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Hugh Hefner introduced Playboy Magazine 70 years in the past this 12 months. The first factor integrated a nude {photograph} of Marilyn Monroe, which he had bought and revealed with out her wisdom or consent.
Hefner went directly to construct the Playboy emblem off the backs of the numerous ladies featured in its pages, whose good looks and function of heightened female sexuality have entertained its readers for generations.
Approaching its seventieth anniversary in December, Playboy has radically shifted. With the mag now not in e-newsletter, the Playboy Mansion offered to a developer and London’s ultimate last Playboy Club ultimate in 2021, what’s the long run for Playboy? The emblem is converting to stay alongside of the post-#MeToo global.
Hefner passed on to the great beyond one month sooner than allegations towards movie manufacturer Harvey Weinstein surfaced in 2017 giving momentum to the #MeToo motion (which noticed survivors of sexual attack and harassment talk out towards their abusers).
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In fresh years, many have re-evaluated Hefner’s legacy and relationships with ladies. The 2022 docuseries “The Secrets of Playboy” (which aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom) detailed sexual misconduct accusations towards Hefner from a number of ex-girlfriends, together with fashion Sondra Theodore and TV persona Holly Madison.
Hefner and Playboy’s dating with ladies has been sophisticated. Playboy used to be an early supporter of abortion rights, helped fund the primary rape equipment and used to be every now and then an early proponent of inclusivity (for instance that includes transgender fashion, Caroline “Tula” Cossey, in its June 1981 factor). But most girls featured in Playboy have are compatible inside a slender good looks same old — skinny, white, able-bodied and blonde.
Meanwhile Hefner’s private dating together with his a lot more youthful girlfriends reportedly adopted patterns of regulate and emotional abuse. Ex-girlfriend Holly Madison described Hefner as treating her “like a glorified pet” in her 2015 memoir, “Down the Rabbit Hole.”
Hefner’s passing intended he kept away from reckoning with the #MeToo motion. Playboy, alternatively, answered, freeing a observation by which it affirmed give a boost to for the ladies featured in “The Secrets of Playboy” and referred to as Hefner’s movements “abhorrent.”
The observation declared that the logo used to be now not affiliated with the Hefner circle of relatives and could be that specialize in sides of the corporate’s legacy that align with values of intercourse positivity and unfastened expression.
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Today, Playboy is an excessively other corporate from the only Hefner introduced just about 70 years in the past. Roughly 80% of Playboy workforce establish as ladies, in accordance the corporate, and its motto has modified from “Entertainment for Men” to “Pleasure for All.” Shares within the corporate are publicly traded and 40% of its board and control are ladies.
The corporate has additionally moved against extra creator-led content material thru its app, Playboy Centerfold. Similar to subscription content material provider OnlyFans, Playboy Centerfold permits subscribers to view content material from and engage with its creators, which it name “bunnies.”

On the app, creators — or bunnies — are in a position painting their very own our bodies alternatively they want, placing the facility again of their palms. Perhaps Playboy’s long run is now not in serving the male gaze, however as a substitute the very target market Hefner pushed aside in his first letter from the editor:
“If you’re a man between the ages of 18 and 80 Playboy is meant for you … If you’re somebody’s sister, wife or mother-in-law and picked us up by mistake, please pass us along to the man in your life and get back to your Ladies Home Companion.”
The stars of Playboy’s mid-2000s fact collection, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, also are taking part in a resurgence amongst lovers.
“The Girls Next Door” introduced in 2004. The display targeted at the lives of Hefner’s 3 girlfriends, Madison, Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson. It was E’s easiest appearing display and cultivated a brand new feminine target market for Playboy.
“The Girls Next Door” used to be a tale of sophisticated empowerment regardless of patriarchal interference. Its 3 feminine protagonists went from being identified only as a few of Hefner’s many blonde girlfriends, to celebrities in their very own proper.
They every in the long run broke up with Hefner, leaving the Mansion and happening to guide a success careers.
The display’s depiction of Madison, Marquardt and Wilkinson as empowered, fun-loving and sophisticated people, who discovered pleasure and company thru expressing their sexuality used to be possibly what drew such a lot of feminine lovers to the display. However, amid the women’ struggle for company, Hefner retaliated.

The collection displays that he maintained ultimate say in each and every Playboy {photograph} of the women, in addition to implementing strict curfews and spending allowances.
In Madison and Wilkinson’s memoirs, “Down the Rabbit Hole,” and “Sliding into Home,” they declare that manufacturing persistently undermined them. They refused to pay them for the primary season, didn’t credit score them till season 4 and aired their uncensored nude our bodies in overseas pronounces and DVD releases with out consent.
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Fan passion in “The Girls Next Door” stays robust. In August 2022 Madison and Marquardt introduced their podcast “Girls Next Level,” the place they interview earlier playmates and engage with lovers. They additionally recap episodes from their very own issues of view, unpacking their studies of operating at the display.
Having reached 10 million downloads as of February 2023, the good fortune of the podcast — 14 years after the ultimate episode of “The Girls Next Door” — speaks to the cultural legacy of the Playboy emblem. It additionally displays that regardless of Hefner’s unique editor’s word, Playboy resonates with some ladies.
Playboy is now in a post-Hefner generation, the place the imagery of girls discovered inside previous problems with Playboy can function inspiration for others to revel in their very own sexuality. Whatever the longer term has for the corporate, the idea that of Playboy has turn out to be public assets — be that within the look of Playboy bunny costumes every Halloween, the recognition of cheeky Playboy brand tattoos or branded underwear and clothes.
In a post-#MeToo generation, the ladies of Playboy are talking up and taking on. With the mansion gates closed, the bunnies are in spite of everything reclaiming the logo as their very own.

Top Image: Hugh Hefner with Playboy “bunnies” in London in 1966.