Said Hugh Hefner, when one of his women said a new recruit deserved an allowance, he said he spent $2 million on his in-house girlfriends in the past few years, and the woman said, "She’s putting in all this time... and all she’s getting is a drink and a f–k!"
1. A drink and a fuck and all your dreams coming true!
2. When actual cash changes hands, it's more conspicuously prostitution/prostitution-y.
3. Holly Madison tries to look victimized even as she reveals that she intended to exploit the old man, and, with this book of hers, she's still wringing the last drop from the dessicated entity.
4. The book title is "Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny." I thought a Playboy Bunny was a waitress at the Playboy Club, not just any woman who falls within the Hefner domain. But she was a waitress at Hooters when Hefner's people discovered her. I don't like seeing these animal totems mixed up. You've got your Hooters owl and your Playboy bunny. Let's have some clarity!
5. Apparently, somebody got the idea to go with "Alice in Wonderland" terminology, with "Down the Rabbit Hole," perhaps because of the old man and the little girl connotations, what with Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, but that's a junkpile of imagery, and Madison doesn't come across as a curious little girl. She accepted the invitation to a glitzy mansion with a powerful media mogul, and she went there as an adult who lusted after "the glamorous life" and saw the place as "a stepping stone" and the other women as "a fun little sorority." Motivations like that have nothing to do with Alice.
6. The bit about the allowance reminds me of the "wife bonus" in that much-discussed "anthropological memoir" "Primates of Park Avenue" — which, by the way, just got picked up by MGM.
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From a very old memo,
She: What kind of woman do you think I am?
He: We’ve already established that. Now we’re just haggling over the price.
The older he gets, the more he will have to pay to keep the young women happy. That's the life he's chosen, now he has to live with it.
I thought a Playboy Bunny was a waitress at the Playboy Club, not just any woman who falls within the Hefner domain.
Not that it weighs greatly on me, but I've always been slightly perplexed when people seem to confuse Playboy "Bunnies" with Playboy "Playmates" - e.g. when people refer to the young women in the movie Apocalypse Now as Bunnies instead of Playmates, as at least one reviewer did.
Another microaggression. Where's the fainting couch ?
PIV is always rape, OK?
Tim: re changes in the "pay scale" over time, I'm pretty sure Hef maxed out somewhere in the 1970s.
Marilyn Monroe was a Playboy Playmate, not a Playboy Bunny. Most of the young women hanging around Hef are probably most accurately described as "Playmate Wanna-Bes." But I think the distinction began to erode after Playboy closed its club business.
What Hef does has been done by the rich throughout history. He's just one of the most prominent to have made a media career out of it -- a print-media career. No one occupies a directly comparable position in this era of digital media. But the rich (of both sexes) will continue to pay (broadly defined to include cash & other compensation) for the attention, company, and favors of their sexual targets, who tend to be young and beautiful, long after anyone's still willing to pay to read a magazine, rent a video, or subscribe to a cable TV channel to watch it.
What's the complaint she wanted fame, she got it. It's not like she said she moved to cali to find dignity and self respect.
"She’s putting in all this time...
Oh, the poor little dear.
I see the link itself (I won't read the article) says "reveals hell with hef": Maybe she'd be happier working as a cashier at Hef-free 7-11.
A couple of million? Cheapskate.
Those TV commercials for jewelry retailers they broadcast around the holidays are proof positive that splurging on a gift will get you an eager blow job.
I was sort of disheartened when I read about Salinger's sex life. He used to cull his fan letters for young (but over eighteen) girls and then exploit their admiration for sexual purposes. You just didn't want Salinger to be creepy........On the other hand, when Hefner acts creepy it just extends the brand. The whole point of the Playboy Mansion was exploitation. The girls got to hook up with rich, connected men, and the men got to get in touch with their sweet albeit inappropriate mammaries of youth. Consensual crassness ........It's very difficult for a man over fifty to have a dignified relationship with a woman under twenty five. Rod Stewart seems to have had the best success.
I'm sympathetic.
Porn is a fantasy, not just on the screen or pages, but behind them as well. Girls are told that starlets are empowered women in touch with their sexuality, that the men are just businessmen, that guys like Hefner are suave and enlightened and above bourgeoisie morality. In reality, the starlets are often messed up, the men are abusive creeps, and the whole industry destroys souls.
But we can't talk about it. Mention this and you're considered a prude, a liar, sexually-repressed and jealous. Tell a young woman that she'd be better off settling down an marrying a nice guy and raising a family, and you're some caveman who wants to strip women of the right to vote. Suggest that she not sleep with every guy she meets, or use her body to become someone's toy, and you're suddenly a repressed Nazi.
Sex is powerful. It's dangerous. It's wonderful, but it's dangerous and if you don't realize that you can very quickly end up in a bad place. Holly Madison was in many ways very lucky. Hefner is famous enough that she could leverage that to get out and make something of herself. How many other girls tried to go down that path and ended up somewhere worse? With abusive, manipulating men who controlled them or hurt them, with STDs or an unmarried pregnancy, or destroying their lives with drugs and alcohol.
Maybe she'd be happier working as a cashier at Hef-free 7-11.
Honestly, she probably would have been.
From "putting in all this time" you can interpolate the problem that was to be solved: How to cash in on youthful beauty. Let's say you're living in Alaska (or wherever, Madison was in Alaska) and you can see you've been give a great gift in beauty. You don't have to decide to maximize your profit on that gift, but let's say you do? What do you do? Apparently, some people, including Madison (as she describes it) go directly to LA and try to get noticed. She chose Hooters as her launch pad, and it got her into the Playboy Mansion. But then she was trapped there, receiving benefits (of drink and clothes and plastic surgery), but not putting away any kind of money for the post-youthful-beauty period.
Betty Draper ended up with Henry Francis so she landed on her feet.
"But then she was trapped there, receiving benefits (of drink and clothes and plastic surgery), but not putting away any kind of money for the post-youthful-beauty period."
Nope, just like Hooters, she was using Hef as a stepping stone for greater fame and fortune. He used her,she used him. She had, IIRC, a reality show and Las Vegas reviews. Lots of women roll the dice of youth and beauty. She came up sevens more often than most.
It is similar to athletes. The dream is the pros. Make it and you (should be) golden. Fail and you traded youth, strength and (often) health because you roled snake eyes.
(And, yes, I know it is more than blind luck.)
Can't remember where I read this, but:
"Everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power."
Barbi Benton was the most famous playmate.
just sayin...
He used her,she used him
But neither one cared. They were getting their share.
Working on their night moves.
"Barbi Benton was the most famous playmate."
She was Hefner's most famous girlfriend, perhaps, but she was never a Playmate. At least not of the official "of the Month" variety.
Dyes her hair, trowels on the make-up, had a nose job and has fake breasts insured for 1 mil...denounces "illusion".
I'm sure her hubby loves her for her mind.
Looks like she did alright:
http://variety.com/2015/dirt/real-estalker/holly-madison-and-rave-king-hubby-pasquale-rotella-buy-hancock-park-mansion-1201407028/
Hef should strike back with "In the rabbit's hole"
Whaddya mean "old man"?
"not putting away any kind of money for the post-youthful-beauty period."
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
Who said that ?
Coco Chanel was the most successful coquette in history.
Buckley admitted Hefnor won.
Submit.
Film peaked with "The Hudsucker Proxy."
Any given ten minutes has more wit than woody Allan's entire oh ver whah (some French word intended meaning catalog of artistic achievement).
The one and only reason that Holly Madison can get a book deal is thanks to Playboy Enterprises, Inc.
So there's that.
I hope she does well with the book and the tour.
I once dated a woman who claimed to have spent a month living with Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. He had told her that she was beautiful, but -- alas -- her ass was too flat to be a Playmate.
I asked her if she ever had sex with Hefner, and she replied that, with medical assistance, he was able to put his penis in her vagina for a short period of time. Well, medical assistance and a lot of gay porn.
Anyway, although Hefner had wanted anal she never let him have it, and to make a point, she now had anal sex with all of her boyfriends.
So I had anal sex with a girl who refused Hugh Hefner anal sex. Coincidentally, I did not find her ass too flat at all. Pretty nice from my viewpoint, in fact.
Which puts me ahead of Hefner on at least one scoreboard.
Suck on it, old man.
It is Good to be Laslo.
"What if you tire before its done?"
Times three.
Hudsucker board.
I didn't think it would be possible to admire Laslo any more than I already did, but it has now happened.
Boo hoo poor little kept women. Why they might have to consider getting a job instead of using their looks and vaginal to gold dig rich men.
"The one and only reason that Holly Madison can get a book deal is thanks to Playboy Enterprises, Inc."
Au contraire. There's a whole section in Barnes & Noble for the memoirs of 7-Eleven cashiers.
It's kind of sad that I have to be the first to point out that no reputable Lewis Carroll biographer has peddled the "pedophile" libel.
@kcom,
There's a whole section in Barnes & Noble for the memoirs of 7-Eleven cashiers.
Well, if one looks at memoirs of 7-11 owners, there's always Apu's Hands off My Jerky, Turkey!
"Well, if one looks at memoirs of 7-11 owners"
They are in the restricted section cuz many feature Joe Biden feeling up Indian Cashiers....
I used to think it was gross, old men sleeping with young women.
Then I got old.
Old men sleeping with young women: creepy
Young women sleeping with old men: smart career move.
Idon't understand the problem.
Lots of folks here are pro-choice. A woman's body, a woman's right and all that.
Or does "pro-choice" apply only in particular circumstances? I am always amazed at people who claim to be "pro-choice" wanting to stop women from selling their bodies.
There doesn't seem to be any fraud involved here, the women are getting exactly what was promised as far as I can tell.
I don't think it is a good decision for them to do it. If my advice were asked, I would tell them not to. But it is their body and their choice what to do with it.
John Henry
Well some beautiful young women decide that as long as they are, figuratively speaking, "sitting on a million dollars" then they should go out and use that moneymaker. Lots of folks prostitute their talents in order to rise in the world.
This lady was simply more explicit about what she did.
HH was born a creepy, dirty old man.
kzookitty
"Lots of folks here are pro-choice"
The Pro-Choice support depends on what you choose- choose wrong and they will burn you at the stake.
Could Hefner just do us a favor and just die?
He's so 1960.
Anthony Lane had a good article on Carroll and the Alice books last week:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/08/go-ask-alice-a-critic-at-large-lane
Lane seems to have the right attitude: modern ideas about sexuality are so different from Victorian ideas about sexuality we shouldn't try to fit whatever was going on with Carroll into a modern template.
modern ideas about sexuality are so different from Victorian ideas about sexuality
Right. That's why Carroll's relatives destroyed what they did when they had first crack at his collection.
Laslo's relatives will use a flamethrower. Mark my words.
There are cheap whores and expensive whores... But they are still whores.
Same for pimps.
And Heafner was, and still is, a pimp. Nothing more.
And that's just the facts. None of them are 'victims'.
And Hefner can't dance. That was Ms. Madison's cruelest revelation.
Lewis Carroll does not belong in this conversation. He was a shy person who had an overly idealized view of childhood, an incredible imagination, and a lot better sense of humor than his critics.
The Freudian reading of Wonderland isn't just wrong, it misses what Carroll is actually doing. Wonderland isn't Freudian, it's nonsensical. Purposely nonsensical, since Dodgson was a logician. Most of the conversations in both books consist of people being illogical in ways Alice can't quite put a finger on. There are parodies of childrens' school lessons that deliberately invert the point. But there isn't any sex at all, because Alice is a presexual character.
"That's why Carroll's relatives destroyed what they did when they had first crack at his collection."
There is more to it than that. We don't know what was in what they destroyed. Most of it seems to cover a period in the mid nineteenth century, forty years or more before Dodgson's death. Dodgson was a prominent intellectual who kept meticulous records, including copies aof letters sent and received. There is no reason to assume what you are assuming -- unless you want to fit whatever was going on with Lewis Carroll into a modern template.
The Victorians lived in a censorious and prudish age that had strict standards of decorum.
We live in a censorious and prudish age that is very libertine.
We think that every age is like our own, so that the Victorians must have secretly been libertines. But I think it is more likely that we have lost the cultural references for someone who is sexually innocent, or someone who romanticizes innocence.
Get paid 2 million to drink and fuck? Pretty sure I've spent that much doing the same.
Victorians would be much less likely than we would to believe that a prominent man could harbor sexual feelings for very young girls. We can assume that what was destroyed wouldn't have been viewed kindly. He cataloged his correspondence, not diaries and personal journals. Or pictures. Alice may have been a pre-sexual creature:Carroll was not.
"It's kind of sad that I have to be the first to point out that no reputable Lewis Carroll biographer has peddled the "pedophile" libel."
I linked to an article that discusses the subject. Did you read it?
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/lewis-carrolls-shifting-reputation-9432378/?page=1&no-ist
Carrol took about 3000 photographs.
About half of them were of children.
30 of these were nude, or semi nude. That's about 1% of the portfolio.
I can't find a collection of all 30. Here are six. None are eroticised.
https://sites.google.com/site/photographyoflewiscarroll/
There's been a century of nonsense about 30 studio photographs with artistic nudity. Annie Liebovitz, look out -- they're coming for you next!
I linked to an article that discusses the subject. Did you read it?
All articles on this subject are the same article, with different amounts of pearl clutching.
Dodgson was an accomplished early photographer. Many of his photographs use classical themes, including nudity. He used child models, and had written parental permission. The photographs are published, and would not draw comment on the cover of Rolling Stone today.
The end.
Althouse went to art school, right? So the over/under on the number of nude models is what, 50? 100?
So all she has to do is die, and we can start with the pearl clutching.
"We must remember that the early 2000s were a time not like our own. The Stonewall Riots started an era in which sexual practices previously thought perverse and shameful were increasingly celebrated..."
"Blogs represented a new flowering of minor subcultures. An animated bear became the cuddly symbol of pedophilia..."
"While it is not known precisely when Althouse met Meade, there are cryptic traces in early comment sections. Comment sections were known for their unrestrained crudity... Contemporary commenter Laslo Spatula..."
Lewis Carroll's libido (such as it was) aside, I am bothered by the relationship of the Moderns to the Victorians. We condemn them when we do not condemn others. Civil War era slavemasters? Unspeakably evil! Roman and Greek slavemasters? Great poets and writers, some of them! Michelangelo? Genius! Lewis Carroll? Creep!
Since we don't know what was destroyed, the possibilities are endless. I would speculate that what was destroyed was worse than what remains and be confident in that guess. What if there were 3030 photographs of girls between 2 and 12? That's the thing about unknowns. We do know he spent an inordinate amount of time with them, time that would have been better spent on his other work. If he had any real sense, he would have stayed 100 yards away from young girls. Fuck him and his work that was used to lure the innocent. There are much better authors to look to for inspiration and escape.
Those TV commercials for jewelry retailers they broadcast around the holidays are proof positive that splurging on a gift will get you an eager blow job.
If you're married, no gift is extravagant enough for an "eager" BJ.
And Laslo makes every thread better.
"There are much better authors to look to for inspiration and escape." Alas, I am now tasked with reviewing all the authors of the volumes in my library for dubious backgrounds. This should save a lot of space. And then I will be so pure, and feel so smug.
When he was young and fresh, one could regard Hefner as an important figure in breaking down the limits of permitted expression in the mass media; as an old lech, one cannot see him but as pathetic and even malignant.
Dyes her hair, trowels on the make-up, had a nose job and has fake breasts insured for 1 mil...denounces "illusion".
Exactly, Walter. I was going to post something making the same point but you already did it better.
Dr. Althouse: I linked to an article that discusses the subject. Did you read it?
Yes. Impressively content-free-leaning-towards-the-libel, at least if you've read essentially all other Lewis Carroll biographies. There's no question that Dr. Dodgson behaved scandalously for his time and place—after all, he'd already failed to fulfill his requirement to take up the ministry. His personal writing makes quite clear why: he didn't feel worthy of the station. One reason for this may indeed have been the challenges of celibacy. There's evidence that he had relationships with adult women that would have scandalized the Oxford community, sexual or otherwise. As for what his family destroyed: likely evidence of them, being good Anglicans of their time. As for his affection for children, he grew up with four sisters and two brothers, and made games and stories for them when they were young. He always took the potential of children quite seriously, and strove to educate them in an entertaining way:
Honoured Sir,
Understanding you to be a distinguished algebraist (i.e. distinguished from other algebraists by different face, different height, etc.), I beg to submit to you a difficulty which distresses me much. If x and y are each equal to “1,” it is plain that 2 x (x^2 – y^2) = 0, and also that 5 x (x – y) = 0. Hence 2 x (x^2 – y^2) = 5 x (x – y). Now divide each side of this equation by (x – y). Then 2 x (x + y) = 5. But (x + y) =(1 + 1), i.e. = 2. So that 2 x 2 = 5. Ever since this painful fact has been forced upon me, I have not slept more than 8 hours a night, and have not been able to eat more than 3 meals a day. I trust you will pity me and will kindly explain the difficulty to
Your obliged,
Lewis Carroll.
This letter was written to a 14-year-old boy, Wilton Rix.
The whole idea that Charles Dodgson was a pedophile rests on the obvious post-Freudian assumption that sexual innocence simply doesn't exist. It is some of Freud's more toxic fruit.
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