The sexual revolution of the 1950s and
60s conjures images of the rise of feminism, the decline of traditional Middle
class American values of the nuclear family. But, maybe the one thing that
should be thought about when referring to sexual liberation is Hugh Hefner and
the role of Playboy. Playboy was not he first magazine to capitalize off of the
women’s body, what Playboy did however was overtly sell sex like no magazine
had before. Playboy, as one reader commented made “old issues of Esquire, in
its most uninhibited days, look like trade bulletins from the W.C.T.U.”.
Playboy did more then just sell naked women, they “rejected any limits on
sexual expression” and was overly critical of marriage.
Marriage for Playboy was nothing more than a “financial trap” that men found
themselves in men in this “woman-dominated land”.
Playboy encouraged the idea of no strings attached sex, that one does not have
be emotionally committed to a person to have sex.
Huge Hefner’s rising wealth
throughout the 1960s made it clear that his ideas of sexuality were striking a
cord somewhere with someone. For Huge, the idea of the naked female figure was
more than just sexual, it was “ a symbol of disobedience” it was “an end of
Puritanism”.
For Huge it was no surprise when people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Jesse
Jackson showed up at his Chicago skyscraper. He attributed their presence to a
larger revolution that was happening in the country during this, not just a
sexual revolution but also a social one. In the 1950s and 60s all of Americas
social values where being tested, attacked, and turned on their heads, from
race, to sex, women, and even the church no group in this era was left
untouched. In a 2010 interview to the New
York Post, Huge Hefner told interviewer Reed Tucker, “it was a time of real revolution in the social scene
in America, and the church was very much involved in that. So the same kind of
re-evaluation in terms of values was going on inside religion, as well.”
The end of all of these social
revolutions came at the same time, the election of President Reagan and the
rising influence of the Bible belt and the Christian conservatives. “The 1980s,
the arrival of Reagan, was really the beginning of the religious right being
involved in politics, and it was the religious right that helped get Reagan
elected, and he paid them back by establishing the Meese Commission, which for
the first time wound up labeling Playboy porn”
It was then that Playboy was termed porn and a social stigma was for ever
attached to it.
Whether or not Playboy had as large
of an social impact as Huge would like to believe is up for debate, but what
can not be argued is the fact that Playboy has become apart of American society
and it has grown far beyond the pages it was first printed on. Playboy is now
more than just a magazine; it is a part of pop culture; with a channel, a
mansion, legendary parties, and a bunny that has become ingrained in American
culture.
John D’Emilio, and Estelle B. Freedman.
Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America. P. 302.
“Q&A: Hugh Hefner.” New York
Post.
