Source:The Dick Cavett Show– Hugh Hefner vs Susan Brownmiller in 1970.

Source:The New Democrat

“Hugh Hefner gets involved in a sexist debate with the Feminists of The Women’s Liberation movement as they discuss the oppression of Playboy Models.

Date aired – 3/26/1970 – Hugh Hefner, Susan Brownmiller and Sally Kempton.”

From The Dick Cavett Show

“When Susan Brownmiller and Sally Kempton appeared as representatives of the women’s liberation movement alongside Hugh Hefner on The Dick Cavett Show in 1970, Cavett joked, “We really set you up tonight, didn’t we?”

Though Hefner’s Playboy was thriving, Cavett’s line really applied more to him. As seen in this exclusive clip from the upcoming episode of CNN’s The Seventies, airing on Thursday at 9:00 p.m., Hefner seemed to have no idea what was coming.

From the minute he referred to the activists as “girls,” he was put in his place. The women took full advantage of their public forum to express thoughts and feelings that had been bottled up for so long, and the nation took notice. When TIME’s Person of the Year honor for 1975 was given to 12 separate Women of the Year, Brownmiller was one of them.

The magazine dubbed her the “second-sex scholar” and explained why she deserved the recognition…

Source:TIME Magazine– Hugh Hefner vs radical feminists in 1970.

You can read the rest at TIME Magazine

This is a really important debate discussion this being about women’s liberation and freedom of choice. If you truly believe in freedom of choice and consider yourself pro-choice whether you’re talking about women or men, then you believe women and men should be able to make their own choices in life whether it’s to work for Playboy Magazine as a writer, or as a performer, or work anywhere else in this country.

The definition of feminism is: “the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.” If you believe that, then you believe that men and women should be treated equally under law and not rewarded or punished in life simply because they’re a man or woman.

The reason why radical feminists get label radical feminists, is because they take the mainstream definition of feminism a step further and argue that men and women aren’t equal, but that women are superior and should be treated better under law and in society simply because they’re women and that men have so much power in this country and over them over the years.

The other reason why radical feminists are called radical feminists and not just feminists, is because as much as they claim to be pro-choice, they’re really not: being pro-choice on abortion, women’s health care, and sexuality doesn’t make you pro-choice. It makes you pro-choice on those issues. What radical feminists really are is pro-choice just as long as people, especially women are making choices that they approve of.

No one forces women or anyone else to work at and pose at Playboy Magazine. Those women worked there because they other wanted to or needed the money or a combination of both, and Playboy wanted them working there. They weren’t kidnapped or being held hostage as some radical feminists might have you believe, but the made them conscience, voluntary decision to work there themself, as Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner said himself on this show.

So what you really had in this Dick Cavett episode is a debate between a man who always believed in freedom of choice and the rights of the individual for both men and women (Hugh Hefner) against radical feminists who believe they know what’s best for women and apparently don’t trust women to make their own choices whether it’s to work at Playboy or for any other private company in America.