Playboy Clubs throughout the world, and who...rank among the most iconic of 20th-century American sex objects, eclipsed only by Marilyn Monroe.” At Playboy’s helm was Hugh Hefner, a man as controversial as he was wealthy. Upon first hearing about the Playboy theme, I didn’t want to go. True, this was not the first year the fraternity had outfitted itself this way for their register, and I knew that my decision to not wouldn’t sway them to leave the Mansion behind. Throngs of lingerie-clad girls and robe-wearing boys would still flow in and out of the house all night, rendering my presence insignificant. And yet, I felt odd throwing myself in with the supporters, as if I were standing behind something bigger than a fraternity party––as if my lack of protest was interchangeable with advocating for Hefner. Despite his empire’s reliance on women, Hefner is reported to have shown neither respect nor compassion for the female sex. The most obvious proof of this may be Hefner’s own words; he was quoted by The Independent as saying, “The notion that Playboy turns women into sex objects is ridiculous. Women are sex objects.” Hefner’s objectification of women is made all the more clear by abuse allegations from a series of Playboy Bunnies. In her autobiography Ordeal, Linda Lovelace details being pimped out to Hefner, who then sodomised her and wanted her to engage in beastiality with a dog. According to the book The Killing of the Unicorn by Peter Bogdanovich, his late partner Dorothy Stratten was raped in a jacuzzi by Hefner on her first night working for him. Hefner refuted this allegation, saying, “I am, publisher of Playboy or no, a very shy man. And I could no more force myself on a woman, psychologically or physically, than could the man on the moon.” Hefner fought back by accusing Bogdanovich of child molestation, though he later shared words of empathy for Bogdanovich after Stratten’s tragic murder.
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