Turning a blind eye to someone’s sins is never justified. But liberals love it.
So when Playboy founder Hugh Hefner passed away on Wednesday, no one remembered their grievances with Hefner. CNN’s Brian Stelter said Hefner “celebrated sexuality,” while Lena Dunham tweeted that, even though she disagreed with Hefner on “stuff,” he was a “lovely” man (Yes, Lena Dunham, the feminist who can’t be “cured,” thinks Hefner was a lovely man.)
Hefner “celebrated sexuality” by profiting on the objectification of women. As he told the New York Daily News in 2010, “Women are sex objects. If women weren't sex objects, there wouldn't be another generation. It's the attraction between the sexes that makes the world go 'round. That's why women wear lipstick and short skirts.” This is the same man that CNN’s Don Lemon called “an American icon.”
While Don Lemon thinks Hefner “may have energized the women’s movement,” Playboy has been responsible for a multitude of sins, including, according to the Guardian, child pornography. A photograph of a ten year old Brooke Shields, unclothed, was taken by Gary Gross, in 1976, intended to be published in Playboy’s publication Sugar n’ Spice. The photo resurfaced in 2009 and was taken down at the Tate Modern by Scotland Yard.
Holly Madison, a former member of the Playboy Mansion, admitted that “ sex was a requirement of living there.” She told BuzzFeed in 2015 that she “ really felt like I sold myself out.”
Hollywood went above and beyond the usual thoughts for the dead, lavishing Hefner as a “legend,” a “giant of cultural influence,” and a “true explorer.” At the expense of the women who suffered from Hefner’s empire, CNN’s Douglas Brinkley called him a “giant of American journalism,” and Brian Stelter praised his roles in free speech battles “influential even today.”
Show respect for the dead. Offer prayers, or if you don’t pray, offer respect or silence. But don’t paint blatant misogyny or objectification of women as the stuff of “legend.” If someone claims to have a problem with the infamous “grab them by the p***y” moment the left loves to aim at Donald Trump, then they shouldn’t be idolizing Hugh Hefner.
