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海夫纳自称女权主义者,并非人人都赞成

海夫纳自称女权主义者,并非人人都赞成

Valentina Zarya 2017-10-10
一些批评人士认为海夫纳是女权运动的敌人。但他确实支持女权的某些方面。

《花花公子》创始人休·海夫纳的讣告发布了不到24个小时,新闻里一直播放着外界对此事的反应,但并不都是赞誉之词。

毫无疑问,海夫纳是传媒先驱和文化偶像,他重塑了美国主流社会谈论性的方式。一些批评人士认为他把女性视为纯粹的“性物体”,是女权运动的敌人。但海夫纳确实支持女权的某些方面——在他的带领下,《花花公子》成为倡导女性生育权的先行者。下面就让我们看看这两种观点:

女权主义者之友

1986年,休·海夫纳在美国《新闻周刊》的一篇封面文章中自称为女权主义者。对此,有些女性表示认同。芝加哥洛约拉大学教授伊丽莎白·弗拉特里戈在文章《〈花花公子〉和现代美国美好生活的形成》中写道:“《花花公子》和女性运动的自由元素立场相同。” 弗拉特里戈指出,表现之一就是这本杂志对“负责任的丈夫/父亲照顾经济上依附于他们的家庭主妇的家庭工资观念”提出了挑战。

据弗拉特里戈介绍,对于贝蒂·弗里丹1963年出版的女权主义著作《女性的奥秘》,海夫纳认同其中的大部分内容,而且表示这本书“跟[他的]感觉完全一致,那就是社会运转的方式毫无道理。”海夫纳的粉丝还指出,海夫纳让女人的性欲变成了正常现象,因而有助于女性的解放运动。

《花花公子》支持堕胎合法化、性行为教育和生育控制。它刊登了主张人工流产合法的文章和人物采访,还就罗伊诉韦德案,也就是在全美国实现堕胎合法化的里程碑式案例,提交了法庭之友意见书。

最后,在海夫纳治下,《花花公子》刊登了大量女作家的文章,包括玛格丽特·阿特伍德和杰梅恩·格瑞尔。1975年,海夫纳把自己的女儿克里斯蒂·海夫纳任命为花花公子公司总裁,1988年又任命为首席执行官兼董事长。克里斯蒂在这两个位置上一直待到2009年,成为美国上市公司历史上任职时间最长的董事长和CEO。这可相当重要,因为《财富》500强中女性CEO的比例还不到5%。

女权主义者之敌

虽然海夫纳和《花花公子》倡导女性生育权,但并不是所有观察人士都把他视为自己人。埃克塞特大学教授斯科拉·莫根罗特告诉BBC,部分观察人士指出,他并未给予女性力量,而是“给了她们又一个可选择的受限制角色”。女权主义作家杰茜卡·瓦伦蒂写道,这个角色就像“可收集的性战利品”。

在海夫纳的批评者中,女权主义经典人物、记者格罗丽亚·斯泰纳姆是最著名的一位,她曾为1963年《Show》杂志的一篇文章扮作“兔女郎”(花花公子俱乐部女招待)拍照。她说这份工作并不光彩,兔女郎必须穿着的服装“非常之紧,以至于拉链都勒在我身上”,而这“只是为了让所有兔女郎都凸显其事业线”。斯泰纳姆随后写道:“我觉得海夫纳想作为一个精明而有魅力的人而青史留名,而我最不希望在历史上留名的人就是海夫纳。”(斯泰纳姆拒绝就这篇文章发表评论)。

前花花公子玩伴(跟海夫纳住洛杉矶豪宅家中的兔女郎们)对海夫纳怎样对待她们说辞不一。帕米拉·安德森等人对海夫纳的离世公开表示哀悼(“你教会了我自由和尊重”),其他人则说在花花公子大厦的生活很压抑。

说到《花花公子》倡导的行动,弗拉特里戈指出,批评人士认为倡导女性生育权在当时“只是对《花花公子》最为有利——鼓励女性性行为,同时让男性为意外怀孕少担责任。”

《名利场》杂志2010年的采访也许最能展现海夫纳和女权运动的冲突。记者告诉海夫纳女权主义者相信他把女性视为物体时,后者回答说:“她们就是物体!”但他立即又急匆匆地提到了《花花公子》为女性而战的事例,似乎是在进行辩解。(财富中文网)

译者:Charlie

审校:夏林

In the less than 24 hours since the announcement of Hugh Hefner's death, there's been an outpouring of reactions to the news—but not all of them are glowing tributes.

While the Playboy founder was undoubtedly a media pioneer and cultural icon who reinvented the way mainstream America talks about sex, some critics argue that he viewed women solely as "sex objects" and was an enemy of the feminist movement. Yet Hefner did support some aspects of women's rights: Under his watch, Playboy established itself as an early advocate of women's reproductive rights. Here's a look at both sides of the debate:

The feminist's friend

In a 1986 Newsweek cover story, Hugh Hefner proclaimed himself a feminist—and some women have agreed. "Playboy stood on common ground with the liberal elements of the women's movement," writes Loyola University of Chicago Professor Elizabeth Fraterrigo in Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America. For one thing, Fraterrigo notes, the publication challenged the "family wage ideology that insisted on responsible husbands/fathers caring for financially dependent homemakers."

According to Fraterrigo, Hefner agreed with much of Betty Friedan's 1963 feminist text, The Feminine Mystique, and said that the book "had a direct parallel to [his] feeling" that the way society operated "didn't make sense. In normalizing women's sexuality, Hefner's fans argue, he helped the women's liberation movement.

Playboy threw its support behind legalizing abortion, sex education, and birth control. The publication published pro-choice articles and interviews and filed an amicus curia (friend of the court) brief in Roe v. Wade, the landmark case legalizing abortion across the U.S.

Finally, under Hefner's watch, Playboy published a host of notable female writers, including Margaret Atwood and Germaine Greer. He also appointed his daughter, Christie Hefner, president of Playboy Enterprises in 1975, then CEO and chairman in 1988. She served in that dual role until 2009, making her the longest-serving female chairman and CEO of a public company in U.S. history. That's a pretty big deal, considering the fact that there are fewer than 5% female CEOs on the Fortune 500.

The feminist's foe

Despite Hefner and Playboy's advocacy on behalf of women's reproductive rights, not all observers see him as an ally. Rather than empowering women, some argue that he "gave them just one more restrictive role to choose from," as University of Exeter Professor Thekla Morgenrot told the BBC. That role, writes feminist writer Jessica Valenti, was as "collectible sexual trophies."

One of Hefner's most famous critics was the feminist icon and journalist Gloria Steinem, who posed as a "bunny" (as waitresses at Playboy clubs were called) for a Show magazine story in 1963. She portrayed the job as demeaning, writing that the outfit bunnies were forced to wear was "so tight the zipper caught my skin" and that "just about" all of the bunnies stuffed their bras to enhance their cleavage. "I think Hefner himself wants to go down in history as a person of sophistication and glamour. But the last person I would want to go down in history as is Hugh Hefner," she wrote then (though she declined to comment on this story).

Former "Playmates" (women who lived with Hefner at his Los Angeles home, the Playboy mansion) have conflicting reports as to his treatment of them. Some, like Pamela Anderson, are publicly mourning his death ("You taught me everything important about freedom and respect"), while others depict life at the mansion as oppressive.

As for Playboy's activism, Fraterrigo notes that critics saw it at the time as "merely serving the best interests of Playboy, promoting more sex for women while reducing male responsibilities for unwanted pregnancy."

But perhaps the best insight into Hefner's conflicted relationship with the women's movement comes from a 2010 interview with Vanity Fair. When told by the interviewer that feminists believe he treats women as objects, he answered with, “They are objects!” and then, in the same breath—seemingly as a defense—rattled off the ways in which Playboy has fought on their behalf.

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