Remember when CNN’s Brooke Baldwin completely freaked out over the word “boobs” two weeks ago? Well, apparently CNN is over it. Because the news outlet is flooding the zone with coverage of Hugh Hefner’s legacy.
In the wake of his death, the founder of Playboy Magazine is being lauded as a “cultural icon” by the same news outlet that pretended saying the word “boobs” aloud was triggering.
“A marketing genius, Hefner’s life became a kind of running promotion for his empire, with the Playboy Mansion conveying the image of a sexual Disneyland,” CNN’s Brian Lowry wrote in a tribute piece to the magazine publisher entitled: “Hugh Hefner: A cultural icon who helped change the world.”
“Yet he was also a media visionary, moving Playboy into television and later onto its own cable channel,” Lowry wrote.
What sort of man created and published Playboy? A visionary one. RIP Hugh Hefner https://t.co/NS5kyYW23Z
— Brian Lowry (@blowryontv) September 28, 2017
At age 12, older brother, 25, thought it was hilarious to get a Playboy subscription in my name. In hindsight kinda explains a lot.
— Brian Lowry (@blowryontv) September 28, 2017
CNN’s Brian Stelter also spoke about Hefner’s legacy with Don Lemon in a conversation shortly after the news broke of his death.
.@brianstelter discusses Hugh Hefner's legacy as the founder of Playboy https://t.co/5dDElRDI21 https://t.co/B6kaPvtR6S
— CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2017
“He celebrated sexuality in print like no one had ever done before,” Stelter said. “He inspired rip offs and copies.”
.@brianstelter: "Hugh Hefner was on to something very unique at the time" when he launched his magazine, Playboy https://t.co/7vEOAYJV5H
— CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2017
They also published an article collecting weepy tweets and Instagram posts from women who were featured in the magazine.
The women featured in Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine pay tribute to the man who helped launch their careers https://t.co/wdKOBIiaNt pic.twitter.com/7Zi1oz4UOL
— CNN (@CNN) September 28, 2017
Just two weeks ago, Baldwin halted an interview with Clay Travis of Fox Sports Radio after he said he believed in “the First Amendment and boobs.”
“Wait, what did you just say? You believe in the First Amendment and ‘B-double-O-B’s?’” Baldwin said, apparently deciding to spell the word instead of saying the word “boobs.”
CNN later announced the network intended to ban Travis from appearing on their cable channel because he said the “b-word.”
Someone should probably tell CNN that Playboy‘s legacy goes beyond the publication’s “commitment to quality authors and journalism,” and does in fact include boobs.
As Federalist publisher Ben Domenech wrote today, Hefner’s vision of sexuality embraced the fact that men and women are fundamentally different at a physical and physiological level. And these differences are what draw men and women together.
Hefner’s death comes at a time of deep confusion for the country about all sorts of things sexual in nature. Embedded in his work was the idea that what we appreciate in one another isn’t sexless. It’s deeply rooted in our differences. Without those differences, sex itself becomes much less interesting. So while he was derided as selling prurience and stereotypes to the profane and stereotypical, he was actually celebrating the sexual complementarity that has bound men and women together since the dawn of time. The fact this idea has become a problematic one in some pockets of American culture is one Hefner would doubtless find absurd – he built an entire empire on it, after all.
It’s funny that this same aspect of Hefner’s legacy—an admiration for the curves of a woman’s body, including her breasts—is what triggered CNN just two weeks ago.
