Joe McConnell
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Hugh Hefner launched Playboy Magazine 70 years ago this year. The first issue included a nude photograph of Marilyn Monroe, which he purchased and published without her knowledge or consent.
Hefner continued to build the Playboy brand on the countless women who graced its pages, whose beauty and interpretations of glamorous female sexuality entertained readers for generations.
As it approaches its 70th anniversary in December, Playboy has changed dramatically. With the magazine no longer in print, the Playboy Mansion sold to a developer, and the last remaining Playboy Club in London set to close in 2021, what’s next for Playboy? The brand is changing to keep pace with the post-#MeToo world.
Hefner died a month before allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein surfaced in 2017, sparking the #MeToo movement (which saw victims of sexual assault and harassment speaking out against their attackers).
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In recent years, many have reevaluated Hefner’s legacy and his relationships with women. The 2022 docuseries “The Secrets of Playboy” (which aired on Channel 4 in the UK) detailed sexual harassment allegations against Hefner from several former girlfriends, including model Sondra Theodore and TV personality Holly Madison.
Hefner and Playboy’s relationship with women was complicated. Playboy was an early advocate for abortion rights, helped fund the first rape kit, and was at times an early advocate for inclusivity (such as featuring transgender model Caroline “Tula” Cossey in its June 1981 issue). But most of the women featured in Playboy fit a narrow standard of beauty: thin, white, able-bodied, and blonde.
Meanwhile, Hefner’s personal relationships with his much younger girlfriends reportedly followed patterns of control and emotional abuse. Ex-girlfriend Holly Madison described Hefner as treating her “like a glorified pet” in her 2015 autobiography, “Down the Rabbit Hole.”
Hefner’s disappearance has caused him to avoid the #MeToo movement. Playboy, however, responded, issuing a statement affirming its support for the women featured in “The Secrets of Playboy” and calling Hefner’s actions “abhorrent.”
The statement said the brand is no longer affiliated with the Hefner family and will focus on aspects of the company’s heritage that align with its values of sex positivity and free expression.
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Today, Playboy is a very different company than the one Hefner launched nearly 70 years ago. About 80 percent of Playboy’s staff identifies as women, according to the company, and its motto has changed from “Entertainment for Men” to “Pleasure for All.” The company’s stock is publicly traded, and 40 percent of its board of directors and management are women.
The company has also moved toward more creator-driven content through its app, Playboy Centerfold. Similar to the subscription-based content service OnlyFans, Playboy Centerfold allows subscribers to view content and interact with its creators, whom it calls “bunnies.”
On the app, creators, or bunnies, can portray their bodies however they want, putting the power back in their hands. Perhaps Playboy’s future is no longer serving the male gaze, but rather the very audience Hefner dismissed in his first editor’s letter:
“If you are a man between the ages of 18 and 80, Playboy is for you… If you are someone’s sister, wife or mother-in-law and you have chosen us by mistake, please pass us on to the man in your life and return to your Ladies Home Companion.”
Playboy reality stars of the mid-2000s, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, are also experiencing a resurgence among fans.
“The Girls Next Door” launched in 2004. The show focused on the lives of Hefner’s three girlfriends, Madison, Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson. It became E’s top-performing show and cultivated a new female audience for Playboy.
“The Girls Next Door” is a story of complicated emancipation despite patriarchal interference. Its three female protagonists have gone from being known as just some of Hefner’s many blonde girlfriends to celebrities in their own right.
Eventually they both left Hefner, abandoned the Mansion, and went on to successful careers.
The portrayal of Madison, Marquardt, and Wilkinson as autonomous, fun-loving, and complex individuals who found joy and agency in expressing their sexuality was perhaps what drew so many female fans to the show. Yet amid the girls’ struggle for agency, Hefner fought back.
The series shows that he had final say over every photograph of the girls published in Playboy, as well as imposing strict curfews and spending limits.
In Madison and Wilkinson’s memoirs, “Down the Rabbit Hole” and “Sliding into Home,” they allege that the production consistently undermined them. They refused to pay them for the first season, did not credit them until the fourth season, and aired their naked bodies uncensored on foreign broadcasts and DVD releases without consent.
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Fan interest in “The Girls Next Door” remains strong. In August 2022, Madison and Marquardt launched their own podcast “Girls Next Level,” where they interview former Playmates and interact with fans. They also recap episodes from their perspectives, sharing their experiences working on the show.
Having reached 10 million downloads as of February 2023, the podcast’s success, 14 years after the last episode of “The Girls Next Door,” is a testament to the cultural legacy of the Playboy brand. It also shows that, despite Hefner’s original editor’s note, Playboy resonates with some women.
Playboy is now in a post-Hefner era, where images of women found in old Playboy issues can serve as inspiration for others to enjoy their sexuality. Whatever the future holds for the company, the concept of Playboy has become common knowledge, whether it’s the appearance of Playboy Bunny costumes every Halloween, the popularity of cheeky Playboy logo tattoos, or the brand’s lingerie and clothing.
In a post-#MeToo era, the Playboy women are speaking out and taking over. With the mansion gates closed, the bunnies are finally claiming the brand as their own.
Top image: Hugh Hefner with Playboy “bunnies” in London in 1966.
