第二步：精读重点段落

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

[6] In 1953, Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, was an ordinary man living an ordinary life. He had everything a middle-class man was supposed to want, including a wife and children. But Hefner felt constrained by the conservative post-World War II culture that pressured men like him into traditional domestic life.

• Constrained adj. 拘泥的; 被强迫的 be/feel constrained to do sth
• conservative post-World War II culture 二战后的保守主义

[7] His vision was not of a mere magazine, but of a total lifestyle for himself. He fantasized about fun-filled days and sex-filled nights, freed from the obligations of marriage and fatherhood. His genius was in imagining that other men had the same dreams – even if he was the only one who would make that fantasy a reality.

• Obligation n. 〔道义或法律上的〕义务，职责，责任

[11] He wanted to make discussions of sex and nude pictorials respectable to bring them out of the proverbial gutter and onto the coffee tables of middle-class Americans. So he paired sexuality with the various other interests he imagined that a hip, urban man might desire – jazz music, highbrow fiction, fashion, decorating and cooking tips, and by the 1960s, progressive politics and cutting-edge interviews.

• Pictorial n. 画报，画刊，画页，图画邮票; adj. 画的，图画的；照片的
• Proverbial adj. 俗话所说的，常言道
• Gutter n. the gutter press〔刊登耸人听闻的个人私生活新闻的〕低级趣味的报纸
• Progressive adj. 〔尤指在政治和教育方面〕进步的，先进的; 逐步发生的，逐步发展的
• cutting-edge 前沿,尖端

[16] Hefner did not just promote hedonistic sex, but supported loving, committed relationships. In the prominent letters-to-the-editor columns, Hefner and his staff held a constant dialogue with their millions of readers about social, sexual, and political issues. They offered advice regarding the personal questions that were submitted.

• Hedonistic adj. 享乐主义的
• Committed adj. 坚定的，尽心尽力的
• Prominent adj. 重要的,著名的,卓越的，杰出的; 〔位置〕突出的，显著的，显眼的

[17] Over and over, readers were told that mutual respect and dignity were crucial to mature, loving relationships. Both men and women were steered away from infidelity. Men were told that they needed to take responsibility for unplanned pregnancies. Women were told that their sexual needs were as important as their partners’.

• mutual respect 相互尊重
• steer v. 驾驶 〔车、船等〕;引导，指导〔某人的行为〕；引领〔局势的发展〕
• infidelity n. 〔对丈夫、妻子或伴侣的〕不贞行为

[18] When it came to the Playmates, the women featured in the magazine, it wasn’t their nudity that made them so iconic. Hefner created a formulaic look that stood apart from the existing sex magazines of the time, which tended to be degrading, cheap and shaming. In those brown bag publications, nude pictures were of nameless, thoroughly objectified women with vacant eyes – bodies to be consumed.

• Formulaic adj. 公式化的；充满俗套话的；没有独创的
• Degrading adj. 有辱人格的，令人羞耻的

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

I’ve spent years looking at what was actually in Playboy, and it wasn’t just objectification of women

[1] Over the nearly 70 years since Hugh Hefner, who died recently at the age of 91, laid out the first issue of Playboy on his kitchen table, the magazine and his personal lifestyle embodied the ultimate expression of heterosexual male privilege and sexual freedom.

• Lay out 布置，设计〔版面、建筑、城镇、花园等〕
• Embody v. 代表，体现〔思想或品质〕; 包括，收录
• Ultimate adj. 最后的，最终的，终极的
• heterosexual male privilege 异性恋男性的特权

[2] Because he was surrounded by young, beautiful women well into old age, celebrants saw in Hefner an almost heroic figure who challenged American sexual puritanism, fought for free speech and lived the ultimate straight male fantasy. Others, especially many feminists, lambasted him for objectifying and exploiting women.

• Lambast v. 猛烈批评，抨击
• Objectify v. 使物化；使具体化

[3] As a historian of American gender and sexuality, I’ve explored the ways in which Playboy magazine promoted its own version of masculinity and femininity at the height of its influence, the 1950s to the 1970s.

• Masculinity n. 男性；阳性；男子气
• Femininity n. 女子气质〔尤指温柔、娇小和美丽〕

[4] I was given unprecedented access to the Playboy company archives in Chicago, and had the opportunity to speak with Hefner about his politics and philosophy. I also spoke to the editors and centerfold Playmates from the era.

• Archive n. 档案馆，档案室；档案

[5] After years of research, I came to the conclusion that the sexual politics of Hefner and his magazine were much more complicated than most observers – for or against – have acknowledged.

• Acknowledge v. 承认〔某事属实或某情况存在〕; 认可〔某事物优秀或重要〕

Launch of Playboy

[6] In 1953, Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy magazine, was an ordinary man living an ordinary life. He had everything a middle-class man was supposed to want, including a wife and children. But Hefner felt constrained by the conservative post-World War II culture that pressured men like him into traditional domestic life.

• Constrained adj. 拘泥的; 被强迫的 be/feel constrained to do sth
• conservative post-World War II culture 二战后的保守主义

[7] His vision was not of a mere magazine, but of a total lifestyle for himself. He fantasized about fun-filled days and sex-filled nights, freed from the obligations of marriage and fatherhood. His genius was in imagining that other men had the same dreams – even if he was the only one who would make that fantasy a reality.

• Obligation n. 〔道义或法律上的〕义务，职责，责任

[8] The first issue of Playboy, in December 1953, featured nude Marilyn Monroe photographs, a cosmic stroke of luck for Hefner when he acquired them from the Baumgarth Company, who owned the rights to the prestardom Monroe photos.

• Nude adj. 赤裸的，裸体的; n. 裸体艺术品〔如人体画、人体雕塑等〕
• stroke of luck 意外的好运 stroke of genius/inspiration 聪明之举/巧妙的主意
• Prestardom n. 前明星地位，身份

[9] The magazine flew off the stands. Subsequently, it grew in popularity so quickly that Hefner had to skip an issue in 1954 in order to expand his production capacity.

• Fly off the stands飞离看台, 大受欢迎

The centerfolds, feminism

[10] The wild success of Playboy – which grew from a popular magazine into a media and pop culture empire in the 1960s – can be attributed to Hefner’s particular treatment of sexuality.

• be attributed to 归因于……

[11] He wanted to make discussions of sex and nude pictorials respectable to bring them out of the proverbial gutter and onto the coffee tables of middle-class Americans. So he paired sexuality with the various other interests he imagined that a hip, urban man might desire – jazz music, highbrow fiction, fashion, decorating and cooking tips, and by the 1960s, progressive politics and cutting-edge interviews.

• Pictorial n. 画报，画刊，画页，图画邮票; adj. 画的，图画的；照片的
• Proverbial adj. 俗话所说的，常言道
• Gutter n. the gutter press〔刊登耸人听闻的个人私生活新闻的〕低级趣味的报纸
• Progressive adj. 〔尤指在政治和教育方面〕进步的，先进的; 逐步发生的，逐步发展的
• cutting-edge 前沿,尖端

[12] Of course, it was the sex that most people associate with Playboy, in particular the Playmate centerfolds.

[13] When the women’s movement emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s, feminists like Gloria Steinem and others railed against the sexism inherent in the Playboy worldview. They argued that Hefner was a chauvinist who exploited young women for his own sexual and financial gain.

• rail v. 怒斥；抱怨  rail against 责骂抱怨痛骂
• sexism n. (尤其对女性的) 性别歧视
• inherent adj. 内在的，固有的
• chauvinist n. 本性别至上主义者；〔尤指〕大男子主义者; 沙文主义者，本国[本民族]至上主义者

[14] They pointed to the nudes as evidence of the ways in which Playboy prioritized (mostly white) male heterosexual power and privilege. The Playmates, in this way, seem to say that women are only as valuable as as their sexual attractiveness to men.

Not objectification?

[15] Those interpretations are not wrong, however, I would argue that they are incomplete. The magazine offered many, often competing, messages.

• Interpretation n. 解释，说明；理解

[16] Hefner did not just promote hedonistic sex, but supported loving, committed relationships. In the prominent letters-to-the-editor columns, Hefner and his staff held a constant dialogue with their millions of readers about social, sexual, and political issues. They offered advice regarding the personal questions that were submitted.

• Hedonistic adj. 享乐主义的
• Committed adj. 坚定的，尽心尽力的
• Prominent adj. 重要的,著名的,卓越的，杰出的; 〔位置〕突出的，显著的，显眼的

[17] Over and over, readers were told that mutual respect and dignity were crucial to mature, loving relationships. Both men and women were steered away from infidelity. Men were told that they needed to take responsibility for unplanned pregnancies. Women were told that their sexual needs were as important as their partners’.

• mutual respect 相互尊重
• steer v. 驾驶 〔车、船等〕;引导，指导〔某人的行为〕；引领〔局势的发展〕
• infidelity n. 〔对丈夫、妻子或伴侣的〕不贞行为

[18] When it came to the Playmates, the women featured in the magazine, it wasn’t their nudity that made them so iconic. Hefner created a formulaic look that stood apart from the existing sex magazines of the time, which tended to be degrading, cheap and shaming. In those brown bag publications, nude pictures were of nameless, thoroughly objectified women with vacant eyes – bodies to be consumed.

• Formulaic adj. 公式化的；充满俗套话的；没有独创的
• Degrading adj. 有辱人格的，令人羞耻的

[19] Hefner portrayed the models as real human beings in recognizable settings, such as getting ready for work, and included biographical sketches and secondary photos that showed them in their daily lives.

• Portray v. 把某人/某物描写成某种样子 portray sb/sth as sth

[20] The women were college students, aspiring actresses or secretaries. In some cases, he even showed them, in accompanying photos, in their role as daughters – having Sunday dinner with their parents.

[21] Rather than objectifying, Hefner consciously attempted to humanize the women who appeared in Playboy.

[22] By sexualizing the “girl next door,” as she would come to be known, Hefner challenged the postwar cultural insistence that “good” girls confine their sexuality to married monogamy. Hefner told his readers that the Playmates were the types of women they might find at the office, on the subway or in the library.

• Monogamy n. 一夫一妻制; 单一配偶制

[23] As Hefner’s biographer Steven Watts wrote,“within a few years of starting Playboy…Hefner became a serious, influential figure in modern culture…[he] played a key role in changing American values, ideas, and attitudes.”

• Biographer n. 传记作者

[24] Through the pages of Playboy, Hefner helped shift cultural conversations about appropriate feminine sexuality – for better and for worse.

The 1960s culture

[25] Certainly, there was sexism too. One can find much evidence of it in the pages of Playboy, in the 1950s and early 1960s – including explicitly hostile, anti-women articles.

• Explicitly adv. 明确地；明白地
• Hostile adj. 怀有敌意的，敌对的，不友善的

[26] But, I would argue that Hefner’s iconic Playmates need to be understood within their historical context. They were the product of a very conservative time in which men and especially women were expected to uphold strict standards of sexual propriety. In those early years of Playboy, the centerfolds offered readers an expanded vision of female sexuality.

• Uphold v. 支持，维护〔法规、制度或原则〕
• Centerfold n. （杂志的）裸体照片插页，中间插页

[27] No doubt, it served the needs of the randy bachelor. But many readers – including women – appreciated the freer, more modern view of heterosexuality that Hefner promoted. In 1972, one member of the activist group Buffalo Feminist Party noted in a letter to the editor, “the many positive steps Playboy…[has] taken toward a re-evaluation of American society and mores.”

• randy bachelor 好色粗俗的单身汉
• heterosexuality n. 异性恋

[28] Indeed, after the upheavals of the 1960s, including the sexual revolution and feminism, the commercialized sex offered in Playboy would have a different meaning. Once American society embraced many changes informed by modern feminism, including women’s sexual liberation and some reproductive rights, the message of the postwar Playmates – that “good” girls liked sex, too – would lose its power.

• Upheaval n. 〔往往会带来问题的〕激变，剧变；动乱
• Feminism n. 女权主义
• sexual liberation 性解放
• reproductive right 生育权

[29] In the late 20th century, the centerfolds seemed like a throwback to a more sexist time. But in the early, influential years of Hefner’s empire, his vision of the sexy girl next door helped modernize American sexual culture.

• Throwback n. 复古; 回归