Hugh Hefner and Playboy: How can you like both and still be a Feminist?

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If you follow me on any of my social channels such as my Twitter or Instagram, you will likely be aware that on Thursday I was pretty devastated about the passing of Hugh Hefner. But wait, Claire, aren’t you a feminist? Yes, I am.

I haven’t sat and written a proper chatty, opinion piece for ages, and before blogging become the ridiculous, high-quality editorial thing it is now, this is what I came into blogging to do; to write and debate, and provide my opinion on current topics and issues.

I have written a fair amount about my feminist views and how I perceive modern feminism–

Feminist and married

You can’t define feminism as an emoji

Page 3, Playboy and questioning modern objectification

…to list just three.

Hugh Hefner and Playboy

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My Top 10 Most Inspirational Women

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Most Inspirational Women

In celebration of International Women’s Day, I thought I would share with you my top 10 list of most inspirational women. In these women, I find drive and determination to succeed, overcome obstacles, strength of character and their career success to date amongst other things.

All the qualities of these most inspirational women, I aspire and strive myself to one day achieve. Age is irrelevant and my list is in no particular order.

My Mum

(Not pictured) Needs no introduction or explanation, a woman’s first inspiration should always be her Mum and mine is no exception!

Vanessa Vallely

The East-end girl done good! I first wrote about Vanessa a couple of weeks ago after I attended a work conference where she was invited as a guest speaker. For the low down, revisit that post here.

Karren Brady

I love Karren and her autobiography is excellent! She tells you like it is and she writes how she speaks –to the point and I like that; I hate unnecessary fluff in conversation!

For me, she is the ultimate woman to aspire to be like in business.

Jennifer Saunders

I have always admired Jennifer, I love her comedy and sense of humour. It’s my dream to ultimately achieve her writing success.

Lorraine Candy

I was lucky enough to meet Lorraine a couple of times last year at Elle Insider events and I am a huge fan of Elle Magazine (as you all know). I feel it is one of the few women’s publications that really get their audience and blend together the right content to achieve the right level of engagement while being relatable.

For a woman with four young children that you would never think looking at her petite frame, I love how Lorraine actively champions being a mum and a successful Editor while being effortlessly stylish. I want to be her!

Anna Wintour

I admire Anna Wintour on the basis that although I am not a reader of Vogue, I admire how despite many thinking she should step aside and let younger, fresher eyes takeover the magazine, she holds her ground.

I have watched the September Issue several times and the one thing that stuck out at me immediately was when she said that when filling out her college application, her Dad told her to put down as her career ambition to be the Editor of Vogue… And she is!

Zoella

If you have just said ‘who’ then you need to read my post (here) specifically I mean all the popular female YouTubers & Bloggers who have become their own boss and made their own success and for the most part, are still in their early twenties. Incredible!

Emma Watson

The face of the HeForShe campaign, Emma has become quite the young activist championing the right and need for gender equality. Known originally for her acting, she has shown that she is so much more than the darling of Hollywood. She is the young woman’s role model!

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Who doesn’t want to be Rosie right now?! I love how despite her incredible beauty, she has brains behind her looks that she uses to explore business ventures such as her collections with Marks & Spencer. I am seriously considering lopping my long locks off to match her enviable long bob.

But in all seriousness, she’s another example of a young woman taking charge of her own career.

Lena Dunham

I am currently nose deep in Lena’s book, ‘Not that kind of Girl’ and I am really enjoying it! Similar to why I like Karren Brady, Lena tells it like it is but about life rather than business and I can completely relate. Not with everything mind, but the way she describes early boyfriends and relationship things are just so on point I just sit and giggle as I read.

Her book aside, much like many of the women listed above, she too champions women’s rights and she uses this in her writing for film and television.

Who are your most inspirational women?

Until next time x

Playboy, Page 3 & Questioning Modern Objectification of Women

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Apparently today every household in the UK is receiving a free copy of The Sun, and I have seen several posts on Twitter this morning from people already taking action to prevent it being put through their letter boxes.

Fair play to you! Imagine if our letter boxes could detect junk mail and shred it before it hit the door mat!

Of course it is an ongoing debate that page 3 in The Sun should be banned. For those that aren’t aware (I am sure these people exist somewhere) page 3 is a photo of a top-naked young woman.

This especially appeals to male readers of The Sun and probably why it is bought in the first place –boobies for 20p, what a bargain! Because while many readers of Playboy magazine claim its purchased for the articles, I can’t imagine the same can honestly be said about The Sun.

The debate about Playboy and Page 3

The argument by women, feminists and the like is that page 3 objectifies women and enough is enough and I somewhat agree being a feminist. However, I also go against everything by having an interest in Playboy.

Two years ago I completed my degree in Media Communications concluding with a written dissertation tackling the perception of Playboy magazine.

I wanted to prove that the magazine isn’t all about naked women and what must be a great surprise to most… it’s not! Analysing a ten-year sample (2001-11) which results in about 4,000 pages of content, the center folds and other naked imagery makes up a feeble 17% (ish). Hardly a porn magazine!

If I could develop my research on Playboy magazine picking up where my dissertation left off, I would want to concentrate on the women that put themselves forward to be a Playmate. Secondly about why they would entangle themselves in Hugh Hefner’s lifestyle.

My findings I believe would also be mostly true of the women that put themselves forward to appear on Page 3, for reasons that its fun, good money and no doubt opportunities have come off the back of it.

Q. Is it objectification if the women have chosen to feature themselves naked?

I appreciate that is a bit of a firework thought for a Thursday morning and I can hear you all gasping, but seriously, the rules have changed now.

I discussed briefly some of my thoughts on modern feminism in my post to The Editor (of Elle) a little while ago but fundamentally, there is no longer one definition of feminism and there is no ‘wave’ anymore to speak of. Modern feminism has no boundaries and it encompasses many things and many different types of women.

There is of course still a totally unfair and unjustified reason as to why men get higher salaries for the same job that their female colleagues are also doing. It is also unbelievably unfair as to why childcare is so ridiculously expensive forcing many aspiring career women to stay at home.

It’s these aspects of society that underpins and forms the backbone of feminism in all its strains. But who also is to say that (some of) the women featuring on Page 3 and in Playboy aren’t feminists, because I think a lot of them are.

For me, page 3 is just silly titillation and I do cringe a bit when I see aspiring Playmates play dumb to be more appealing to male audiences, but you know what, these women are choosing to do this. Until these young women decide to stop putting themselves forward, the newspapers and magazines will continue to feature them until society says otherwise.

Until next time x

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