'Secrets Of Playboy,' Hugh Hefner And The False Promise Of Sexual Empowerment

Hugh Hefner and Pamela Anderson with Playmates during Playboy's 50th Anniversary Celebration in New York City. Hefner would most certainly be “canceled” in 2022 on account of his blatant misogyny, and “Secrets of Playboy” asks us to grapple with the notion that someone like him would appeal to everyday women desiring sexual agency in 1953 when the soft porn men’s magazine launched. As Los Angeles Times TV critic Lorraine Ali put it, “Exactly no one will be surprised to discover that the late Hugh Hefner used and traded young women like commodities and that his mythology of Playboy as a progressive outgrowth of the sexual revolution and a bold expression of feminism was largely a charade.” At the risk of victim-blaming, Ali makes a valid point. Stephen Deutch/Chicago History Museum/Getty Images The survivors interviewed in “Secrets of Playboy” — Playboy bunnies, playmates and/or Hefner’s ex-girlfriends — initially saw Playboy as beneficial to them while they acknowledged the brand’s chauvinism. “‘It was a decent paying job, way better than becoming a secretary or something.’” Still, it’s debatable whether these women achieved any level of sexual empowerment at all when straight men seemingly benefited from their sexuality the entire time.