So the city fathers are admitting that, like Hefner, they don't mind living off the proceeds of prostitution. Butler Letters reprinted below were written to Chicago and Illinois city and state representatives unless otherwise stated. The City of Chicago is officially designating the eastern part of Walton St, leading to the Playboy Mansion and located in the north end of the Loop, as 'Honorable Hugh Hefner Way' on Monday, April 10th. But the idea that the third largest city in US would deem it acceptable to not only name a street after a man who pimps women, but call him Honorable, is a contempt for women that should not be met with silence. These forces take shape in stereotypes, customs and norms which give rise to the multitude of legal, political and economic constraints on the advancement of women.
Prostitution continues to be the ONLY 'profession' where women make more than men.
Many will suggest that women freely choose to pose in Playboy or participate in the porn industry. It will only be when these and other changes, such as when women have a substantial voice in the media and the cultural institutions in this country, that the potential of free choice will be possible. This is another in a long line of 'bombs' that have been aimed at women in the gender war, another attack in this dangerous time of backlash and the vilification of feminism, which is after all, our civil rights movement. Only when women have full participation in education, government, media, and business will there be an environment for women to be free to express themselves sexually. Yet another reason that this 'honor' must be reneged.