Effects Of Playboy On Society

Despite Hugh Hefner’s belief and early support of equality for women, Playboy has been constantly denounced as exploitive of women and their bodies. Are the centerfolds exploitive? Do they lead to casual misogyny? A 1993 study by researchers at The University of Western Ontario examined centerfold models in four hundred thirty issues of Playboy from 1953 to 1990. How explicit are the centerfolds? Playmates were only photographed with genitalia partially visible in six percent of all centerfold pictorials. The authors also concluded that objectification of Playmates was small. Eyes and full face shots were the norm. The most explicit and visible portions of the models body were the breasts and buttocks, with the authors noting that Playboy “stays within fairly restrained standards of explicitness.” In addition an increase in the average age of the models over time was noted. The authors speculate that this reflects a likely change in standards of beauty along with an aging population.
Qualitatively, one can argue that Playboy is …show more content…
Now, in the twenty-first, its nude models have become superfluous. Like the introduction of the magazine itself, the new nude-less Playboy represents a shift in values and means of consumption. Prior to magazine such as Esquire and Playboy, consumer behavior was seen as the domain of women. Just prior to World War Two, Esquire launched and with enough masculine content began to turn the tide toward masculine consumer acceptability with its fashion pages and advice on the means to be a thoroughly modern man. At wars end an overt push to return the nation to traditional gender roles of women in the home and men as breadwinners left many unsatisfied with this push toward conformity. One of these individuals was Hugh Hefner. Hefner believed that the conformity and tension of the Cold War era was stifling. Americans needed to have more