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Hugh Hefner launched Playboy Magazine 70 years ago this year. The first issue included a nude photo of Marilyn Monroe.
Hefner continued to build a Playboy brand from behind the countless women featured on the page.
With the 70th anniversary of December nearing its 70th anniversary, Playboy has undergone a radical change. As the magazine stopped being published, the Playboy Mansion was sold to developers and in 2021 the final Playboy Club in London was closed, but what is the future of Playboy? The brand is changing to keep up with the post #Metoo world.
Hefner passed away a month before allegations against the film producer, and in 2017 Harvey Weinstein emerged, giving momentum to the #MeToo movement (sexual assault and harassment survivors made comments against the abuser).
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In recent years, many have reevaluated Hefner's legacy and its relationship with women. The 2022 doxary, The Secrets of Playboy (aired on Channel 4 in the UK) detailed accusations of sexual misconduct against Hefner from several ex-girlfriends, including model Sondra Theodore and television personality.
The relationship between Hefner and Playboy and the women is complicated. Playboy was an early abortion rights advocate, supporting funding the first rape kit and sometimes an early advocate of inclusivity (for example, featured transgender model Caroline “Tura” Cossie in the June 1981 issue). However, most women featured in Playboy meet the standards of thin, white, healthy and blond beauty.
Meanwhile, his personal relationship with Hefner and his much younger girlfriend reportedly followed patterns of control and emotional abuse. Ex-girlfriend Holly Madison explained that Hefner treated her “like a glorious pet” in her 2015 memoir, “The Rabbit Hole.”
Hefner's death meant that he avoided the calculations with the #MeToo movement. However, Playboy responded that he confirmed his support for the women featured in “Playboy's Secrets” and issued a statement calling Hefner's actions “abhorrence.”
The statement declared that the brand is no longer affiliated with the Hefner family, and that it would focus on the company's heritage aspects tailored to the value of sexual positivity and free expression.
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Today, Playboy is a very different company from the one that launched Hefner nearly 70 years ago. According to the company, it identifies around 80% of Playboy staff as being women, and its motto has changed from “entertainment for men” to “joy for everyone.” The company's shares are publicly available, with 40% of the board and management being women.
The company has also moved to more creator-driven content through its app, Playboy CenterFold. Just like with Subscription Content Services only, Playboy CenterFold allows subscribers to view and interact with content from Creators called “Bunnies.”
The app allows creators, or bunny, to draw their own body. Perhaps the future of Playboy is no longer to serve the male gaze, and here is what Hefner was fired in the first letter from the editor:
“If you are a man between the ages of 18 and 80, if it is intended for you… If you are someone's sister, wife, or stepmother and accidentally greeted us, hand us over to the man in your life and return to your female home.”
Playboy's mid-2000s reality series stars Holly Madison and Bridget Markart are also enjoying a comeback among fans.
“The Girls Next Door” was released in 2004. The show focused on the lives of Hefner's three girlfriends, Madison, Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson. It became the show of E's best performances and raised a new female audience for Playboy.
“The Girls Next Door” was a story of complicated empowerment despite patriarchal interference. The three female protagonists have become celebrity in themselves, as they are known only as part of Hefner's many blonde girlfriends.
They eventually parted ways with Hefner and left the mansion, leading a successful career.
The depiction of Madison, Marquott and Wilkinson in the show were empowered, delightful, loving, complicated individuals, and finding joy and agency by expressing their sexuality was probably what attracted so many female fans to the show. However, in the girls' fight for the agency, Hefner retaliated.
The series shows that he maintained final say on all the girls' playboy photos, imposing strict curfews and spending.
Madison and Wilkinson's memoirs, “The Rabbit Hole” and “Slip into the House,” claim that production has been consistently weakened. They refused to pay them for the first season, did not praise them until season 4, and aired uncensored nude figures on foreign broadcasts and DVD releases without their consent.
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Fans' interest in “The Girls Next Door” remains strong. In August 2022, Madison and Marquhart launched their podcast, Girls Next Level, interviewing their previous playmates and interacting with their fans. They also summarise episodes from their own perspective and unleash the experiences of working on the show.
After reaching 10 million downloads as of February 2023, the success of the podcast 14 years after the final episode of “The Girls Next Door” speaks about the Playboy brand's cultural heritage. It also shows that Playboy resonates with some women despite the notes from Hefner's original editor.
Playboy is now in the post-Hefner era. Here, the images of women found in Playboy's old issues serve as inspiration for others to enjoy their sexuality. Whatever the future might be for the company, the concept of Playboy has become a public asset. Each Halloween, sassy playboy logo tattoos and branded lingerie and clothing are popular.
In the post #Metoo era, playboy women speak up and take over. With the gates of the mansion closed, Bunny is finally regaining his brand.
Top image: Hugh Hefner has played the playboy “Bunny” in London in 1966.