Death of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy, died on Wednesday aged 91. Hefner published the first issues of the magazine in the 1950s, became rich and famous with the advent of the sexual revolution and was perceived as a constant provocation by moral conservatives. Was "Hef" a freedom fighter or the world's biggest sexist?
Hugh, you were quite the guy
Hefner and Playboy played an important role in the sexual revolution, Polityka writes in praise:
“Hugh Hefner was one of the first to predict the advent of the sexual revolution in the late 1960s - a revolution that went on to take the entire Western world by storm. In the end he himself became one of its icons. ... When he published the first issue of Playboy in 1953, he lit the - at the time very long - wick which would later bring about a social and moral explosion. ... Farewell, Hugh. You were quite the guy. You showed the world something completely new. And you fully deserved your success - and your long life.”
The ultimate misogynist
Feminists should not shed any tears for the late founder of Playboy magazine, writes columnist Julie Bindel in The Independent:
“He brought about immeasurable harm by making pornography - and with it the purchase and sale of women's bodies - into a legitimate business. Hefner hated women, and called them 'dogs'. ... Calling him a sexual liberator or a pioneer of the freedom of speech is like praising Roman Polanski for all he's done to protect underage girls. It's entirely possible that the manufacturers of silk pyjamas are lamenting Hefner's death. But no feminist anywhere in the world should weep so much as a tear.”