By Linda Lee Greene,
Author & Artist
There was a man named Hugh Hefner in my time. There were
others, but he was the worst of his kind. He took photos of naked pretty women
like me, and put them in a magazine called “Playboy” for men, or mostly men,
everywhere to see.
I was fortunate. I actually avoided
Hugh Hefner’s camera eye, but my sisters—hundreds, no thousands of them, I suppose, were
not as lucky as me. They, and by extension, we were objectified, diminished,
reduced to only one dimension. We were bare bodies in a centerfold, empty faces
on a page. We were the symbol of something called, “eye candy,” on a man’s arm,
and were assigned no other place.
“’Playboy’ and its ilk offended me
then as it does now!” states my position on it mildly! And for many years, it also
was a thick strand of the web of societal norms that were instrumental in
barring pretty women from being taken seriously. In large part, we got beyond that
hurdle, because we fought it. We demanded better. We demanded more. It was and
is our right!
This was heavy on my mind last
night as I crawled in bed. And then the picture changed to “Aunt Jemima”
instead. I woke up this morning understanding my black sisters a little better,
I think…FINALLY.©
Books by Linda Lee Greene are available for purchase on Amazon.com.
