Sunday, March 25, 2018
Playboy
After being denied a 5$ raise as an esquire copywriter, Chicago native Hugh Hefner set about to start his own magazine. After raising $8,000 including a small loan of $1,000 from his mother he produced his first issue of Playboy in 1953, which included nude photographs of Marilyn Monroe catching the attention of thousands of men. That first issue sold 54,000 copies, making the magazine an overnight success launching it into the mainstream media. The magazine included full spreads of nude models and even included short stories written by notable novelists. Playboy played a huge role in the Sexual Revolution, making it become one of the world's best-known brands. Through all the fame that Hefner gained, he had his fair share of criticism, one of his biggest critics were feminists. The women's movement started to question and challenge the Playboy brand. Through all the hate being aimed towards Hefner, the brand kept growing and making millions of dollars. During its peak in 1972, the brand earned $12 million in profits selling around 7 million copies a month, making it the most influential men's magazine. After it's peak Playboy saw a decline in circulation and relevance due to competition. Behind all the success Hefner was hard at work to make sure every copy came out exactly like he wanted. Many of his employees knew him as a hard-working man who wanted perfection. Although the brand isn't as relevant as it was before it paved the way for many adult industries. Sadly Hugh Hefner was reported dead on September 27, 2017, in his home due to natural causes. Many will remember Hefner as being the pioneer of the adult industry.
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Playboy may have played a role in the sexual revolution, but it wasn't a very good role. Although many say the magazine was used as a way to celebrate women, we can see how it wasn't. The magazines main purpose was to entertain men with the bodies of women. Even though they showed women being sexual, it wasn't in a way to empower them, it was simply used as a form of a entertainment targeting men. We even see this in the PLayboy club, where the women were made to dress up in body suits with a cotton tail and white bunny ears. The costumes weren't being used to empower women, but instead to entertain men.
ReplyDeleteI think that the introduction of playboy was very controversial because while it was stated that the purpose of it was to celebrate women, I think that it lead to the objectification of women. It taught men and women that it is okay to look at women in that manner and I think it lead people to adapt the mentality that women are there for men's pleasure.
ReplyDeleteWell, playboy was undeniably simply to please the male population and not to rais women in any way. Objectifying women into animals (bunnies) and forcing them to act and look a certain way was not at all for them , but for men. But I also think it was absolutely necessary to get out some public adult books to satisfy them, rather than simply to leave it up to chance.
ReplyDeleteI think that the objectification of women is absolutely wrong, but the fact that these women were being treated like this helped start the revolution because many women including the "bunnies" were very enraged at this. Also, people started to see sex as more normal than something to be hidden.
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