Angry Bunnies Protest London's Playboy Club Opening (PHOTOS)

These bunnies are hopping mad.

Feminist protestors, some dressed like rabbits, took to the streets on June 4 to demonstrate against the opening of a new Playboy Club in England -- the sexy magazine's first foray into London nightlife since the city's original Playboy Club closed its doors in 1981.

As 85-year-old Playboy founder Hugh Hefner arrived at the new venue with his 25-year-old fiancee Crystal Harris, more than 100 opponents of the club gathered behind barricades and held up signs reading "Eff Off Heff" and "Our Bodies Not For Sale."

(Scroll down for photos)

After going undercover at a Playboy Club, feminist icon Gloria Steinem ironically noted that "All women are bunnies." These ones, however, are the kind she would admire.

Speaking for demonstrators from the groups UK Feminista and Object, protester Julia Long told Sky News that the rally was intended to draw attention to Playboy's exploitation of women.

"They're about the degradation of women and I think they're rightly angry at the way Playboy is trying to legitimize pornography and bring it into the mainstream," she said. "This club is another step in that direction."

According to The Guardian, the London club is designed to closely reflect the Playboy clubs of the 1960s -- riffing off pop culture's current infatuation with the era.

Visitors -- as well as lifetime members who shell out about $24,000 -- will see plenty of smiling women in bunny suits as well as other trappings of "Mad Men"-era entertainment, including the Cottontail Lounge "where the Bunnies come out to play," a high-end cocktail bar, a sports bar, a smoking terrace and a "traditional barbershop."

The opening of the new venue in London's Mayfair neighborhood comes amidst a renewed effort by Playboy to establish clubs after its previous attempts faltered in the 1990s.

Despite the demonstrators' claims that the venue is sexist, Hefner told Sky News that Playboy is "what the sexual revolution was all about."

"A feminist protest in 2011 to the Playboy Bunnies is lame ... Playboy and the Playboy clubs were the end of sexism," Hefner said. "Women were being held bondage for hundreds of years, owned first by their fathers and then their husbands, Playboy helped to change all that."

SEE PHOTOS OF THE PROTEST:

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Playboy Club Protest In London

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Angry protesters -- some dressed in bunny outfits -- chanted and held up signs in opposition of a new Playboy Club that opened in London on June 4.

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Angry protesters -- some dressed in bunny outfits -- chanted and held up signs in opposition of a new Playboy Club that opened in London on June 4.

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Comments

[No stinking fans]

02:26 PM on 06/13/2011

After the protest they all celebrated ladies night at a Chippendales show.

[Faye-Valentine]

02:47 PM on 06/12/2011

I was a nude model when I was in my early twenties. I never felt exploited, it was the easiest job in the world. I made tons of money for just taking off my clothes and posing. It gave me free time to go to school and write. It was great. Now, I can see the paintings and photos I modeled for and I'm proud. There is nothing shameful about the human body, it is a beautiful thing. The Bunnies choose to work there or model in the magazine. Society is who views it as shameful.

These women could put their energy towards trying to stop the exploitation of the women who are forced into the sex trade against their own wishes.

[shelchic]

09:51 AM on 06/09/2011

As a woman, I really don't care what they choose to do with their bodies. It's their choice. Apparently some feminists are all about choice as long as it is the choice they agree with.

You know, women sell their bodies every night all across the various countries in order to feed their kids. How many women go home from bars with men who then buy them things etc.? Many women, and even young girls, are abducted straight from the street and put into the nightmare of sex slavery. The people selling them supposedly advertise on social networking sites like Craig's List. So, why don't feminist groups organize and go after these people who haven't been given a choice.

Bunnies aren't forced to be bunnies after all.

[Sean777]

05:12 PM on 06/08/2011

Makes me wonder if is there a Hooters in London?

[dil123]

11:44 AM on 06/12/2011

Oh yes, there is a Hooters in London.

[Dub Sack]

12:07 PM on 06/08/2011

Putting on a bunny outfit makes them look like they're supporting Playboy

[Health 1]

10:01 PM on 06/07/2011

Angry Bunnies Protest London's Playboy Club Opening

Yep, they're hopping mad.

[sparticus300]

07:23 PM on 06/07/2011

Why are feminists always homely

[AmbitiousMamas]

04:45 PM on 06/07/2011

The child in the Easter Bunny costume is my 11 year old daughter. We strongly object to the merchandise sold to children by the Playboy Empire. It comes as no surprise that Hugh Heffner sees his empire as liberating women given that it has made him billions. Vested interests in any matter always contains a strong element of justification which goes against those seeking to disprove it.

[dil123]

11:49 AM on 06/12/2011

Just because it is for sale doesn't mean you have to buy it. Playboy products are not for children. They are selling to the college set. If you are buying Playboy products for your daughter then you are the one with the problem not your daughter. My daughter's boyfriend bought my daughter a tee shirt from Playboy for her 16th birthday that said "Playmate of the Month". I wouldn't let her wear it. I didn't make her give it back, because it was a gift, but it went into storage until she turned 18. Like I said, just because it's for sale and fits doesn't mean you have to buy it.

[moonwolfph]

03:02 PM on 06/07/2011

The irony here is, of course, that no one would pay a DIME to see the Cadaver Heff naked - not even in his younger days. He could start his own Heff's diet plan, though, as anyone looking at his hideous bod would run away vomiting. So many ugly men who look in the mirror and see Adonis, so few paper bags...

[dbrockskk]

06:11 AM on 06/07/2011

I'm really surprised. I thought Playboy Club was passe and it's heyday is over...havent heard about one in the US for years.

[kiddub]

11:19 PM on 06/06/2011

Free speech isn't always pretty. In this case it's pretty hot.

[AmericanURNOT]

06:34 PM on 06/06/2011

ew, the hildabeast are just jealous they can't get in.

[tshnh]

05:25 PM on 06/06/2011

please, give me abreak

[bigb8766]

05:09 PM on 06/06/2011

This is why feminism at its core annoys me. Get a life people. Go protest something that is important. Go protest the underage sex trade in Thailand. Go protest the treatment of women in the traditional Muslim societies. These women (and men) choose to be in this magazine. I thought feminism was about "empowerment"?

[abuckley23]

04:54 PM on 06/06/2011

I don't think the protesters realize that Hef has no intention of selling THEIR bodies. And if they're so against pornography then they should just protest the internet. They could do it from the comfort of their own home and not be limited as to what they want to dress up as.