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Worst TV Show of the Week

The Playboy Club on NBC

“I don’t care if a baby holds up a Playboy bunny rattle.” So said Playboy founder Hugh Hefner in 2005, responding to questions about the appropriateness of selling Playboy-themed merchandise to children. And now, thanks to NBC and its corporate owner Comcast (whose cable network E! previously glorified Playboy on its program The Girls Next Door), Hefner has the opportunity to sell his degrading, exploitative take on women and sex to children, and to every TV viewer in America…which is why the September 19^th premiere of NBC’s The Playboy Club (10:00 p.m. ET) is the Worst TV Show of the Week.

Set in 1961, The Playboy Club tries to make the life of a Playboy Bunny – an underpaid waitress forced to dress in skimpy clothes and submit to being ogled and verbally (and sometimes physically) harassed by sexist male customers – look like a light-hearted, fun-filled romp. The program is dominated by an attitude which states that exploiting women is perfectly normal and harmless, interspersed with graphic content:

• A mob boss grabs, struggles with, and tries to rape Maureen. During the struggle, the spiked heel of her shoe cuts the mob boss’ throat. Blood spurts out, covering the mobster’s face and Maureen’s dress.

• Dalton complains to Billy that Maureen doesn’t seem very intelligent.

Billy: “You’re the only man I know who puts your hand up a girl’s skirt looking for a           dictionary. Who needs smart?”

• Brenda talks about her status as the only African-American at the Club, as she fondles her breasts.

Brenda: “I’m going to be the first chocolate Bunny. You can’t discriminate against these   babies.”

• Another Bunny discusses Dalton with Maureen.

Bunny: “Is it true what they say about him – that he has a really big penis?”

Even more disgusting and insidious than the sexism and violence on the program is The Playboy Club‘s blatant attempt to rewrite history, and elevate Playboy into a progressive champion of “freedom” and “enlightenment.” The program even portrays Playboy as promoting feminism! The program’s self-serving closing narration (read by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner himself) claims, “The world was changing…and WE were the ones changing it. The Bunnies were the only women in the world who could be anyone they wanted to be.”

The message conveyed by The Playboy Club is that being sexually exploited is a normal part of everyday life – that there is nothing shameful, harmful or even unusual about such activity, and that sexual harassment is harmless, enjoyable, and even empowering for women.

Science has shown that exposure to pornography is psychologically dangerous to children and teens, and can encourage unhealthy sexual behavior in youth. Because of the sexually permissive culture which Hefner and Playboy largely initiated, today’s children live in an atmosphere so sexually charged that sex education is mandatory in nearly every public school, and even pre-teens now engage in sexual behavior, not merely outside of school, but even in classrooms.

And now, every school child and teenager has the opportunity to see sleazy sex clubs portrayed as glamorous, and the life of a skimpily-clad, sexually harassed waitress-cum-stripper portrayed as exciting fun…thanks to NBC.