“Jesse Jackson hailed him as a strong supporter of the civil rights movement, while Larry King called him ‘a GIANT’ of free speech. Others noted that while Hefner loved to excoriate feminists in the pages of Playboy, he was a supporter of some of their causes, including abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment. … But how well does the idea of Hef the liberator of women really hold up? The New York Times Culture writers Amanda Hess, Wesley Morris and Taffy Brodesser-Akner joined [Jennifer Schuessler] in a discussion of Hefner’s social and cultural legacy.”