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Written by Daisy McManaman
Hugh Hefner launched Playboy Magazine 70 years in the past this yr. The first concern included a nude {photograph} of Marilyn Monroe, which he had bought and revealed with out her data or consent.
Hefner went on to construct the Playboy model off the backs of the numerous ladies featured in its pages, whose magnificence and efficiency of heightened female sexuality have entertained its readers for generations.
Approaching its seventieth anniversary in December, Playboy has radically shifted. With the journal now not in publication, the Playboy Mansion bought to a developer and London’s final remaining Playboy Club closing in 2021, what’s the future for Playboy? The model is altering to maintain up with the post-#MeToo world.
Hefner handed away one month earlier than allegations towards movie producer Harvey Weinstein surfaced in 2017 giving momentum to the #MeToo motion (which noticed survivors of sexual assault and harassment converse out towards their abusers).
Hugh Hefner and Pamela Anderson throughout Playboy’s fiftieth Anniversary Celebration at New York Armory in New York City. Credit: Theo Wargo/WireImage/Getty Images
The assertion declared that the model was now not affiliated with the Hefner household and could be specializing in features of the corporate’s legacy that align with values of intercourse positivity and free expression.
Today, Playboy is a really totally different firm from the one Hefner launched practically 70 years in the past. Roughly 80% of Playboy workers determine as ladies, in accordance the corporate, and its motto has modified from “Entertainment for Men” to “Pleasure for All.” Shares within the firm are publicly traded and 40% of its board and administration are ladies.
The firm has additionally moved in the direction of extra creator-led content material via its app, Playboy Centerfold. Similar to subscription content material service OnlyFans, Playboy Centerfold permits subscribers to view content material from and work together with its creators, which it name “bunnies.”
Playboy “bunnies” within the West Indies, 1965. Credit: Daily Herald/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
“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 bunnies subsequent door
The stars of Playboy’s mid-2000s actuality collection, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, are additionally having fun with a resurgence amongst followers.
“The Girls Next Door” launched in 2004. The present targeted on the lives of Hefner’s three girlfriends, Madison, Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson. It turned E’s finest performing present and cultivated a brand new feminine viewers for Playboy.
“The Girls Next Door” was a narrative of sophisticated empowerment regardless of patriarchal interference. Its three feminine protagonists went from being recognized solely as a few of Hefner’s many blonde girlfriends, to celebrities in their very own proper.
They every in the end broke up with Hefner, leaving the Mansion and occurring to steer profitable careers.
The present’s depiction of Madison, Marquardt and Wilkinson as empowered, fun-loving and complicated people, who discovered pleasure and company via expressing their sexuality was maybe what drew so many feminine followers to the present. However, amid the women’ struggle for company, Hefner retaliated.
Bridget Marquardt and Hugh Hefner with Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson in 2008. Credit: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage/Getty Images
The collection reveals that he maintained closing say in each Playboy {photograph} of the women, in addition to imposing strict curfews and spending allowances.
In Madison and Wilkinson’s memoirs, “Down the Rabbit Hole,” and “Sliding into Home,” they declare that manufacturing constantly undermined them. They refused to pay them for the primary season, did not credit score them till season 4 and aired their uncensored nude our bodies in overseas broadcasts and DVD releases with out consent.
Fan curiosity in “The Girls Next Door” stays robust. In August 2022 Madison and Marquardt launched their podcast “Girls Next Level,” the place they interview earlier playmates and work together with followers. They additionally recap episodes from their very own factors of view, unpacking their experiences of engaged on the present.
Having reached 10 million downloads as of February 2023, the success of the podcast — 14 years after the final episode of “The Girls Next Door” — speaks to the cultural legacy of the Playboy model. It additionally reveals that regardless of Hefner’s authentic editor’s observe, Playboy resonates with some ladies.
Playboy is now in a post-Hefner period, the place the imagery of ladies discovered inside outdated problems with Playboy can function inspiration for others to take pleasure in their very own sexuality. Whatever the long run has for the corporate, the idea of Playboy has turn out to be public property — be that within the look of Playboy bunny costumes every Halloween, the recognition of cheeky Playboy brand tattoos or branded lingerie and clothes.
In a post-#MeToo period, the ladies of Playboy are talking up and taking on. With the mansion gates closed, the bunnies are lastly reclaiming the model as their very own.
Top Image: Hugh Hefner with Playboy “bunnies” in London in 1966.
Source: www.cnn.com