Just as Playboy was emerging as a cultural phenomenon in the United States, a German entrepreneur named Beate Uhse was building a sex business of her own – centered on the pleasure of women.
With the recent death of Hugh Hefner, come questions about his impact on sexual culture: Did his empire broaden the sexual landscape or did it usher in a pitiful era of objectification of women?
Hefner’s iconic Playmates, a scholar argues, need to be understood within their historical context, when men and especially women were expected to uphold strict standards of sexual propriety.
Around 1970 Playboy magazine received an unexpected proposition from the radical German philosopher Herbert Marcuse - he would do an interview, if he could pose for the magazine’s centrefold.
Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, has died age 91. While many have pointed to Playboy’s problematic relationship with women, when it first appeared in 1953 the magazine was a challenge to Cold War men.