Hugh Hefner and his Twentieth Century Girls Next Door

Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy and indeed quintessential playboy of his time, is infamous for having many girlfriends who are 40 to 50 years his junior, blonde, voluptuous and drop dead gorgeous. Hefner decided to air his not so conventional romantic relationships on television on August 7, 2005. He co-founded his first ever reality television show “The Girls Next Door” and let America into his everyday life dating three live-in girlfriends. America had always seen his entourage of women at his side through media but society has never had a chance to get to know them as they have always been nameless blonde bombshells. It is not typical that we as American’s accept a situation where one man is dating three women, particularly when the women are so much younger than the man. But, as Hefner has put his relationships into the media, society has found a new respect for these women and they are no longer nameless but, now they are seen as real people: Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson. These women in the spotlight of Hollywood are choosing to partake in a relationship that breaks the societal idea that relationships should be monogamous which is extremely radical. Although the reality television show “The Girls Next Door” on the surface, depicts twenty first century romantic relationships that can be seen as radical, the show actually reinforces the societal norms and expectations placed on men and women.


In Simone de Beauvior’s feminist book The Second Sex, Beauvior states “Thus humanity is male and man defines women in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being”(Beauvior). Holly, Kendra and Bridget live in relation to Hefner. They are commonly referred to in society as “Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends.” These women are not their own entities: they live under Hefner’s rules, in his house and by his relationship standards. This goes back to the stereotypes put on society of the male and female relationship. Women are supposed to be seen not heard and the men are supposed to take care of the women. Hefner puts these women up in his home and allows them to have a fantasy lifestyle, but at what cost? They have to share their “boyfriend” with three if not many other women, they have a 9 p.m. curfew and they are seen as his objects of possession even though they have a voice and identity through way of their reality show.


Hefner is also put under the pressure of society to provide financially for these women and his children. He is the bread winner and is expected to take care of all of the women in his life. His ex-wife and children live in the home next door to the Playboy mansion in Beverly Hills where he fully supports two households. Hefner demonstrates the “typical” male characteristics as describe in the book Cultural Studies by Chris Barker, “In general terms, traditional masculinity has encompassed the values of strength, power, stoicism, action, control, independence, self-sufficiency, male camaraderie/mateship and work amongst others” (Barker 302). Hefner is all of the above and as such is seen in society by men as an “alpha male.” Hefner is surrounded by sex and money, two things that males use to define their success in today’s society.


One of Hefner’s girlfriend’s unhappiness with the relationship is seen through her obvious desire for a child. Time and time again Hefner’s girlfriend Holly is seen on the show mentioning children and marriage and Hefner signs her off. Even in an interview with Star Magazine Hefner’s girlfriend Bridget, when asked if Hef will be changing diapers, states “Yeah, that'll never happen, unless they make him do it. He already said, ‘I'm not going to be raising the kid, it'll be your thing’” (Marquadrt). Hefner here is enforcing the societal norm that women are supposed to care and raise the children while the man has no obligation to the child, expect financially. Barker states that, “Men are commonly held to be more “naturally’ domineering, hierarchically oriented and power-hungry, while women are seen as nurturing, child rearing and domestically inclined” (Barker 285). Hefner and Holly perfectly fit this scenario of female and male in their relation to each other. Hefner is held above his women as he is the successful business man who built his company from the ground up. His girlfriend Holly is the stay at home woman who yearns for children and a “normal” lifestyle.

Hefner’s “power-hungry” tendencies can be seen through girlfriend Bridget’s interview. When Bridget is confronted about Hefner’s ego and his reaction to the girls’ newfound attention in the media Bridget replies, “He's amazed. But say we're on the red carpet — when they want to do individual pictures, he totally doesn't get it” (Marquadrt). Even though Hefner has put his girlfriends into Hollywood spotlight he still does not understand why the media wants to take pictures of them without him, again reinforcing the idea that women are not seen as their own entity but as an extension of the man. Hefner is use to being the center of attention and essentially the man who runs the relationship. His yearning for power is seen extensively through his possessive tendencies with his girlfriends.

The reality television show “The Girls Next Door” has brought light to Hugh Hefner’s radical romance of the twentieth century. Without the television show society would not be able to seen the struggles some of the women have participating in this type of relationship. These women would remain nameless and would have continued to seem as though they are only objects of Hugh Hefner’s desire and not real humans.




Works Cited

Barker, Chris, and Paul Willis. Cultural Studies : Theory and Practice. Minneapolis: SAGE Publications, Limited, 2008.

De Beauvior, Simone. "Introduction: Woman as Other." The Second Sex. New York: Vintage.

Marquadrt, Bridget. "Star Exclusive: The Girls Next Door's Bridget Tells All!" Interview with Julia Allison. Star Magazine 17 Sept. 2007.

American Psycho and Problematic Masculinity

This week for class I examined the book Cultural Studies by Chris Barker and specifically chapter nine and his section on "Men and Masculinity." The section in Barker’s chapter Sex, Subjectivity and Representation really caught my interest. This section highlighted the social pressures and stereotypes created by society that are put on men. Men seek to separate themselves from women through less emotional behavior and societal standards of “control over other people and control over themselves” (Barker, 302). Barker states that men typically inhabit characteristics such as: “strength, power, stoicism, action, control, independence, self-sufficiency, male camaraderie/mateship and work” (Barker, 302). These characteristics are seen amongst most men today and if a male strays away from these male characteristics defined by society he is given a negative label. I also found the section on Problematic masculinity and The roots of male addiction interesting as typically female problems caused by societal norms are highlights whereas here the problems men encounter because of the societal norms they have to live up to are discussed. These sections discuss how men deal with the pressure of being the bread winners in society some men turn to addiction or depression, “along with the self-perceived failure to meet cultural expectations of achievement. Lies at the root of depression and drug abuse amongst men” (Barker, 304). When reading I connected it to so many men I have seen in my life who have faced or face alcohol and drug addiction fit this interpretation. A man has so much pressure to solely provide for his family, and if he does not he is a failure. Men’s success in life is so much defined by their career the amount of money they make that there is bound to be men who crack under the pressure of society because let’s face it…men are human just like women.

We also watched the film American Psycho and connected the movie to Barker's findings. I have never watched the film American Psycho and was surprised by how much the main character mirrored the problems men can encounter outlined in Barker’s “Problematic masculinity” section. The main character Patrick Bateman was the epitome of what a man is constructed to be by society wealthy, powerful, handsome, and unemotional. The movie depicted however, the dark side of a wealthy man where he seems to be there but in the movie admits that he is only a shell and there is nothing inside, “he is not really there.” It is very scary to see how societal pressures can push someone, especially males to their extreme to be at the top and as Patrick states, “to fit in.” Although this is a very extreme example because I am sure not all successful men turn into mass murders under pressure, there is a huge problem with the reputation that society makes for men and expects them to live up to.

"10" as a Romantic Comedy

Our 5th week in class we examined the movie 10 as a romantic comedy. I read chapter two from one of our required text books, The Romantic Comedy: Boy Meets Girl Meets Genre by Tamar Jeffers Mcdonald and connected her definition and characteristics of the romantic comedy the the characteristics of the film 10. These are the significant characteristics that stood out to me showing 10 as a good example of a romantic comedy:

As defined by McDonald, "a romantic comedy is a film in which has a its central narrative motor a quest for love, which portrays this quest in a light-hearted way and almost always to a successful conclusion" (McDonald, 9). The movie "10" falls into this definition of a romantic comedy by a "light-hearted" portray of a man going through his mid-life crisis and pursuing a woman, who is not his significant other and is in fact much younger than his significant other. The film also follows some of the generic elements found in romantic comedies. "10" has visual characteristics such as an urban setting, what seemed to be the Hollywood Hills and an extremely high end, swanky bachelor pad. The film did however, go against the typical stock characters depicted by McDonald, "characters who will be a couple by the film's end both start out with an unsuitable partner" (McDonald, 11). In "10" the male lead starts out with the right woman and only realizes she is the right woman by almost being with the wrong woman. The film also follows the ideology of a romantic comedy in that, "at the heart of every romantic comedy is the implication of sex" (McDonald, 13). At the heart of the main characters struggle with his age is his need to partake in the "free-love" era he lives in and the want to bed a younger woman which he describes as a "vision." I found this movie to be a good example of a romantic comedy.

My First Ethnography

I was asked by my professor to go out and do fieldwork examining our course theme, "the radical romance" and this is what I found:

On Saturday September 20, 2008 I chose to observe the night life at a popular restaurant in Laguna Beach called The White House. I accompanied dinner with my boyfriend and his parents around 8:00 p.m. and observed the behaviors of the people had attended dinner with as well as the people surrounding me at the restaurant/bar. The night started out fairly quiet but as time passed and 9:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. rolled around the bar became much more lively. One of my first observations was the attire of the female waitresses in the bar area of the restaurant in comparison the attire of the female waitresses in the restaurant area. The cocktail waitresses were dressed in all black extremely revealing clothing even our waitresses was very busty and had an extremely low cut top with micro-mini shorts and knee-high boots. The women in the restaurant area were dressed in black slacks with white button up dress shirts and aprons. I group of people that caught my eye were a couple of young girls maybe in their early twenties followed by about four men also in their early twenties. One was clearly with her boyfriend as she sat down at the bar and immediately put her hand on his lap as to mark her property and her girlfriend with accompanied by two men who were vying her attention the entire night. The couple sitting next to us looked as if they were on a first or second date. Their body language was very stiff and forced making it seem as though they were nervous and were not quite comfortable with each other yet. The restaurant was full of couples going out on their Saturday night but these are the three groups of people that caught my eye in relation to our “radical romance” theme.


The cocktail waitresses at The White House reminded me of the female entertainer we watched in the clip of The Pink Panther we examined in class. Both are positioned in sexy clothing conducive to the times and are there to cater to the customers. These women are reduced to nothing but objects. They are sexy vehicles to serve their audiences. Their seductive and sensual nature will hopefully turns the audience into a mass consumer either of more alcohol at the bar or more ticket sales at the box office. This can be defined by two words, “sex sells.” The group of young people that waltzed into the bar to start their nightlife defined typical societal norms of sex. The girls sat at the bar while the men inclined to buy them drinks stood behind them watching the Saturday night football game, the boyfriend stayed close to his girlfriend as the other two men in the group battled to get the attention of the single friend. The women in the group were helpless as they needed their men to buy them drinks and the men stepping up to financially support their alcoholic endeavors reinforces the societal notion that women are always to supposed to be taken care of by men and are only able to partake because of them men they are with, as Simone Dr Beauvior states, “Thus humanity is make and man defines women not in herself but as relative to him.” The couple we sat next to reminded me of the clip from Anchor Man. The whole time the man was trying the impress the female to win her heart. She was just laughing sometimes just for courtesy to the things he was saying about himself trying to make himself, I am sure, more than he was. Their interaction demonstrated society’s expectation that a man has to impress the women to lure her, it is not just enough to be himself; he has to go above and beyond. All of these relationships observed at The White House show that we as a society would like the stray away from the norms of society relationships but sometimes things are always just going to stay the same.