Hugh Hefner has broken his silence on the GOP candidates' increasingly dramatic rhetoric on sex, taking to the pages of Playboy to rail against what he calls the Republican's "war against sex."
Politico reports that Hefner doesn't normally write in the magazine, which suggests his full-page editorial in the May issue represents a viewpoint he felt strongly about to justify breaking his behind-the-scenes role at the magazine.
Hefner quotes Rick Santorum's description of birth control as "a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." "Ron Paul was no better," Hefner continues. "Believing that the birth control pill did not cause immorality but that immorality creates the problem of wanting to use the pill."
Mitt Romney, as Hefner notes, has vowed to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Hefner's role in sexual politics is a complicated one, with some celebrating the media tycoon as an ardent defender of women's rights and others decrying Hefner's lifestyle and Playboy as entirely misogynistic. Politico notes that Hefner cites some of his victories when it comes to sexual liberty in the editorial.
Also lambasted is Foster Friess, who wistfully remarked in February that women used to use aspirin for a contraceptive. "Fifty years of sexual freedom vanished in a soundbite," wrote Hefner. Friess later apologized for his remarks.
Hefner made news today by announcing that Playboy was moving its operations to Los Angeles after decades in Hefner's native Chicago.
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