The Good Die Young: Good Fucking Riddance

Publishing mogul and legal pimp Hugh Hefner, one of the people responsible for the sexual revolution when in 1953, out of his garage, he published a magazine called Playboy, has died. He was 91 going on 17.

Hef, as he was known, was the right person at the right time, I guess. The 1950s were an oppressive time for so many people. Back then, men and women weren't encouraged to have sex until they married, and they often didn't wait, hence the shotgun marriages. The sex roles were truly shitty. Men had to go to work and support the wife and any kids resulting. Life was no fun after one's teenage years; marriage was expected by certainly the mid-twenties. Hef, who himself had a wife and a couple of kids, also found the lifestyle constricting, so he came up with the idea of a magazine that would be "entertainment for men," and it was a phenomenal success. It didn't hurt that the first centerfold was none other than Marilyn Monroe, featuring pictures of her before she became famous and published without her consent. Although Hef loved to brag about the quality of the articles, especially the interviews, the real selling point was Hef's trafficking in female nudity, which would continue for decades until the magazine abandoned it when it could no longer compete with online pornographers. Meanwhile, Hef had Playboy clubs and other business interests all over the world. His L.A. home, dubbed the "Playboy Mansion," was almost as legendary as the owner. It was known for excess and debauchery, traits Hef had in spades. Among his noted guests was Bill Cosby, a man who also had a ton of skeletons in his closet. Hef was known to drink Pepsi by the gallon and lounge around in his bathrobe and pajamas, always in the company of women half (and later a third or a fourth) his age. While many hailed his influence on American popular culture, Hef was truly a piece of shit who didn't make the world a better place to live.

As bad as the 1950s were, women would be further pressured by men in the 1960s and beyond to have sex whether or not they wanted it. The "sexual revolution" was a true misnomer; it was solely on men's terms. Men on the "left" end of the political spectrum in particular worshipped Hef and were envious of his lifestyle. Never mind how utterly revolting that lifestyle was. It looked more and more perverse the older he got and the younger the women were. There have been many exposes on Hef by those close to him. It was not a charmed existence, at least not for the women who got stuck with him.

As I recall, the seeds of his debauchery were when he was a very young man and had fallen in love with a young woman named Millie. They got engaged, but Hef went into the military. While he was away, Millie had an affair with somebody else. When Hef found out, he was shattered. Millie felt tremendous guilt over what she had done, but instead of breaking off the engagement, she married him and had two children with him. Moreover, she encouraged Hef to cheat on her as a way to atone for her affair. It was rather a sick relationship, and eventually the two of them split but amicably. Millie would work for Hef's company for many years, and their daughter Christie ran the enterprise for many years when she became an adult. Meanwhile, Hef continued on with his degenerate lifestyle, flaunting it for the world to see.

There were women after women after women, supposedly thousands of them, making him a breeding ground for disease, plus a couple more wives thrown into the mix. He remarried many years later to one Kimberly Conrad, who was around half his age, and had two more children. The media made a big deal out of this, that Conrad finally tamed the old lech, but the marriage eventually went kaput. After Kimberly, there were more and more women, mostly to keep him company while he doled out money to them in order for them to survive. Finally, at the young age of 85 or 86, Hef married for the final time to a woman young enough to be his great-granddaughter, Crystal Harris. She was about 60 years younger than Hef. It was almost like pedophilia met necrophilia, though I exaggerate just a tad. It was revolting no matter how one looks at it.

As sexist as his enterprise was--Gloria Steinem actually did an expose of it while working as a Playboy bunny--Hef did give a lot of money to a variety of liberal organizations and claimed to support feminism, of course on his terms. That still didn't change the fact he was pioneering pornography, which has been a detriment to our society and further objectified women as merely sex toys to be used and abused by men, both in the industry and in society as a whole. His was not in any way, shape, or form a positive influence on society. He trafficked in human beings. Not a good legacy to leave.

Here is the link to an ancient Firing Line episode with two misogynists of the same age, William F. Buckley and Hef, debating the merits and demerits of the sexual revolution. This discussion was first aired in around 1966. It is quite obvious there is a glaring omission throughout the broadcast. Since it is from the official program's YouTube, I am not going to embed the link here. This is where you can see it.

The omission, of course, is the viewpoint of those who were and are most affected by the sexual revolution, women.

New York Times obit.

Snip from People obit:

By putting up his furniture as collateral for a loan and borrowing the rest from family and friends, Mr. Hefner published the very first issue of Playboy in December of 1953, which featured a nude Marilyn Monroe.

The same year, Hefner launched media and lifestyle company Playboy Enterprises, Inc., on which he served as a board member until the time of his death.

Of Playboy’s iconic logo, Hefner said in a 1967 interview: “The rabbit, the bunny, in America has a sexual meaning; and I chose it because it’s a fresh animal, shy, vivacious, jumping — sexy.”