It was once the only choice for schoolboys seeking titillation, or perhaps more discerning male subscribers who “read it for the articles”. “And so it’s just passe at this juncture”, Playboy chief executive Scott Flanders is quoted by the New York Times as saying. Now it’s up against the Internet, which is awash in high-definition porn.
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“The political and sexual climate of 1953, the year Hugh Hefner introduced Playboy to the world, bears nearly no resemblance to today”, Flanders said in a statement.
For generations, teenage boys got their first look at a naked woman from Playboy, often from a copy swiped from Dad’s sock drawer or filched from a newsstand. Previously on Tuesday Playboy will not print pictures of nude girls in the magazine, mentioning the company has transformed and a number of nudity is now easily available online.
Starting in March, Playboy’s revamped print edition will still include photographs of women in provocative poses.
“You are now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free”.
Playboy aimed to liberate sex, taking it out of the bedroom and into the mainstream.
The magazine may have offended a few who see it as sexist and demeaning to women, but the idea of Playboy dispensing with nudity would once have been unthinkable. “The magazine had already made a few content safe for work in order to be allowed on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, vital sources of web traffic”, Flanders added.
Although women often dismissed Playboy’s saucy centerfolds as “adolescent” in the 1950s and ’60s and “offensive to women” in the ’70s, Hefner – a legendary libertine and libertarian – has always insisted that he loves women and wanted to celebrate and empower them.
“I can understand why the magazine has had to make this huge decision, and it obviously represents a big turning point for the brand”, she told the Herald.
“But truthfully, I think it was over a while ago as the (cachet) of posing for Playboy diminished the last several years”, she said.
The magazine that featured Marilyn Monroe on its debut cover in 1953 is making the changes after circulation dropped from 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 now, the newspaper said. So many, in fact, that the current management of Playboy considered nude playmates to be a distraction on their own website.
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“I really enjoyed the whole thing”.
