deny that. Flawed for sure, but Playboy definitely helped push the social narrative in the direction of a more free and open society. Even if it was indirect and unintended, it helped break barriers regarding censorship. 

what a life!  rip

mace1229 said:

MayDay10 said:

Cant say its sad, really.

Yeah, I don't get it either.
Not that I'm happy he died, but the dude was 91 and lived longer than 90% of us will with probably more money than the entire fanclub put together is worth. Don't know what there is to be sad about.
I also don't get how someone who objectified women can be so praised by many who fight for women's rights? Conservative celebrities have lost their career for a fraction of what he did to women, but he's celebrated for it. Just doesn't make sense to me.

it's because that's not all he did. it's why people don't celebrate larry flynt. because that's all he did. 

HughFreakingDillon said:

hedonist said:

Just saw this, and told my husband I need to watch the Smoking Jacket episode of Curb (yet again).

What a life Hef lived.  A really nice one, I think.  Set precedents and held quite a hand in the boners of many (no pun intended).  Plus, to walk around in silk PJ's all day?  Surrounded by lovely and usually bare-chested women? AND THE GROTTO?!

I had the odd and pleasurable experience of visiting his mansion as a kid when he and my dad - and others of course - worked together on a fundraiser there for the City of Hope.  During the planning stages, my sister and I hung in the arcade room and snuck out for a bit to see the flamingos and monkeys and other assorted animals.  Pretty fucking cool.

RIP indeed.  A good 91 years.

I really hope we cross paths at some point so I can hear your life experiences. 

Me too, though my experiences aren't all that vast

Playboy has featured a number of actresses over the years, most of whom (I assume) posed of their own accord and nice paycheck.  He didn't create the desire of others to see women, famous or not, in states of undress.  I wouldn't do it myself, by the way.

This guy was a real pioneer. Unfortunately,  most people will just say he was a pioneer for sex. The guy stuck his neck out and took on the bible belt. Which in the 60s, was and incredibly hard thing to do.

RIP.

He did break down a lot of barriers.  He certainly didn't invent the idea of paying women to take their clothes off.  I suppose if he didn't do it, someone else would have.  He just really used women as the catalyst to get the other things he wanted done, done. I.e make money, stardom, the public to notice this issue in america or that one, etc..  How can someone (male powers that be at the time) argue with a beautiful woman, and oh why not go in the back and "get to know each other".   If he really wanted to do something for women he should have put men in the magazine, spread eagle like they do the women, hard johnson and all, or I don't know, show that it's a two way street and pose naked himself.

I'm not outraged, I just saying there was good and bad.  He wasn't THAT cool.  Women that do that are making their own choice, but back then, women were just happy to be celebrated as people and not maids and housewives. To them it was power, sheep in wolves clothes though and there was a definite sacrifice.   I think that's probably how he sold it, oh beautiful body, I will make you a star, you should show it off and show the world.  Kind of like a backward compliment.

I have been faced with that choice and I chose not to.  It was most certainly the women's free will, but for those that were willing to "fastrack" their career, it was a time in the life of america.  A man could walk into a place of business and be hired without question and if a woman at that time did the same thing, she has to start as a secretary or in the back filing, etc.

He fed off them and the mans need.  If you look at the ratio of naked women magazines vs. naked men magazines there are 10 times as many magazines for men and their fetishes vs. women.  The reason women do it is because there is a market for it.  Who makes the market.

too bad, I might have read some of those articles had they been in a magazine I would read.

well, there was some good.