Hugh Hefner has died. He lived a long life and he is another person I never expected to die.
I admired Hugh Hefner. Not only because he lived out his dream but because he kept at it and kept it in perspective. He never became arrogant. Even though he could have and had reasons enough to do so. But he remained surprisingly modest. At heart he was a gentleman. I think in his way he respected women. Not all women believed this. He probably did not have an intellectual relationship with any women except maybe his daughter. Or on the surface this is what it appeared to be. But who knows? If you are attracted to women who are only interested in their own looks does this make you an exploiter of women? How many women are there who are only interested in their own looks? If you have such women lining up to satisfy your desires is this exploiting women? If you have a idea that there are lots of men who are only interested in pretty women and you satisfy this interest does this make you an exploiter of women? Hugh Hefner was lucky in that he was able to establish a magazine that became popular right from the first issue. He did it all himself and he was able to keep power over it. He loved the magazine. It was more than a business. It was more than a living. It was his whole life. I was able to read Playboy in the late 60's and into the mid 70's. I didnt read it all that much from then on. I guess I stopped mainly because of lack of opportunity. And expense. I have to admit that it was passed on to me by a person who got it from his brother in law who subscribed to it for the wrong reasons. He had a whole room full of Playboys. I can honestly say I read it mainly for the articles. The magazine did have intellectual content. Of course I did look at the photo's. Who doesn't like looking at naked girls. Hugh obviously liked looking at naked or semi naked girls. His trouble was his sexual interests stayed the same all his life. He never progressed beyond what his sexual desires were at puberty. But who does? Norman Lindsay was painting a young nubile amazon the night he died. Hugh never married or had a relationship with any girl who was over 30 as far as I know. Even when he was over 70 he still fancied young girls in their 20's. He simply followed his sexual likes. He liked pretty looking girls who were it is admitted mostly vacuous and not interested in the world. And he didnt mind saying so. But is this exploiting women? Maybe. Who knows. I was attracted to Playboy because I agreed with Hefners attitudes on social issues. And his politics. I was particularly attracted because he was always against the Vietnam War. Long before it became fashionable. And he said so. He wasn't afraid to have opinions. He had a moral attitude that was lacking in the establishment. He wanted to change the world. The magazine did have a certain sophistication. It did have a certain sense of humour. The articles were interesting and well written. The magazine and by inference Hugh was interested in lots of things. And I found it interesting. I probably had the same beliefs as Hugh. I might add I also subscribed to Time Magazine at the time. So of course I did not read every single article and I was not totally immersed in the magazine. I read it for what interested me. It was against the Vietnam War. It was for racial equality. It was against segregation. It was interested in the world. Travel. Different cultures. These were important things to me at the time. I admired Hugh Hefner because he was not a good looking man. He could not be called handsome by any stretch of the imagination. He did not look strong minded. In fact he looked weak minded - easily exploitable - especially by women. And strong evil minded men. He did not look as if women would find him attractive. He did not look like a man's man. He was not what you could ever call a locker room jock. He had nothing in common with shock jock's. His television show was tasteful. He was not trying to proselytize anyone. He did not appear to be a hail fellow well met type. He did not look like he would be at ease in the company of ego driven men. He did not look like the type of man who would enjoy off colour sexual jokes. He probably enjoyed the company of women more than men. If anything he was a humble man. He was always polite. He was not an egoist. If he was not so successful would anyone have taken him seriously? After his death a documentary was shown on TV. This was mostly sympathetic to Hugh but of course being American they had to have balance. So they had various right wing people expressing their disapproval. The star in this camp was Pat Boone. A number of things emerged that should make Conservative America eternally ashamed but of course they wont be. Hugh once had a secretary that had a fiance who was addicted to cocaine and the fiance financed his own addiction by selling cocaine. In time his girlfriend - Hugh's secretary - became to depend on it also. The Secretary and her fiancee went to Florida on holiday and while there attempted to purchase cocaine but the deal was a set up by the authorities and they were caught. They were charged but it never came to court. When the authorities found out the she worked for Hugh Hefner they offered her a deal - say she bought and consumed cocaine in the Playboy Mansion and all charges would be dropped. They put a lot of pressure on her - threatening many years in prison if she did not cooperate - and finally she cracked and committed suicide. The conservative right always feel they can go to any length to eliminate people they hate. And they hated Hugh Hefner. They went to great lengths to try and destroy him. Yet by any standards he was a true American Hero. The star hater was Pat Boone. His contention was that Hugh Hefner was a pornographer. He gave what he called many examples of this. He claimed that Hugh unlike Pat had a low opinion of women. Pat Boone reminded me of Billy Graham and if they ever make a bio film of Billy Graham they should have him in the lead. They are both perfect examples of extreme right wing super hypocrites. Pat Boone claimed that because Hugh had Marilyn Monroe on his first cover this proved he was a pornographer. His claim was that Marilyn was on heat when the photo was taken. Did Pat Boone ever talk to Richard Nixon and do we have him on tape like we do Billy Graham. Pat Boone is a hypocrite. How can he critisise Hugh Hefner when Boone's whole career has been predicated on him being eye candy for women. What is he except a pretty boy. He has no talent. His only talent is his looks. What I cannot remember is if I was ever affected by the nude photo's. Did I find them pornographic? Did I ever get an erection looking at the photo's? I cannot recall ever doing this. Certainly I did not masturbate looking at the photo's. They did not produce an instant erection. I looked at them because of some spurious curiosity. They seemed all to be young country girls who had absolutely nothing in common with me. I have to say that even though some were extremely good looking they all unfortunately gave every indication they were pretty dumb. Definitely not my types. If anything I felt sorry for them - if you can ever feel sorry for good looking women who have no interest in anything except their own looks. Masturbation did not seem appropriate.
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