Bachelors and bunnies
Subtitle: the sexual politics of Playboy
By: Carrie Pitzulo
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780226670065
Subjects: Playboy (Chicago, Ill.); Sex in mass media; Sex role; Sex role in mass media; Press coverage; History; Men's magazines; Sex
Description: For a lot of people, thoughts about the sexual politics of Playboy run along the lines of what Gloria Steinem reportedly once told Hugh Hefner: "A woman reading Playboy feels a little like a Jew reading a Nazi manual." Hefner's magazine celebrates men as swinging bachelors and women as objects of desire; ergo, it's sexist. Not so fast, says Carrie Pitzulo. With this book she delves into the history of the magazine to reveal its surprisingly strong record of support for women's rights and the modernization of sexual and gender roles. Taking readers behind the scenes of Playboy's heyday, Pitzulo shows how Hefner's own complicated but thoughtful perspective on modern manhood, sexual liberation, and feminism played into debatesabout how Playboy's trademark "girl next door" appeal could accommodate, acknowledge, and even honor the changing roles and new aspirations of women in postwar America. Revealing interviews with Hugh Hefner and his daughter (and later Playboy CEO) Christie Hefner, as well as with a number of editors and even Playmates, show that even as the magazine continued to present a romanticized notion of gender difference, it again and again demonstrated a commitment to equality and expanded opportunities for women.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [221]-231) and index.
Table of contents: title: Playboy : the sassy newcomer; title: The womanization of Playboy; title: Inventing the Girl-Next-Door : the pulchritudinous playmates; title: Selling the dream : Playboy and the masculine consumer; title: Lack of love is a tragedy : Playboy and romantic values; title: The battle in every man's bed : Playboy and the fiery feminists; title: Feminism, the Playboy Foundation, and political activism.