A wise man once said: The major civilizing force in the world is not religion, it is sex. That man was Hugh Hefner. And this nugget of wisdom was likely on his mind in 1953, when he founded the now-iconic Playboy Magazine.

The spirit of Playboy was, in a way, revolutionary. The 1950s famously framed pornography and, more broadly, sexuality itself as a dirty, shameful secret to indulge in in private or not at all. Hefner, however, recognized the beauty and power of erotic imagery, and believed it deserved recognition.

Through his Playboy brand, he aligned the qualities of a sexual being with those of a gentleman. He conjured up a newfangled American dream for the heterosexual male a dream of being cultured, sophisticated, educated and face-deep in naked women. Sex went from being something reprehensible to something cosmopolitan, classy and progressive. For straight men, at least.