Domesticating Play at the Playboy Mansion

Abstract

This paper explores how Playboy magazine and the Playboy Mansion shaped early gaming cultures through the lens of domestication theory. Focusing on backgammon, pinball, and early video games, it examines how Hugh Hefner's lifestyle recontextualized play as a marker of urbane, heterosexual masculinity. Games became tools for reinforcing male sociability, status hierarchies, and gendered power dynamics, with women positioned as decorative participants. Through analysis of key features in Playboy (1973-1975), this paper highlights how Playboy normalized gaming as a male-coded activity. These dynamics prefigure the exclusions and toxicities of contemporary gaming cultures, revealing the deeply rooted gendering of 20th century play.