Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner and His Contributions by Jackie Turner

Everyone knows Hugh Hefner and that he is a sex idol among men and women. He has hundreds of beautiful women surrounding him at all times. He has a huge mansion, beautiful women, magazines, television shows, radio shows, websites, casinos and at one time gentle men’s clubs. When you see Playboy you know the emblem and the Playboy magazine. He is truly idolized for sexual revolution he has caused upon the United States starting in the 1950’s. The women want to look like them and the men want to be with them. When you think Hugh Hefner you obviously think sex, but that is not all he started out to be. Though it is a large part of everything he is now, he started humble and with intention of creating a lifestyle magazine. He intended to include sex and start a sexual revolutional phenomenon. He says now that he hopes his magazine has made a huge change in the world for the better.[1] Before Hugh had started the Magazine, the United States believed sexuality was a bit taboo when it came to radio and obscene images being shown to the public. So he really put our country through a sexual transformation by publishing Playboy. His company went through a lot of strife getting this controversial magazine off the ground. He was faced with several lawsuits, not only for his obscene literature and short stories but for nude photographs included in the magazine.[2] Due to his liberal beliefs in things like a more public sexuality and liberal drug laws, he was ridiculed and harassed. Since he was becoming a well known man, it became aware that his influence could really make a difference. His company took off right around the time feminist movements were at their peak and in a strange way he really made way for them.  Without his contributions to society at such a repressive time for America women may have not felt as empowered. Being someone who believes you can not have such a connected world through, television, magazines and internet without including everything in the world. That includes sexuality as a whole  and his contribution of sexuality really changed our culture. It set the stage for publicity. Maybe that is how the lead up of sex is so dominant today. It is seen everywhere and used as a huge marketing tool. Hefner did a lot more than anyone realizes now. He was an entrepreneur with a huge idea that changed the way we see sexuality in our society. He can easily turn on the television and see anything without it being censored as well as log onto the internet and freely lookup, read and see absolutely anything you could possibly imagine. I think the contribution Hefner made to the world is a huge one and I am really glad he did it. I enjoy this free sexuality in our society and it would not be as liberating if he had not had been a part of it. 

1.] Zahn, . CNN , "People in the News." Accessed March 31, 2014. http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/people/shows/hefner/profile.html 

2.] Wikipedia, "Hugh Hefner." Last modified march 31, 2014. Accessed March 31, 2014. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Hefner