With Hefner gone, Playboy’s impact on women still has people talking

“He did improve the position of women in society by opening up the discussion of sex,” Lane said.

“The flip side of that is that his view of women in a sexual relationship was a relatively narrow one, although I think it extended as he got older.”

Lane said Hefner’s support for transgender causes and his featuring of a transgender model in Playboy “was revolutionary in his time.”

Jennifer Lena, a Columbia University sociologist, said the impact of Playboy and Hefner on women is not just about sexuality.

She pointed to “Playboy’s contribution to advancing and defending the freedom of the press, fighting back retrograde obscenity laws, and advancing the rights of women to express their sexuality. ”

Lena noted that Playboy also broke ground by publishing Charles Beaumont’s “The Crooked Man,” in 1955, a dystopian story where heterosexuals are persecuted in the same manner of homosexuals at that time.

“I think Playboy was far more important to the culture than just sex,” said Rebecca Lieb, an independent media analyst.

“Playboy was a publisher of great stories, and Playboy and Hefner were champions of free speech and civil rights,” she said.

Lieb said that some women may have been offended by Playboy’s sexuality, but that “this was not done in a manner of exploitation or coercion.”