Bachelors and Bunnies: "Playboy" Magazine and Modern Heterosexuality, 1953--1973

This dissertation explores the ways in which Playboy magazine confronted---and contributed to---changing notions of gender and heterosexuality in the postwar years. This work reconsiders Playboy 's treatment of womanhood, feminism, monogamy and romance, and its idealization of straight masculinity through consumerism. While acknowledging the traditional feminist critique of the magazine, this dissertation argues that Playboy also served as a progressive vehicle for the re-negotiation of gender and sexuality amidst an era of tumultuous change. This work presents new material drawn from unprecedented access to the Playboy company archives, as well as oral histories conducted with Hugh Hefner, top Playboy editors and former Playmates.