Was Hefner oppressor or liberator? Women debate his legacy

Hmmm. What's the female/male demographic here? I can predict the outcome for this. However; he was not a hero.

Freedoms? Yeah, if you're a bloke.

Oppressor.

His idea of sexual freedom was purely from a male perspective.

I pretty much agree with Zeisler here. Sure, Hefner pushed attitudes towards sex forward, but I definitely do not believe his intentions were to liberate and empower women. He was just smart enough to see how men could benefit from women having more freedoms.

I can picture Hefner now: wandering through the shadows naked 'cept for a pair of bunny ears and fluffy tail.

"I think it's safe to say that anything progressive that Hugh Hefner was for, he was for because it also benefited white men," Zeisler said.

How does nude pics and intelligent articles only benefit white men? Were non-white men banned from buying playboy?

Playboy also featured many Black, Hispanic, Asian models, and was the first major publication to print a black model on the cover.

... or so I was told by a friend.

Whenever I purchased a Playboy Magazine, it always depended on what the other contents were regarding interviews, satire and news topics. The pictures were nice but not never my main reason for purchasing a copy. As for the photos of nude women, they were just naked bodies of good looking women celebrating the beauty of their bodies. In my book it was not pornography at all and no different from old paintings or statues of naked women.

Oppressor, liberator or just simply human?

Whenever I purchased a Playboy Magazine, it always depended on what the other contents were regarding interviews, satire and news topics. The pictures were nice but not never my main reason for purchasing a copy.

That's what they all say........

He was just a Playboy.........

@Fijure    "That's what they all say.........."

I disagree. If I wanted smut, I'd have purchased Penthouse or Hustler, but not Playboy. Penthouse & Hustler win hands down when it comes to smut, especially Hustler. Playboy was more informative than anything else. I suppose most women are not all that familiar with the finer differences between these magazines and regard them as all being equally the same when they're really not.

Hmmm. What's the female/male demographic here? I can predict the outcome for this. However; he was not a hero.

He was not my hero in a sense, but I respected the man for what he has done and his contribution to teaching us and enlightening us about sex.

Freedoms? Yeah, if you're a bloke.

Not really, before the 1950’s America was overly, overly sexually conservative, talking about it was such a taboo thing to do, he changed that.

Oppressor

Really? I think he was a liberator in so many ways.