--- description: Watch an exclusive clip from the upcoming episode of CNN's 'The Seventies' title: Feminists vs Hugh Hefner on the Dick Cavett Show: See What Happened image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt921b07f55c83b11f/69885b7e35ba6f2bacc0e3f7/screen-shot-2015-07-17-at-4-31-14-pm.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [feminism](/tag/feminism/) ## feminism Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # See What Happened When Feminists Squared Off With Hugh Hefner in 1970  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 20, 2015 4:15 PM CUT  CNN's The Seventies  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 20, 2015 4:15 PM CUT When Susan Brownmiller and Sally Kempton appeared as representatives of the women’s liberation movement alongside Hugh Hefner on _The Dick Cavett Show_ in 1970, Cavett joked, “We really set you up tonight, didn’t we?” Though Hefner’s _Playboy_ was thriving, Cavett’s line really applied more to him. As seen in this exclusive clip from the upcoming episode of CNN’s [_The Seventies_](http://www.cnn.com/shows/the-seventies "undefined"), airing on Thursday at 9:00 p.m., Hefner seemed to have no idea what was coming. From the minute he referred to the activists as “girls,” he was put in his place. The women took full advantage of their public forum to express thoughts and feelings that had been bottled up for so long, and the nation took notice. When TIME’s Person of the Year honor for 1975 was given to 12 separate Women of the Year, Brownmiller was one of them. The magazine dubbed her the “second-sex scholar” and explained why she deserved the recognition: --- > “” --- **_Read TIME’s 1972 special report on the state of feminism:_** [The American Woman](http://time.com/vault/issue/1972-03-20/page/1/ "undefined") **_Read the Women of the Year, 1975, issue, here in the TIME Vault:_** [A Dozen Who Made a Difference](http://time.com/vault/issue/1976-01-05/page/1/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3963237/playboy-feminists-brownmiller-hefner/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3963237/playboy-feminists-brownmiller-hefner/"},"headline":"See What Happened When Feminists Squared Off With Hugh Hefner in 1970","datePublished":"2015-07-20T16:15:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:22:18.858Z","description":"Watch an exclusive clip from the upcoming episode of CNN's 'The Seventies'","url":"https://time.com/3963237/playboy-feminists-brownmiller-hefner/","keywords":["feminism","Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt921b07f55c83b11f/69885b7e35ba6f2bacc0e3f7/screen-shot-2015-07-17-at-4-31-14-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt921b07f55c83b11f/69885b7e35ba6f2bacc0e3f7/screen-shot-2015-07-17-at-4-31-14-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dick Cavett Show: Hugh Hefner, Susan Brownmiller","caption":"Dick Cavett Show: Hugh Hefner, Susan Brownmiller","creditText":"CNN's The Seventies","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/feminism/","name":"feminism"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3963237/playboy-feminists-brownmiller-hefner/","name":"See What Happened When Feminists Squared Off With Hugh Hefner in 1970"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Dick Cavett Revisits the Office Where He Got His Start","description":"The television legend came back to visit the place where he got his start. 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