
Hugh Hefner has died - aaronbrethorst
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/obituaries/hugh-hefner-dead.html?_r=0&referer=
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born2web
IQ 152 !

"Hefner went to Sayre Elementary School and then to Steinmetz High School,
where, reportedly, his IQ was 152 though his academic performance was
generally modest." [https://www.biography.com/people/hugh-
hefner-9333521](https://www.biography.com/people/hugh-hefner-9333521)

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mixmastamyk
This was at #1 and dropped completely off the page. How is that possible?

I think that's a shame, it's the end of an era. Hef was an original disruptor.

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flashmob
Morality police strikes again! (edit: what I mean hopefully doesn't offend the
mods, what I mean is the general 'hive mind' behaviour that occurred, judging
from some of the comments posted & the heavy downvoting that followed)

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bittermang
Can you imagine the courage of a young Hugh Hefner? What if there was a new
kind of gentleman's lifestyle magazine? With best in class reporting,
editorials, interviews, fashion and accessory coverage. And two to three
pictorials of totally nude babes. But even those would be of the highest
quality, with concern to the art, and the presentation. It wasn't ever smut,
it was always ever art, with the level of care and attention to detail at
every level of the magazine.

Even today, it's outrageous to suggest I'm going to start a new venture
featuring nude pictorials, because you're immediately thrown in to the
Internet porn category. Your pictorials can't be shared on Facebook. You're
immediately banned from entire countries for syndication because of nipples.

But Hugh had a vision, and he stuck to his guns with his idea. Playboy and the
Bunny logo are inseparable parts of popular culture and American history, now.
Hopefully, forever.

God bless you, Hugh Hefner, for what you did for art, expression, and freedom
of speech. May you rest in peace.

~~~
oh_sigh
Why does art need to be so obsessed with boobs? I can see them being present,
but why focus on them so much if it's about art, fashion, and other non-boob
things?

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katastic
I love this age of neo-puritianism. We've gone from "if if feels good, do it"
to "everything is sexist and you should feel bad because even if you don't
consciously doing it, you're still a subconscious sinner. Now pay your
penance, heathen."

And then people wonder why millennials are waiting longer to date, lose their
virginity, and get married.

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tomjakubowski
Where did you get the idea that GP thinks the depiction of breasts in art is
sexist?

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trevmckendrick
Why was this killed?

192 points in 2 hours and it's on the 3rd page

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dagw
Page position is decided by some combination of points and flags. So it seems
more people wanted it off the front page than on the front page.

If I where to take a guess at why I'd say it's probably because the comments
quickly derailed into a discussion of morality and Mr. Hefner's moral
character rather than anything related to his entrepreneurial ability.

~~~
trevmckendrick
Thanks for the reply dagw

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icanhackit
I remember as a kid reading an expose on Pine Gap (ECHELON listening post in
Australia) in an old Playboy. I think it was from the late 70's?

So I can say for certain, from a fairly young age, that I read it for the
articles.

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digitalshankar
“Life is too short to be living somebody else’s dream." \- HUGH M. HEFNER

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Animats
He was an icon for a long time. His daughter, Christie Hefner, is 64, and
retired from running Playboy Enterprises.

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justinator
No Hugh Hefner, no Shel Silverstein. The dude probably propped up a lot of
people's careers.

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alex_g
Interesting factoid, but after checking Silverstein's wikipedia page it's
evident that he was well published before working for Playboy.

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Shivetya
People over look his (and his companies) contribution to photography. even an
indirect impact was felt in the world of image processing with the Lenna
image,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenna) .
Playboy pushed how people were photographed to new levels.

He was willing to publish what others were not; see The Crooked Man; hired
some of the best writers in the industry, and went on to start careers of
writers. His pushing the boundaries of free speech are very important to where
we are today. his support of women's and gay rights are often overlooked as
well.

he shaped society back in a day before internet and to an extent that may be
greater than some internet and tech giants of today

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nunez
Damn, I forgot that the Lena image came from Playboy!

Thanks to Hef, we have HEIF!

I'm here all week.

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sandworm101
Few admit it, but this guy's taste in women has had a profound impact on the
entire entertainment industry. LA as a city of busty blondes ... that's all
down to hef. Compare his girls to the rail-thin girls in the fashion houses of
NY or europe.

And before we scream about his clubs and the mag degrading women, look up the
interviews with girls who worked in such places before playboy. Hef cleaned up
an industry that badly needed cleaning. Imho the porn industry today is in
need of a new hef, one to clean up the websites that are treating girls like
cattle, paying them nothing over dramaticly shorter careers. Sadly he stepped
asside and never really participated in the internet scene.

~~~
danso
Just saw this Feb 2017 op-ed tweeted by the NYTimes:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/opinion/how-playboy-
expla...](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/opinion/how-playboy-explains-
vietnam.html)

> _Though following in their legacy, the Playmate models differed from the
> pinups of World War II. Hefner wanted images of real women their readers
> might see in their everyday life — a classmate, secretary or neighbor —
> instead of the highly stylized and often famous women of an older
> generation. The sexualized, yet familiar, “girl next door” was the perfect
> accompaniment for soldiers stationed in Vietnam. This conception of
> wholesome, all-American beauty and sexuality acted out by largely unknown
> models reminded young soldiers of the women they left behind, and for whom
> they were fighting — and could, if they survived, imagine returning to._

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albeebe1
The tribute at playboy.com (SWF as of now) just needs a bit of vaporwave.

Rip HH

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KGIII
At one point, they announced, shocking everyone who heard, that they'd no
longer be posting nude women on their website. They even made their magazine
nude-free. I think they reverted their magazine.

Here is a citation:

[http://ijr.com/2015/11/468636-playboy-ceo-explains-their-
rea...](http://ijr.com/2015/11/468636-playboy-ceo-explains-their-reasoning-
for-no-more-nudes/)

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eeereerews
I am consistently unable to guess which obituaries will show up on HN.

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hungerstrike
Hugh Hefner embodied the startup spirit that HN loves. He was bold and
innovative.

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Mikeb85
He was also very socially progressive and a voice for civil rights during a
time when segregation was still a thing and the US was extremely conservative.

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partiallypro
Huge free speech advocate too, something I greatly respect him for.

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geff82
He was a hero in many ways. His personality made the world a brighter place.

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johnvonneumann
RIP sweet prince.

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chrisper
I am remember watching the documentary about him 6 months ago. It was an
Amazon original show. I was really impressed. RIP

I recommend you to watch it if you got prime.

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bcook
I was interested, so I searched and found "American Playboy". Is this correct?

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chrisper
Yes. That's the one I think.

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elchief
Thanks for the mammaries. Seriously though, how did a man with that lifestyle
live to 91? Impressive

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KGIII
My understanding is that he didn't do a lot of drugs and seldom drank to
excess. I also am going to guess he got a lot of exercise.

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elchief
He was known for smoking a pipe. And that many sex partners has to be
dangerous

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KGIII
Smoking a pipe isn't healthy but a few daily puffs aren't going to shorten
your life all that much. Pipes go out, get relit, and generally aren't dragged
on like a cigarette. Many people don't even inhale the smoke.

As for the sex? Given his frequent recommendations about practicing safe sex,
I suspect it involved protection and, possibly, testing.

Hugh the public figure wasn't quite the same as Hugh the individual. There are
some good documentaries about him and his life.

This isn't directed at you, really. Though it may be? You used the number of
sex partners almost as a pejorative? At least that is how I read it.

I noticed quite a few people opining that his sex life was wrong and that his
magazine was sleazy, or somehow bad. A magazine that empowered women, a
magazine that offered choice, a magazine that promoted healthy sexual
relationships is being considered bad.

I haven't seen this much angst over Playboy since the mid-60s. It's like they
forgot we had a sexual revolution, and we won. That sexual revolution helped
lead to greater equality, understanding, and happier people. It helped the gay
people come out of the closet. It helped transfolk become even more accepted.
It liberated women from sexual repression where they were no longer expected
to be barefoot and pregnant.

Seriously, it's like some of these posters are in a mid-60s Southern Baptist
Church.

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elchief
I'm not judging his # of partners, but am suggesting it is a little dangerous.
HPV for example, isn't stopped by condoms, and can cause cancer.

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KGIII
Ah, alright. It read, to me, as if you were using it as a pejorative. Reading
other comments may have biased me, sorry if I read more into it than you
wrote.

It can cause cancer, though I believe the odds are low for males. He also may
not have contracted it. After a time, especially after the AIDS epidemic, I
suspect there was a lot of testing and scrutiny.

Obviously, I'd not suggest his lifestyle was all that healthy, but I don't
think it is a miracle that he survived to live as long as he did. He also,
surely, had great medical care and was able to afford a less stressful life.

Statistics are like that. You can do all sorts of silly crap and live to be a
great grandfather. You can do all the right things and die of cancer before
you hit puberty. I had a grandmother who surpassed 100 and she drank whiskey
and smoked rough cut tobacco from a corncob pipe.

I'd not suggest you try that, if longevity is your goal. On the other hand, if
longevity is not your goal than smoking, drinking, and having lots of sex
seems like a pretty good idea. Bonus points if you beat the odds and live long
enough to bury your detractors.

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toomuchtodo
> On the other hand, if longevity is not your goal than smoking, drinking, and
> having lots of sex seems like a pretty good idea. Bonus points if you beat
> the odds and live long enough to bury your detractors.

Solid life advice. Welcome to HN, I'm a fan already.

~~~
KGIII
Thanks, I've been here for a while but didn't start commenting until fairly
recently. I like to lurk before posting. It helps me to better understand the
rules, especially the unwritten ones, before posting.

I'm the same KGIII from Slashdot, etc... Yeah, that guy.

But, I don't want to meander too far off topic. I will say that I come here
for the comments, I read quite a few articles, but I prefer the comments. Some
of you are really intelligent. I don't always agree with some posts, and some
common themes, but I can respect a well presented and logically consistent
argument.

I do sometimes see the most innocuous comments getting negative moderation.
That sometimes confuses me, but I've seen it on other sites so it's not unique
to HN.

Besides? What good is karma if you can't spend it?

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fictionfuture
If there was one guy that lived life to it's fullest. This was the guy.

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adamnemecek
Idk why this guy is somewhat admired in the US. He seems like the epitome of
sleaziness and bad taste.

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alexanderh
That's looking at his life through a current day PC culture lens... he was the
epitome of class and cool in his day, and definitely did his share of fighting
for civil rights. He probably could have aged out more gracefully, but he was
a product of his times and rich... meh. Even in his older age, he lived
perhaps a bit sleazy, but in a "like you wouldn't do the same thing with that
kind of money and status" sort of way, if we're all being entirely honest with
ourselves.

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acjohnson55
"PC culture lens"? I wouldn't write off so blithely the clear chauvinism of
Playboy. While I'm sure its models exercise more agency than a typical
hardcore porn performer, I think it's still fair to say that its whole
presentation values women primarily as sexual commodities.

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alexanderh
I know it's cliche but they really did have decent articles, and model
profiles, I agree that they certainly went beyond simply presenting women for
womens sake compared to most. I wonder, what would a magazine look like that
still celebrated the naked female physical form but would pass this
"wholesome" standard many seem to judge the Playboy magazine of failing to
meet. Are naked bodies inherently 'wrong' to be admired? Looking at older
issues from the heyday, and they are pretty damn classy. Sometimes I dont
think mainstream Western culture will ever escape it's puritanical sex
negative roots. Jealousy, envy, lust and insecurities seem so mixed up in the
presentation of naked bodies, many will consciously or subconsciously find it
inherently distasteful for as far as I can see. I personally think it's
unfortunate that all of this baggage has to be so uniformly applied creating
an impossible standard. Some times naked beautiful woman are just naked and
beautiful, and there isn't anything objectifying to admire this particular
trait than there is admiring intelligence. If I exclusively admire a woman's
intelligence, am I objectifying her as a computational machine in lue of a sex
machine or something? Idk

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acjohnson55
It would probably look more like ESPN The Body. Or Annie Leibovitz's photos.
There's a lot of nude art that's not exploitative in the same way. I'm not a
prude, I'm just saying let's not airbrush what Playboy is.

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nafizh
A man who made an empire out of institutionalizing the objectification of
women is being glorified with a veneer of civil rights activism. Since when
did marketing nudity become a praiseworthy thing? Or asking that is too
politically incorrect these days?

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serf
>Since when did marketing nudity become a praiseworthy thing? Or asking that
is too politically incorrect these days?

Since forever.

The nude form is probably the most depicted thing in the history of human art,
and artists have been paid to depict it since time immemorial.

Our museums, art galleries, and cinemas are filled to the brim with depicted
nudes -- of every shape and size -- celebrating the human achievement of the
creation of such art.

Think whatever of Hefner, but please understand that so-called 'marketing of
nudity' and 'objectification of women' are entirely different concepts, and
there are plenty of examples throughout human history of one without the
other.

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speby
>Since when did marketing nudity become a praiseworthy thing?

That's the beauty of nudity (and of art). You don't have to like it. No one is
forcing you.

What you choose to praise regarding nudity and/or art is up to you. Clearly
this commenter does not view HH's work and life at all as praiseworthy. That's
perfectly fine to think if you want.

