The founder of Playboy

R.I.P., Mr. Hefner.

The US is so repressed sexually, humans can't mutually enjoy each other anymore without manufactured complexities.

I am pretty sure I understand what you are getting at and I think there is truth there. I would definitely argue that it is because we are over stimulated sexually and not because we are repressed. The ease of access of porn is a huge part of that.

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Letterboxd

Sure adults are free to to do whatever they want with their body. Do you think that means nothing we can do to our body is self-destructive? Does it excuse emotional and sexual abuse from those we enter into relationships with? Is everyone that smiles and says they are fine in their relationships actually fine?

Hef was awesome.

RIP

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MovieMeditation's Cinema Reviews // Film Diary 2015 // Letterboxd Profile // MovieMeditation's Top 50 Horror

What a huge loss, just devastating.

He did a lot for women.

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Fixed.

You stole my joke, was gonna blame spellchecker

"of" would also be acceptable.

That post was referring specifically to the show The Girls Next Door and to the question of how a woman could like something so "demeaning." Regardless of what may have been happening off screen and behind-the-scenes (and really pretty much all reality shows are far from real) there wasn't anything demeaning about what was shown onscreen. At least not in the three seasons I watched.

As to whether or not the choices people make can be self destructive and whether they might lie about what's really happening - of course. But being free to choose doesn't absolve someone from the consequences of those choices or from being accountable for them. And no it doesn't excuse emotional or sexual abuse. However, it's not like Hugh Hefner was some random guy they met in a bar or on a dating app. He was a world famous pornographer known, among other things, for keeping a harem of young women as his girlfriends and basically disposing of them when he grew tired of them or they got too old for his liking. But they let themselves be too blinded by the stars and dollar signs in their eyes to consider that or to give up the lifestyle once they had it. Furthermore, the reality is that the only person who can save you from an abusive relationship is you. I know it's not easy, but you have to find your own way out and at a certain point, if you don't do that you stop being a victim and become a volunteer.

I think this is mostly just down to trying to talk about his harem in the aggregate, since it's obvious some of these women are real victims, and others knew (or should have known) what they were getting into. Surely some of them knew what they were doing and were trying to exploit him as much as he was them. And yeah, probably more than a few who let their ambitions blind them to the ugliness of the arrangement until they realized it hadn't worked out the way they'd hoped.

Even in those cases, though, he knew what he was doing, and pretty clear didn't much care if the girl was savvy or not.

I am all for personal responsibility but just because a women is willing to prostitute themselves that doesn't excuse the John. I certainly wouldn't put demeaning in quotes in fact I would probably write it in all caps.

Anyway, the show in question is probably not relevant. The libertarian in me says leave consenting adults to be. The humanitarian in me has a very tough time with all this. Especially when Hefner is being held up as some kind of positive American icon. More than a little upsetting to me.

Enough said. Totally summed up for me but I will change that to positive western icon, not just american. I find it barbaric to treat people like livestock. And going back to a previous question I posed, what would the reaction have been of a mn marrying someone 60 years younger and keeping a 'herd' of women whose every minute he controlled if he'd been from some other parts of the world.

Assuming that the prostitute is doing that work of her own free will (as opposed to being a victim of human trafficking/coercion/etc), it is an agreement between consenting adults and I have no problem with that and don't see either party as a victim or villain.

In any case, the show is completely relevant to what I was saying in the post you originally quoted. Again, Captain Steel questioned how I, a woman, could like that "demeaning" show. I put the word demeaning in quotes because that was a quote of Steel's words, not my own. The three women that were on the show when I watched it - Holly, Bridget, and Kendra - chose to be Hefner's girlfriends and they chose to be on the show. I don't recall how Holly met him, but considering her very vocal ambitions to marry him at the time and the Playboy bunny trampstamp tattooed above her buttcrack I'd say she was using him as much as he was using her. Bridget - who had both a Masters and Bachelors degree in communications and was working towards her PhD - had a lifelong dream of being a Playboy centerfold and had met him when she tested for Playboy. If I recall correctly, when the show premiered she'd already been his girlfriend for eight years. Kendra met him after she'd been hired as a "painted girl" for one of his parties at the mansion.

The show depicted the girls partying, shopping, going to the salon, taking day trips to Vegas and other locations (during which Holly would call Hefner and whine about how much she missed him), interacting with their menagerie of pets, goofing off with each other and with the mansion staff, spending time with their own family members and friends that they'd invited to the mansion (or going to visit those friends and families), meeting celebrities - including Hank Baskett of the Philadelphia Eagles who Kendra would later marry (at the Playboy mansion) and star with in her own spin-off show, and having their photos taken for the magazine (which they were very excited about). It was vapid, mindless entertainment but nothing that was shown was demeaning and Hugh Hefner behaved like a gentleman onscreen.

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Worth thinking about. Another question I asked is how many of them are groomed by their parents to aspire to spreading their legs for an old man and his followers.

They could spend the money on whatever they wanted - not just clothes. And that's $52,000 annually - heck, I would have gone for that.

Totally agree with all of Miss Vicky's posts here. I loved the show & have it all on video.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

It's a quote from one of them. She said they had to spend it on clothes to look nice for his guests.

Well, in fairness, no one told me about the shopping, pets, and tatts. I am probably just being a prude, I am sure it's all fine.

Hef had a small menagerie on the grounds of his mansion. Holly (who was my favorite) loved all animals & it was enjoyable to see. Hef & the girls also went on some lovely trips together - home & abroad. Would I as a young girl have wanted to live at the mansion & live that life? Most likely not, but I can see why other women would want to. As Miss Vicky said, their choice. And the door was always open for them to leave, as Holly, Bridget & Kendra all eventually did of their own volition.