PlayBoy Mansion - Cultural Style & Impact

By Alexandria McGrath

Let’s play a game. I’ll list some adjectives and you name an entrepreneurial empire to fit the description: playful, sultry, and downright scandalous. Although the urge to identify McDonalds is there, it is undeniable that Playboy best fits this illustration.

We’re all familiar with that notorious silhouette. The bunny head with a bowtie around its neck, laden with the concept of the upper echelons of society. At a glance, Playboy embodies the notion of rich men on yachts with cigars thrust between their lips as they ogle beautiful, scantily-dressed women. However, despite this apparent shallow façade, the ethos behind Playboy runs much deeper. 

At its core, Playboy is the trailblazer in a sexual revolution stemming from its first issue back in 1953 with Marilyn Monroe plastered over its cover, selling roughly 50,000 copies in its original launch. This was the beginning of a far-reaching future and endless notoriety. Undoubtedly this was manufactured by the captain of this metaphorical ship, Hugh Hefner, or as the Playmates call him, ‘Hef’.

“At its core, Playboy is the trailblazer in a sexual revolution stemming from its first issue back in 1953 with Marilyn Monroe plastered over its cover, selling roughly 50,000 copies in its original launch.”

Founder Hugh Hefner embedded in this magazine his beliefs, which were engulfed by the ambition of unearthing ‘sexual liberation’ and ‘freedom of expression’. And that it most certainly did. As with most revolutions, Playboy caused a ruckus amongst the populous, unsettling them with the magazine’s overt publication of sexual imagery as well as pushing forth other sexual agendas.

Consequently, the LGBTQIA+ community can also turn to Playboy and acknowledge it as a welcome home. Long before same-sex marriage was legalized in the US in June of 2015, exposing America’s long road to accepting other sexual orientations and whatnot (a process which still looms today), Hef was advocating for the rights of homosexual people in the ‘50s.

One cause of uproar for the magazine was linked to the publication of a science fiction story penned by Charles Beaumont, called ‘The Crooked Man’. In a reverse fashion for the time, the tale envisioned a world where it was the straight man who was prosecuted in a world where homosexuality domineered. One can only imagine the influx of angry letters scribed in retaliation to which Hugh Hefner simply argued back “If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society then the reverse was wrong, too”. Go get ‘em, Hef.

To put it simply, Playboy walked so other visual forms of sexual liberation could run. Whilst Playboy did expand its own empire, cultivating tv shows, models, and merchandise, it also inspired rivals. In the ‘70s it was other magazines which undertook the role of Playboy’s competitor, such as Oui or Penthouse. Yet, Hef and his playmates remained a force to be reckoned with, despite taking another bash with the onslaught of pornographic videos. Following its 50th anniversary, Playboy saw its last major hold on being the front of sexual freedom in the early 2000s, of which the remnants of its grasp are still felt today.

Y2K was the pinnacle of how we remember Playboy today in the 2020s. A programme called The Girls Next Door, spanning six seasons, dictates our vision of the Playboy Empire. The show followed the chaotic happenings of the Playboy Mansion where Hef and not only various models, but his many girlfriends and wives resided. The Playboy Bunnies lounged around and partied, clawing for a chance to be featured on the cover of the magazine under the heat of the L.A sun. It was phenomenal. As well as that, it launched the careers of reality stars who still dominate the screen today such as Kendra Wilkinson. 

However, that is not to say Hugh Hefner was an angel or that the Playboy Mansion should be viewed as somewhat of a sexual Holy Grail. It had its turbulences. The girls were under strict control. According to the Playmates who wandered those expensive mansion halls, they were under strict curfew and felt obligated sexually in order to achieve. In what many, myself included, deem an inappropriate manner, Hef often dated many years his junior. His last wife Crystal Hefner, née Harris, was 60 years younger than the porn mogul, who was in his 90s at the time. Who knows, perhaps Hef and these girls were genuinely in love? One can’t be too sure though.

To summarise, Playboy should certainly be celebrated as a trailblazer. It was a brand that was so much further ahead of its time. However, it has reached the end of its road and with the turn of the 2020s I’m excited to see the likes of OnlyFans hold the torch of this ongoing sexual revolution in the bid to uphold sexual rights and sexual protection against the evils of corporate businesses like Pornhub. Long live sexual liberation!