Playboy’s recent decision to stop its nudity in print editions of the publication might not come as such a shock when you think about it.
The decision follows suit of Playboy’s website which, since August, no longer contains female nudity. By dropping nudity the Playboy website has witnessed a dramatic increase in its page views, as traffic on the site has quadrupled since the switch.
And while the change means a leading lad’s mag paves the way for less sexual objectification of women in print media, the reasons behind the brand’s no nudity policy are far from relieving.
Online Porn
The immediacy of online porn has driven the fifties magazine to become an outdated form of ‘Entertainment for Men’.
When the first Playboy issue was released in 1953, a taboo subject slammed the sexually repressed fifties in the face with images of women in less than respectable poses. The publication allowed a certain degree of embracing sexuality, but at the same time it also allowed an objectification of women.
Today the internet spins us a different tale, as the growing online porn industry caters for every preference (no matter how peculiar) with just one click. As with every other print publication (NME being one of the latest victims) the internet has pushed through with offers of free porn and dominated Playboy’s readership.
Playboy without nudes? What’s next, Starbucks without coffee? McDonald’s drops hamburgers? Baseball bans bats?
— Jamie (@LinkLayer) October 16, 2015
So while Playboy is dressing its models in overalls and jumpsuits (possible exaggeration) the consumers of porn are still watching those free porn sites that put the magazine in this position in the first place.
The immediacy of online porn creates real damage such as erectile dysfunction, lower sex drive and addiction. Porn’s unrealistic expectations of sex also desensitises our minds, meaning viewers are more susceptible to watching increasingly more aggressive and hardcore porn.
In reality, might we have been safer with those printed three page pull outs?
Now that @Playboy is going to stop including pictures of naked woman I guess we really will find out if anyone read it just for the articles
— Eddie Trunk (@EddieTrunk) October 14, 2015
Did Feminism really triumph?
We might view this as a win for women, as being clothed boasts progress for how women are perceived by the media as well as by men.
But it’s here that we might have to think again.
It’s not the nudity in Playboy that’s offensive. I doubt they are going to stop making fetishistic objects out of our daughters bodies.
— Don LaVange (@wickenden) October 16, 2015
It’s pretty fair to say that women’s treatment in the online porn industry is still pretty medieval, and this was proved by the bans on UK porn in December last year. Actions such as face sitting and female ejaculation were among some of those banned.
This created huge repercussions on how women are perceived through porn as by removing acts that place women in a position of dominance or power, or even sexual pleasure, we degraded them to objects in videos rather than women expressing sexuality.
It’s fair to say that although this seems like a huge step forward, we’re taking a monstrous step back in the long run; not only for women in the porn and the media, but for print journalism as well.
Are you happy Playboy’s nude days are behind us? Or is there more to this decision that it seems? Leave your views in the comments section below!
