Our long national nightmare is over. Cooper Hefner, the youngest son of Hugh Hefner and ex-wife Kimberley Conrad, has taken over as Playboy's Chief Creative Officer at the ripe old age of 25 and decided to bring nudity back to the magazine after a year of non-naked centerfolds. I was ready to write this up as a fun fluff piece about boobs, but then I actually read Cooper's statement. Here is what he had to say about Playboy's new philosophy. You are going to want to read the whole thing - here is a snippit:
"Sixty-three years ago my dad published the first issue of PLAYBOY with $6,000 he’d begged and borrowed from anyone who would stand still long enough to listen to his new idea for a magazine. Over the years, PLAYBOY evolved into something much larger than he could ever have expected, and the Rabbit became a sort of Rorschach test of people’s attitudes toward sex. Fans and detractors alike debated what the brand stood for and what the logo represented: What you saw in that Rabbit said more about you than about anything else.
...And although I’m picking up the pen where my dad left off with The Playboy Philosophy and he and I have a tremendous amount in common, we also have vast differences of opinion—which I suspect I’ll find as I continue writing these installments to set the record straight on who we are today. But one thing is clear that both my dad and I understand at its simplest form, and that is what Playboy and the United States strive to represent in their greatest forms: freedom.
Many likely assume I jumped into the business because of a fascination with the parties frequently associated with Playboy, the opportunity to drink with interesting people from all walks of life and the gift of enjoying great adventures. Although I’ve been given a front-row seat to many amazing experiences throughout my life, my true interest and passion have always been for what many would label the “boring stuff” but that I see as the most important stuff, namely the brand’s tradition of tenaciously advocating for civil liberties and freedom of expression.
...At this point in history, the most vital intellectual discussion we can have is how to create a society that’s as free as possible without ignoring the social and economic implications of our policy decisions. We need to identify who our allies are at a time when, on the liberal side, a culture of political correctness discourages debate that may hurt people’s feelings and, on the conservative side, politicians seem comfortable jeopardizing the rights of specific groups in the belief that it will “make America great again.”
So let this stand as an introduction and a declaration that, regardless of our sexual orientation or political point of view, what we’re seeing in society has happened before and that we all agree an attack on Muslim Americans, on women’s healthcare rights, on the LGBTQ community or on the First Amendment is in fact an attack on all our rights. And we should be ready to defend those rights at all costs on the intellectual battlefield."
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