Playboy (1953- ) is an American magazine that calls itself “entertainment for men”. It has good articles and is a perfectly respectable magazine except for one thing, the thing that it is most known for: it has pictures of naked women.
Hugh Hefner started Playboy in December 1953 with Marilyn Monroe on the cover. More than 50 years later he was still the head of the magazine.
Some of the most famous writers and women have been in its pages. Nabokov, Atwood and Ian Fleming have written for Playboy. Naomi Campbell, Anna Nicole Smith and Kim Kardashian have modelled naked for it.
The pictures of naked women are tasteful and do not show as much as some other magazines. The women are also much prettier, sometimes even beautiful.
Each year Playboy picks one of its models as the Playmate of the Year (PMOY).
Playboy has affected American society in at least two ways:
- It has helped to loosen its morals.
- It has helped to make big breasts and yellow hair a part of white America’s idea of female beauty.
Hefner liked women with huge breasts and long yellow hair, something that is common now but which you did not see much of before Playboy. The magazine has changed men’s taste in women, at least white men in North America.
The women in Playboy have become thinner over the years. In the 1960s they had nice hourglass figures. No more. But that change seems to be driven more by Vogue than Playboy.
From the neck up the women in Playboy are always pretty but rarely beautiful. It seems to be the eyes: they do not look like women who are particularly deep or have much mystery about them.
Playboy conceives of beauty as looking perfect on the outside, like a work of art or a wood fence. It is not seen as something that comes from within.
When I was a boy, back in the days before Google, most of what I knew about a woman’s body came from the few copies of Playboy that secretly chanced my way.
Black women in Playboy:
- 1965: Jennifer Jackson, the first black centrefold
- 1990: Renee Tenison, the first black Playmate of the Year
Tenison is a token: Hefner thought it was time for a black Playmate of the Year. Apparently it will time again in 2020. This makes Playboy whiter than the state of Maine.
To be honest, the partly-clothed black women in King magazine are much better than the few naked ones in Playboy. The black women in Playboy are meant for the eyes of white men, not black men.
Overseas: You see Playboy in other countries, mainly Western ones. Each country comes out with its own Playboy, suiting the women to the country’s tastes and customs.
In Indonesia, for example, the women are fully clothed. Despite that some Muslims still wanted to shut the magazine down. Playboy fled the island of Java (Muslim) for Bali (Hindu).
– Abagond, 2008.
Update (2015): Playboy in the US will soon stop printing pictures of naked women. Internet porn has made that kind of pointless. There will still be pictures of sexy women.
See also:
- My adventures in porn
- magazine
- white beauty: a brief history
- race and beauty
- King magazine
- Barbie
- models (the US edition unless otherwise noted)
- 1953: Marilyn Monroe
- 1965: Donyale Luna
- 1982: Xuxa (Brazilian edition)
- 1992: Anna Nicole Smith
- 199?: Patricia Ford (covers of German and Australian editions)
- 1999: Naomi Campbell
- 2000: Neferteri Shepherd
- 2007: Kim Kardashian
- 2007: Garcelle Beauvais
- models asked to appear in Playboy who refused:
- Java
- politically correct beauty
nice
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Exactly! Playboy magazine is designed for the affluent white male’s tastes. The women in it were mainly blond with the occasional redhead and brunette, judging from its covers, past and present.
Steph
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Right, not just white women but even a particular kind of white woman.
I think you know I do not share Hefner’s taste in woman, but in his defence I must say that to run a magazine like that and do it well you must have very strong and certain ideas of what you like in women. It has to come from deep inside you. You have to completely trust your judgement as a man looking at a woman.
If I were put in Hefner’s shoes the women would be different, more like the ones in King, but they would still be a particular kind, the kind that I like.
Renee Tenison is a beautiful woman, but I would have more respect for Hefner if he just said he did not like black women and he has to trust his judgement or the magazine is sunk.
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Abagond,
Exactly!
Stephanie B.
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I find it funny how you call blonde hair yellow.
Playboy is much classier than black tail.
You know Hugh Hefner’s mother was very cold to him growing up and it is believed that that is the reason he is obessed with women.
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I did not know that about Hefner. I should probably do a post on him too.
Playboy is a hundred times classier than Black Tail. It is part of what Hefner set out to do – to make that sort of thing respectable.
I love black hair and I am sick of yellow hair, so I do not want to dignify it with a special word.
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Did you know that Hefner borrowed $600* from none other than his own mother to get Playboy started back in 1953? She agreed to lend the money because she wanted to help her son become successful, even though she hated the magazine’s concept. Little did she know what the future held in store…
*Equivalent to about $4,600 today.
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I did not know that. I know how she feels.
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this was very well said this information was amazing!
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You should read up on some of Hefner’s pre-Playboy history, particularly his attitude towards black performers, which resulted in his programmes being banned in many of the racist states of the US in the 50s. Along with his early accepting attitude towards homosexuality (publishing “the crooked man” in the 50s), Hefner has been a committed friend of equality in many forms, not least racial and sexual.
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It’s too bad that isn’t shown in Playboy.
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I love PlayBoy. I’m an artist and I use Playboy as one of my inspirations when drawing female characters. I don’t know. To me, most of the women are average-sized.
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I often hear the reference to “white perception” of beauty.
While I can at least at some level understand the difficulty of being one who is not or does not meet that standard. I cannot understand the concept fo something wrong with that ideal of beauty. I too do not find the women in Play boy that attractive. While yes I am white, I am not attracted to Blonds (yellow hair) However, I can understand that in any culture, in any state, place or group their is a concept of beauty. That beauty will differ depending on that state. But how is your concept of beauy;
“To be honest, the partly-clothed black women in King magazine are much better than the few naked ones in Playboy. The black women in Playboy are meant for the eyes of white men, not black men.”
Positive and a White mans or white society for that matter negative. I am not particularly attracted to small women with large breast, or “boys with breast” as I think Tom Wolfe described them. But I can certainly both understand;
One that White societies concept of Beauty is not Racist, and at the same time see that if you are “other” than that white Beauty it is “hurtful” to your self esteem. They can be excusive of one another.
I have spent my life not meeting the full standard of what is considered attractive by some and attractive by others. I am no Brad Pitt nor Wesley Snipes. I am more of a Michael Chickless (SP) To say I dont wish I could be the other to at some leve doesnt mean they are guilty of or anyone deeming them more attractive than me are guilty of some overt harm to me. It is what it is.
To make everything Race is to make Racism incomprehensible, truly undefinable and absolutely un-conquerable. It becomes too fluid, too loose, and too Malleable.
I can both see race as an issue, but on both extremes.
I enjoy reading your post a disagre with a lot of the “white priviledge” construct. Of course I know “I am white” and will.
I know this is not so much about race but it is certainly interjected here in a way that just makes it not simply impossible to deal with but unmanageable.
So many post so much to read. But in a nutshell, White are not afraid to speak of race, they are just unwilling to accept everything as racist. I am not willing to. I think the difficulty is anti racist are unwilling to comprehend this. It isnt cowardice, nor empathy, it is a rejection of the whole premise. It is why Clinton failed in his desire to have a dialogue on Race, it is why Holder is frustrated.
Many of those in Leadership in the POC race agenda want me to sit down and listen to how Racist I am with every breath I take. I use “I” here because I am white.
In truth I want to work on Racism, but the spectrum is too broad, the dialogue is too vast to heal. And you can not start from Stereotypes of whites and ask that “whites’ stop stereotyping. It is just circular and a losing battle.
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I’m sorry but I disagree. For and foremost, You should say Blonde instead of ” yellow hair”, it just makes you sound uneducated. Second, there have been plenty of women in Playboy who are not white, blonde or have big breast. Google Kylie Johnson and Mei Ling Lam. in my opinion, beauty is something any woman can have as long as they take care of themselves. i have always been supportive of playboy because of how tasteful the pictures are, how respectful it is to women, the fact that there is no age, race, or weight discrimination.
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Really, Black Tail is a better magazine? I’ll give playboy this it isn’t out an out pornography. Black Tail, the title it’s self makes me want to gag, is really pushing for me. Nothing wrong with porn by the way. I do buy mens magazines all the time, I get strange looks from people because i’m a girl, but they help me when I’m drawing pin-ups for people.
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I heard Playboy and other men’s wank magazines aren’t doing too well these days. The internet has changed all that.
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Update (2015): Playboy in the US will soon stop printing pictures of naked women. Internet porn has made that kind of pointless. There will still be pictures of sexy women.
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Update (2015): Playboy in the US will soon stop printing pictures of naked women. Internet porn has made that kind of pointless. There will still be pictures of sexy women.
It’s ok. Everybody reads Playboy for the articles anyway. 😛
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