HUGH HEFNER: PLAYBOY, ACTIVIST AND REBEL directed by Brigitte Berman. A Kinosmith release. 124 minutes. Opens Friday (August 6). For venues, trailers and times, see Movies. Rating: NN
Women don’t matter much. That’s the impression you get from Brigitte Berman’s hagiography of Playboy emperor Hugh Hefner.[rssbreak]
In Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist And Rebel, Berman demonstrates that Hefner is much more than the guy in pyjamas with the seven blond girlfriends. He was an important activist who fought against racial segregation, against antiquated anti-sex laws that could have put more than half of America in jail, and for the reform of marijuana laws. He even joined the protests against the Vietnam War during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.
This is extremely important – don’t get me wrong. But although Hefner may have been a brave activist, he is also that guy in the pyjamas who built an empire on treating women like just another object sold in Playboy Magazine between the ads for stereos, liquor and cars.
Berman pays scant attention to that fact, an appearance by feminist Susan Brownmiller notwithstanding, even during the brief bits of the film that deal with the groundbreaking men’s magazine Hefner founded in the early 50s. It’s clear that nudity was a big factor, but Berman brushes that aside in favour of the mag’s coup of getting major American literary stars to contribute original work and the über-success of the Playboy interview.
Then it’s on to archival footage of Hef’s syndicated late-night shows (Playboy’s Penthouse, 1959-60 and Playboy After Dark, 1969-70) that promoted, among others, black stars like Dick Gregory – Hefner insisted on getting Gregory a spot in his New Orleans Playboy Club – and Sammy Davis Jr.
Hefner made sure some of the greatest jazz artists made it onto his shows, and also founded the Playboy Jazz Festival. Earlier, he spoke out against McCarthyism, then in 1970 helped establish the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and even convinced Joan Baez to come on his show to articulate her opposition to the war in Vietnam.
By the time you’ve sat through the litany of Hefner’s virtues and your head’s stopped spinning, you realize that Berman’s movie really should have been called The Problem With Liberalism In America.
Racism is evil. Anti-drug laws are stupid. McCarthy’s tyranny was dangerous. Resistance is essential. Sexual repression must by fought – for the sake of one gender only. And sexism is, well, sexy. Given the raft of radicals who had no problem being associated with Hefner’s art of female exploitation – Gregory, Baez (!), Jesse Jackson (all of whom are interviewed), Pete Seeger, for God’s sake – it’s no wonder feminism emerged out of the new left in North America.
Berman’s not about to notice this paradox, though she’s quick to point out every other one pertaining to Hefner. He had access to every kind of booze, she reminds us, yet he didn’t drink. He could eat whatever he wanted, yet preferred junk food. He could wear whatever he wanted, yet ran around in his pyjamas.
No one’s there to say that he could fuck whoever he wanted – and did. That’s because Berman doesn’t notice the profound inequality embedded in Hefner’s idea of sexual liberation. Give guys whatever they want give women bunny tails. For all his self-righteous blather about the beauty of sex, he couldn’t even imagine putting a naked man in the pages of Playboy.
Hefner, after screening Berman’s film, was asked if there was anything about it he didn’t like.
He loved every minute of it. No wonder.
susanc@nowtoronto.com
