How Playboy cut ties with Hugh Hefner to create a post-MeToo brand

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Hugh Hefner launched Playboy magazine 70 years ago this year. The first issue included a naked photograph of Marilyn Monroe, which he had bought and published without his knowledge or consent.

Hefner continued to build the Playboy brand in the back of the countless women presented in its pages, whose beauty and performance of increased female sexuality have entertained its readers for generations.

Approaching his 70th birthday in December, Playboy has radically changed. With the magazine which is no longer in publication, the Playboy Mansion sold to a developer and at the end of the remaining Playboy Club in London in 2021, what is the future of Playboy? The brand changes to follow the post-metoo world.

Hefner died a month before the allegations against the producer of film Harvey Weinstein surfaced in 2017, giving momentum to the #MeToo movement (who saw survivors of sexual assault and harassment against their attackers).

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In recent years, Many have reassessed Hefner’s inheritance and relationships with women. The Docuseries of 2022 “Les Secrets de Playboy” (which were broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom) detailed the accusations of sexual misconduct against Hefner of several ex-girlfriends, including the model Sondra Theodore and the personality of television Holly Madison.

Hefner and Playboy’s relationship with women was complicated. Playboy was a first supporter rights to abortion, helped to finance The first rape kit and was sometimes a former supporter inclusiveness (for example with a transgender model, Caroline “Tula” Cossey, in her June 1981 issue). But most women presented in Playboy are in a norm of narrow – thin, white, valid and blonde beauty.

Meanwhile, Hefner’s personal relationship with her much younger friends would have Models followed of control and emotional violence. Ex-girlfriend Holly Madison described Hefner as treating her “like a glorified pet” in her 2015 memories, “Down the Rabbit Hole”.

Hefner’s death noted that he escaped calculations with the #MeToo movement. Playboy, however, replied, releasing a statement In which he confirmed support for women presented in “The Secrets of Playboy” and qualified the actions of Hefner “odious”.

The declaration said that the brand was no longer affiliated with the HEFNER family and would focus on the aspects of the inheritance of the company that align with the values ​​of sexual positivity and free expression.

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Today, Playboy is a very different company from The One Hefner launched almost 70 years ago. About 80% of Playboy’s staff identify as women, according to society, and its motto has gone from “entertainment for men” to “pleasure for all”. The company’s shares are listed on the stock market and 40% of its board of directors and management are women.

The company has also changed to more content led by Creator via its application, Playboy Centerfold. Similar to the subscription content service only fans, Playboy Centerfold allows subscribers to visualize the content and interact with its creators, which he calls “Bunnies”.

On the application, creators – or rabbits – are able to represent their own body as they wish, by putting power in their hands. Perhaps the future of Playboy no longer consists in serving the male gaze, but instead of the public, Hefner rejected in his First letter from the publisher::

“If you are a man aged 18 to 80, Playboy is intended for you … If you are the sister, wife or mother-in-law of someone and have picked up in error, please transmit us to the man of your life and return to your ladies at home.”

The stars of the reality series of the mid -2000s of Playboy, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, also benefit from a resurgence among fans.

“The Girls Next Door” was launched in 2004. The show focused on the life of the three friends of Hefner, Madison, Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson. It has become the most efficient show of E and cultivated a new female audience for Playboy.

“The girls next door” was a complicated story of empowerment despite patriarchal interference. Her three female protagonists have only passed like some of Hefner’s many blonde girlfriends to full celebrities.

They finally broke with Hefner, leaving the manor and pursued a successful career.

The representation by the program of Madison, Marquardt and Wilkinson as authorized, amusing and complex individuals, who found joy and the agency by expressing their sexuality was perhaps what attracted so many female fans. However, in the middle of the fight for girls for the agency, Hefner retaliated.

The series shows that it maintained the last word in each photograph of Playboy of girls, as well as the imposing strict fire cover and expenses.

In the memories of Madison and Wilkinson, “Down the Rabbit Hole” and “Gliding Into Home”, they claim that production has constantly undermined them. They refused to pay them for the first season, did not create them before season four and broadcast their bare bodies not censored in foreign programs and DVD versions without consent.

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The interest of fans for “The Girls Next Door” remains strong. In August 2022, Madison and Marquardt launched their podcast “Girls Next Level”, where they interview previous play comrades and interact with fans. They also summarize the episodes from their own views, unpacking their work experiences on the series.

Having reached 10 million downloads in February 2023, the success of the Podcast – 14 years after the last episode of “The Girls Next Door” – talks about the cultural heritage of the Playboy brand. This also shows that despite the note of the original Hefner publisher, Playboy resonates with certain women.

Playboy is now in a post-Hefner era, where the imagery of women found in the old playboy issues can serve as inspiration to others to enjoy their own sexuality. Whatever the future for the company, the concept of Playboy has become a public property – whether in the appearance of rabbit costumes Playboy each Halloween, the popularity of cheeky Playboy logo tattoos or lingerie and brand clothes.

In a post-metoo era, the women of Playboy speak and take over. With the doors of the closed mansion, the rabbits finally recover the brand as theirs.

Top Image: Hugh Hefner with Playboy “Bunnies” in London in 1966.