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Hugh Hefner has died
- icanhackit 9y agoI 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.
- elchief 9y agoThanks for the mammaries. Seriously though, how did a man with that lifestyle live to 91? Impressive
- synicalx 9y agoI theorise that the viagra must have acted as some sort of preservative. Downside is now his coffin is going to have to be a funny shape.
- fencepost 9y ago> how did a man with that lifestyle live to 91? Plenty to live for? Regular vigorous exercise? A healthy lifestyle surrounded by people actively trying to stay fit?
- KGIII 9y agoMy 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.
- elchief 9y agoHe was known for smoking a pipe. And that many sex partners has to be dangerous
- toomuchtodo 9y agoDangerous enough to live to 91. I can't speak to the less scary STDs, but the risk of female to male transmission of HIV without protection is actually very low (0.04% chance per act in high income countries) [1]. On a long enough timeline, everyone dies. Live accordingly. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19179227 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19179227
- KGIII 9y agoSmoking 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.
- elchief 9y agoI'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.
- KGIII 9y agoAh, 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.
- Animats 9y agoHe was an icon for a long time. His daughter, Christie Hefner, is 64, and retired from running Playboy Enterprises.
- sandworm101 9y agoFew 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.
- pvg 9y agoHugh Hefner didn't invent the look of women movie stars of the 40s and 50s, pin-up girls of the era, etc. And you can google your way to Steinem's A Bunny's Tale (written 50 odd years ago) about the good times to be had working in a Playboy club.
- danso 9y agoJust saw this Feb 2017 op-ed tweeted by the NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/opinion/how-playboy-explains-vietnam.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/opinion/how-playboy-expla... > 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.
- fictionfuture 9y agoIf there was one guy that lived life to it's fullest. This was the guy.
- adamnemecek 9y agoIdk why this guy is somewhat admired in the US. He seems like the epitome of sleaziness and bad taste.
- cowmix 9y agoHe championed civil and gay rights.
- adamnemecek 9y agoI guess nice of him to meet the lowest bar.
- slededit 9y agoIt wasn't the lowest bar in the 50s and 60s.
- oh_sigh 9y agoI'm sure if you were alive in the 1700s you'd be championing anti slavery, women's right to vote, etc right?
- adamnemecek 9y agoDepends where I would have been born. In which countries in 1700s did anyone have right to vote.
- slededit 9y agoRepublics included: France, Dutch, Northern Italy, Venice, Genoa, Poland, and of course the USA. England had its mix of monarchy and democracy.
- ehnto 9y agoThe only thing that could be construed as sleazy are that the women were naked and he didn't settle down with one woman. He conducted business with respect and used his eventual notoriety for the greater good. If perhaps you don't want to be as hedonistic as he was, that's okay, but so far as I can tell he was not exploitive, manipulative or untruthful, which is what I would consider sleazy behavior.
- eeereerews 9y agoI am consistently unable to guess which obituaries will show up on HN.
- dmichulke 9y agoYou're right. Where is the black ribbon on the site? Or is that for computer scientists only? And if so, Hawking, Bezos and Musk will never get one either? Edit: Seriously, downvoters, anyone care to answer instead?
- icebraining 9y agoI'm not sure there's an explicit policy; I think the moderators make the decision case by case, depending on the influence the person had on the overall computing and startup industries (not just computer scientists - e.g. Steve Jobs). Users can suggest its use by emailing them (meta threads are discouraged).
- dysoco 9y agoWe used to have a poll in a forum once a year where we "bet" on which celebrities were going to die that year. To be honest I was pretty bad at it because I can't even remember which ones are alive.
- bcook 9y agoI think OP was criticizing whose death deserves being noticed VS your bet about who may die.
- hungerstrike 9y agoHugh Hefner embodied the startup spirit that HN loves. He was bold and innovative.
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- johnvonneumann 9y agoRIP sweet prince.
- chrisper 9y agoI 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.
- albeebe1 9y agoThe tribute at playboy.com (SWF as of now) just needs a bit of vaporwave. Rip HH
- heartbreak 9y agoThere are blurred nude women in the background, but it's more or less SFW.
- kirykl 9y agoI suspect the URL will make some proxies squirm tho
- oh_sigh 9y agoThere was no flash on the page when I loaded it.
- KGIII 9y agoAt 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-reasoning-for-no-more-nudes/ http://ijr.com/2015/11/468636-playboy-ceo-explains-their-rea...
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- bittermang 9y agoCan 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 9y agoWhy 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?
- katastic 9y agoI 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.
- ant6n 9y ago> And then people wonder why millennials are waiting longer to date, lose their virginity, and get married. it's the housing market
- tomjakubowski 9y agoWhere did you get the idea that GP thinks the depiction of breasts in art is sexist?
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- geff82 9y agoHe was a hero in many ways. His personality made the world a brighter place.
- nafizh 9y agoA 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?
- revscat 9y agoI grew up on Playboy. While I enjoyed the pictorials, I also read it. Frank Herbert, Asimov, Stephen King. And then there was the Playboy Advisor. People wrote in with questions about sex, sexuality, and relationships. To my young mind, this was both fascinating and impactful. What I took away from it was that women should be respected, treated as our equals. You can enjoy the sensuality of a beautiful woman and still be a feminist.
- jfoutz 9y agoProbably 1960 or so. Never moved on, but certainly was a force for change back in his heyday.
- serf 9y ago>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.
- speby 9y ago>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.
- justinator 9y agoNo Hugh Hefner, no Shel Silverstein. The dude probably propped up a lot of people's careers.
- alex_g 9y agoInteresting factoid, but after checking Silverstein's wikipedia page it's evident that he was well published before working for Playboy.
- digitalshankar 9y ago“Life is too short to be living somebody else’s dream." - HUGH M. HEFNER
- mixmastamyk 9y agoThis 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.
- flashmob 9y agoMorality 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)
- abhi3 9y agoMaybe because the thread descended into flamewars and people don't come here to read that.
- ploggingdev 9y ago> This was at #1 and dropped completely off the page. How is that possible? Possible explanations : users flagged it, points to comments ratio is too high. In case someone is wondering : the mods or yc have nothing to do with it.
- trevmckendrick 9y agoWhy was this killed? 192 points in 2 hours and it's on the 3rd page
- dagw 9y agoPage 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 9y agoThanks for the reply dagw
- Shivetya 9y agoPeople 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
- nunez 9y agoDamn, I forgot that the Lena image came from Playboy! Thanks to Hef, we have HEIF! I'm here all week.
- born2web 9y agoIQ 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