Last October, the Polish Immigrant blog snapped the above photo in the parking lot of St. Matthew parish in Hillsboro, Oregon before an evening mass. As you can see, the text reads:
SHE IS NOT A WOMAN!
SHE IS A REPUBLICAN!
VOTE OBAMA
And for maximum unintended irony, mounted just to its left, is a Christian fish emblem.
During the 1990s, because he went to bat for Bill Clinton, a Strange New Respect emerged amongst the enlightened left on both coasts for pornographer Larry Flynt, including a big-budget airbrushed Hollywood biopic that pimped his sleazy career as a triumph of free speech, complete with James Carville amidst the film’s cast. Of course, in the 1970s, it seemed that Flynt’s Hustler existed to make Hugh Hefner’s Playboy look refined and classy, a paragon of taste and virtue. These days though, Playboy finds itself in Flynt-like territory; or as Ed Morrissey writes, “It’s official: Playboy is a hate site”:
Playboy likes to claim that it prints pictures of naked women as a means to empower them. Uh-huh. It seems that Playboy and Hugh Hefner only like to empower women to the extent that they’ll take off their clothes, but when they open their mouths and have an opinion … well, then it’s time to roll out the demonization. They have a new feature on the website that features — and I’m not making this up — conservative women they’d like to “hate-f**k” (link NSFW):
Obama promised us the dream of post-partisanship—a cuckoo land where party affiliation and factional animosity were forgotten. Turn on cable news or open any newspaper, however, and you’ll quickly discover that the dream has yet to materialize. But there is a way to reach across the aisle without letting principles fall by the wayside. We speak, naturally, of the hate [f**k]. We may despise everything these women represent, but goddammit they’re hot. Let the healing begin.
The hatred is certainly apparent on all ten of the entries on this list. The boss hits #1 on this list, Amanda Carpenter’s on it too, but perhaps the entry on Mary Katharine Ham demonstrates their misogynism best:
The Hate F**k Rating: You get this one pregnant, she stays pregnant. Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it?
Let’s be clear about terms here. A “hate f**k” sounds like something perhaps just short of rape, but degrading enough to entertain the perverted twerps at Playboy. The fact that the magazine published this piece of effluvium should be enough to show that everyone in the editorial process, from the writer to Hef himself, don’t want women empowered. They want silent sex objects, and when confronted with women whose opinions differ from theirs, want them humiliated.
Because, to bring this full circle with the bumper sticker above, they’re not human to the identity politics-obsessed left, because they think different. Somebody should write a book about this phenomenon.
Update: Tommy Christopher of Politics Daily writes, “Playboy Magazine Officially Hates Women, Conservative or Otherwise”:
I get that Playboy is a sex magazine, but I don’t see what hate has to do with sex. While the author might think it’s funny or edgy, none of these women consented to be “hate f***ed,” and the whole exercise is just foul and creepy.
What’s worth noting, too, is that although he singles out conservative women, the author belies a hostility toward all women.
Exactly.
Update (2:23 PDT): Well that didn’t last long — Playboy pulls the article, as Elizabeth Blackney, a.k.a., “Media Lizzy” notes.
Update: John Hawkins of Right Wing News writes of the press release he received from Playboy promoting the article — before the magazine lost its nerve and the post went Playboy After Dark:
The article is no longer up — which I find very fascinating, since they obviously put it up and sent out a release to conservative bloggers in an attempt to generate controversy. So, I called Playboy’s Editor/Online Community Manager Aranya Tomseth. She didn’t have any comment on it and referred me over to their PR department, where I got voice mail. As a side note, both Aranya and the PR person were female. Is that a way for them to deflect criticism? Hiring women for positions that talk to the press? Interesting technique.
I wonder what the women employed by Playboy behind the cameras thought of the piece and what it says about the magazine they work for.
Update: Karol of Alarming News writes on Twitter, “If you’re a company on the brink of collapse, perhaps you shouldn’t piss off half the US with sick hate f*** article.” But then, firms on the brink often act irrationally, to say the least.And Playboy is far from the first “non-ideological” publication to assume its consumers all think the same. (See also: NBC, CBS, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated…)
Update: Salon’s Gabriel Winant hems and haws, and tries to have it all ways, but ultimately in his equivocations, he’s willing to give Playboy the benefit of the doubt. After all, as Winant writes, the “conservababes” on Playboy ‘author’ Guy Cimbalo’s hate-f*** list “are parasites on the body of feminism, free-riding on its gains to denounce its goals.”
Or as one of those “conservababes” targeted for dehuminization by Playboy writes, “Keep being Salon, Salon.”
Update: Politico’s Anne Schroeder Mullins is pretty cool with the article as well, merely running the list of women Cimbalo had rape fantasies about, and repeating his “So Right, It’s Wrong” quote. Many (not all) of Mullins’ commenters are equally blasé about the idea of a good “hate-f***” as well, having already (ala the bumper sticker from last fall) dehumanized their targets.
Meanwhile, Jim Treacher reminds readers that “The last time Playboy pulled down a story, it was another anti-conservative smear”, as well.
Update: Timing is everything. Meanwhile, “Insert Obligatory Godfather Reference Here.”
Update (6/2/09): I thought with that last update that I was through with this post. But this morning, Big Hollywood linked, and Pajamas’ editors posted a link on the front page. And Michelle Malkin linked, in an item primarily about Politico’s Anne Schroeder Mullins’ post.
Fortunately, Michelle took a screen cap of Mullins’ post, as it was airbrushed as well. Or as Danny Glover puts it, “Politico Pulls A Playboy.” Read his post; there’s too much of it to excerpt here. And as Danny and Michelle have spotted, Caleb Howe of The Activist Conservative apparently has screen caps of Playboy’s original trainwreck from yesterday. Caleb’s server is being blown out at the moment from the traffic, but I’m glad somebody documented this shameful episode before it was airbrushed into history. Much like the 2008 Democratic Primary, and the election season that followed (see photo at top of post), it’s helped to shed a glimmer of light on a remarkably primitive side to what’s commonly called “liberalism” or “progressivism” these days.
Update: “All That, and Braindead, Too”, J.R. Taylor quips:
It’s been a long time since I worked for Playboy.com, so what I’m about to say may not have anything to do with the current staff running the site. Still—in the wake of their recent article that should’ve been titled “Women Who Scare My Wee-Wee”—I’ll note that I once was pulled aside after a Playboy.com staff meeting to be told that it was in bad taste for me to pitch a feature titled “America’s Sexiest Feminists.” I think what really made them nervous was my suggestion that more ladies have modeled for Playboy than currently belong to the National Organization of Women.
John Hawkins boldly, but tastefully goes where Hef feared to tread, here.
I’m sorry, but that sticker really looks fake to me. The overhang on the top of the trunk does not seem to have left much of a bend in the sticker nor much of a shadow.
I’ve uploaded the original, unaltered except for the license plate numbers obscured. Click here to see it.
Now, tell me how Ed Morrissey faked the post at Playboy.
Another book that’s right on point here is Thomas Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed – Self-Congratulation As a Basis for Social Policy.
Is not Hugh’s daughter (the one that ran the Playboy Corporation into the ground) on Obama’s business advise roundtable. So, let me get this straight 1) Obama provides Playboy with legitimacy and a plum business appointment 2) Playboy does a hit piece on Obama’s critics. Sounds like pay-for-play to me.
Is there any logical difference between a “hate f**k” and a rape?
Try to sort it out. What can you separate from “hate f***k” that is not rape? Not humiliation. Degrading somebody is part of the intended humiliation of rape.
And it doesn’t work to say it’s a matter of degree because nobody asked any conservative women on Playboy’s list what they thought of a “hate f***k”. So it’s just like a rapist claiming he knows how much his victim really wanted it.
There’s no difference.
I see Hot Air has an update saying Playboy’s pulled it.
good job! They took the vile article down!
Regarding the Playboy controversy:
1) Playboy is run by an increasingly desperate, hugely creepy, pajamas-clad octogenarian.
2) Playboy writers and readers don’t f***, they beat off.
Playboy always hated women. They’re just being more open about it, now.
Playboy and their ilk are nothing more than glorified pimps making money off of the backs of naked women. Hef being the biggest pimp daddy of ‘em all will always stoop to the lowest low. What a sickening legacy. Nothing shocks me with these cretins [and no, I'm not a prude].
Sticker is a fake, and a poor photoshop job at that.
Promoting “hate f**k” is promoting rape. How would Playboy like to see someone ask them this question? They would run away from it. Make light of it. Downplay it.
Playboy should stick to promoting women’s naked bodies & stay out of politics. However, it’s too late.
Playboy is irrelevant today.
Playboy is still published? Who knew? Who cared?
I know, those who read it for the articles.
Where has sanity and moral respect for another human being gone? It is this type of hate writing that is bringing down the American spirit.
Might it be time for someone to make a list of liberal haters to be bottle buggered?
Unfortunately, “Playboy” got what they wanted with the “hate !@#$” article: attention for their political blog.
Cimbalo has been posting hate-filled left-wing diatribes for some time now, but no one–no one–was paying attention. I was happy to let it stay that way.
This is the kind of disgusting behavior that causes regular folks to scratch their heads and ask “What were they thinking?” As Americans become more tolerant of inappropriate behavior, there seem to be more and more adults in the entertainment industry competing for attention by doing and saying the most outrageous things. Does common sense ever factor into the things they do and say? Do they have any limits? Do they ever consider the consequences of their behavior? It appears not and the same goes for those who know better, but lack the courage to criticize anyone on their own team. Like President Obama. He scolds conservatives whenever he feels the need, but remains silent when one of his own crosses the line.
It looks like the Playboy article slinked away to the ooze.
“Playboy and their ilk are nothing more than glorified pimps making money off of the backs of naked women.”
Well, not their backs…
This was a pretty degrading article. I guess a hate-f**k is something like a grudge-f**k? Whatever. It’s juvenile.
What always amazed me about Playboy, which I read (no jokes here)back in college in the 80s was its utter political naivete. They were very anti-Reagan, especially because of Ed Meese and the War on Porn and freedom of sexual expression. (OK, I will yield them that point, that as a magazine that sold the idea of free love and sexual experimentation, they saw the crackdown as a hindrance to their business. Fine. Point taken.)
But what amazed me about Playboy as the years went on that they were more and more aligned with political side that would infringe on everything else they held dear.
Fine Cigars? Nope, smoking is evil
Good liquor? Drinking is bad. Here come the MADD Mothrs and the “all alchoholis evil” fascists.
Fast Cars? Yeah, their president wants us to drive little boxes that go 35 MPH
Marlbed steaks? Oh no, meat is murder.
I could go on, but what would be the point.
Seriously, did you guys really think Playboy really empowered women – ever? I don’t think so.
Playboy………… it’s about the $$$$$$$$$$$$
I thought it went out of business years ago.
If I remember correctly, it was not that long ago that the left and feminists were anti Playboy for exploiting women and making them sex objects? Now all of a sudden Playboy is the spokesperson for the left. Times sure have changed.
That guy should stop the one-handed typing and get a life.
“Top 10 liberal Hags I Would Botox in a Dark Alley”
1. Helen Thomas
2. Nancy Pelosi
3. Barney Frank
4. Katie Couric
5. Rachel Maddow
6. Gloria Steinem
7. Bonnie Erbe
8. Hillary Clinton
9. ‘The View’ Hags
10 Janet Neopolitano
Hey Cimbalo, you too Mullins, come on down to Tennessee and we will show y’all some good old fashioned Deliverance style. Then you can go and write another article on hate f**king with perhaps a bit more empathy hmm?
How many women did Hef get pregnant, or who got pregnant in order to keep him around? What did he do with all those children and mothers? You just got to feel the love, Man.
30. stop2think: “9.’The View’ Hags
WTE of Elizabeth Hasselbeck, surely. No?
Playboy has been made irrelevant by the proliferation of internet pornography. Why pay good money for an imitation ? I read it in college but there was almost nothing there worth reading. Anybody over 30 reading it needed a better excuse than the articles.
To me, considering the circumstance and location, I’m thinking a vandal placed that sticker on the car without the owner’s knowledge.
To boil it all down to its essence, the left wants to crush any and all opposition to their ideology and policies. They hope to eventually use terror to silence anyone who has differing opinions and beliefs of what our American government ought to be–whether it ought to protect and preserve our freedoms and liberties, or if it ought to rule over us and control every aspect of our lives.
Playboy has obviously taken the side of totalitarian tyranny.
Why shouldn’t the left be represented by Playboy? They both hate beautiful, SMART women. The left either has the beautiful bimbos or the smart dogs! Seriously, look at the women on the left…it’s hilarious. And then on top of that neither the left nor Playboy has any morals. Free sex, who cares, they’ll let the free clinics and the abortion clinics take care of the messess they get themselves into. Instead of promoting people working together they prefer to hate.
A “hate-f___”, as near as I can interpret coming from such a demented mind, is degrading, because it implies a disingenuous seduction. What this narcissist doesn’t seem to grasp in his fantasy is that these women have something that liberal women don’t have: class and self-respect. In other words, they would never voluntarily go with a slug like him.
Therefore logically, it must be rape.
I’ve never understood why women would support these types of businesses – their ENTIRE business philosophy is “women are a piece of meat to be enjoyed by men”, the sole purpose of which is for men to get off on. By objectifying women, they don’t have to have a real conversation and connect on a human level.
Liberal women *do* support them, they work for them, they take their clothes off and pose for them. Boy, liberal women really care about women being treated with respect.
“hate-f***” can only be seen as rape. Calling for the rape (a felony) of certain women in public (as Playboy did by publishing this crap) would be an offense in the Netherlands. Is this the case in the USA?
BTW, doesn’t the fact that Michele Malkin is victim #1 show that that writer is a racist? The stereotype of subservient Asian-women smacks of it.
Obama Bought The Presidency
“Playboy and their ilk are nothing more than glorified pimps making money off of the backs of naked women”
The thing is, women CHOOSE to be naked for Playboy making money off her naked back, front and everything in-between. All that Feminism yet the woman ends up pimping herself.
It’s hard for me to take anyone serious who takes their cues on women and politics from the likes of Playboy. I consider them with nothing more than disdain.
45. syn:
The men who buy the mags, and the men who create and sell the mags and yes, the women who pose for the mags are all guilty as charged.
Hef has been pathetic for 30 years now. Before that he was merely mediocre.
When I read that he uses (used) an antique wine cooler to store Pepsi, I knew he was a tasteless fraud, and not the “sophisticate” he made himself out to be.
How about ‘Liberals we would like to see spayed?”
Sad, really sad. What type of man would enjoy a hate f**k? He’s got to be a real sicko.
Ms. Attitude (#50), To answer your question: a rapist, a sociopath, a psychopath, & a murderer. Yes, he has to be a real sicko. Playboy is playing the fool with such stupid remarks.
car magazines are better, at least the tech articles help with info. they all have plastic models, i mean airbrushed models.
The only bumper stickers I see at Mass say, “You can’t be Catholic and pro-abortion.” Also, since when is Playboy conservative? Blech!
Why use the words he used? It’s not a hate f***, call it what is really is: rape fantasy.
Plaboy published a rape fantasy article about women who “won’t keep their mouth shut”.
ky6th:
“I’m sorry, but that sticker really looks fake to me. The overhang on the top of the trunk does not seem to have left much of a bend in the sticker nor much of a shadow.”
Could be or it could just be a really small printing run / poor quality sticker (stamped or stencled…. or yeah, could be fake).
Anthony:
“Is there any logical difference between a “hate f**k” and a rape?”
I’m thinking the hate thing is mutually a voluntary act and/or they would talk them into it without telling them they hate them… see: sports f, grudge f, et cetera.
I am really proud that NOW has vigorously condemned…oh wait.
Yeah, hate f***s are generally supposed to be between people who hate each other but nonetheless have sizzling sexual chemistry, so the hatred actually ends up being something of an aphrodisiac. It’s not supposed to be rape.
However, when the guy who wants it starts talking about pregnancy like it’s a punishment, and strokes himself with shuddering pleasure just at the remembrance of how he “got that bitch pregnant”, it becomes less about mutual sexy dislike, and more about a skeevy, repulsive, misogynistic piece of trash getting off on a rape fantasy under the pretense of hate sex. Not such a huge surprise coming from Playboy.
60. I’ll go one step further and say that the rant is so full of rabid hatred that it ceases to be coherent.
.
Conservative women are HOTter! Just imagine the justified ‘Liberal’ outrage if say, ‘Hustler’ Magazine ran a disgusting parody where Rush, Hannity, Beck, Savage and Ann Coulter gang-rape and tickle-torture Katie Couric, the PIAPS, and then Nancy Pelosi.
Imagine. The outrage would last for months in the MSM. There would be calls for firings and boycotts. NOW would be apoplectic. Poor little outraged, hypocritical Libs.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
joke about raping women
if they are conservative
EVIL freedom lovers…
.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
sex is the height of evil
so is photography
but not pornography
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
always rape women…
who are conservative
they’re just gender traitors
.
7fLyW4 comment5 ,
Great site. Good info.