Long before I became a magazine editor, I read Gloria Steinem's article A Bunny's Tale. Though it was first published in 1963, I found it by way of her book, Outrageous Acts And Everyday Rebellions, which I read as a young woman.
That story changed my life. Just as it changed the lives of many other women around the world.
A Bunny's Tale referred to the women who worked within the Playboy empire, and to understand the power of the article, you need to imagine the world in which the then 29–year–old Steinem wrote it.
This was the early 1960s. The majority of women stayed at home and baked cookies – whether they liked it or not. Those who did work – like the bunnies of the Playboy Club – were exposed to poor working conditions, discrimination and often sexual harassment.
Steinem's report was far more than a salacious peek into a world where women sell sexuality and men buy it.
