The naked truth about Playboy’s new direction
From now on, people who say they read Playboy for the articles will really mean it. The magazine’s last nude centerfold hits the newsstands this month, marking the end of an era.
But don’t think Playboy’s editors have suddenly found feminism. The magazine says the rise of online, free porn means nude photos are no longer worth paying for.
While the economic rationale is real, it’s also worth considering that another reason for the decision is that the lifestyle Playboy is selling no longer resonates. The internet offers choice, and with it, the ability for people to seek out and explore what they find attractive, rather than have an objective standard forced upon them.
Playboy’s last issue features Pamela Anderson, baring it all once again. It’s a fitting choice. A quick scan of recent Playboy models quickly reveals a pattern. They are thin. They are busty. They are (or appear) young. They are overwhelmingly white and often blonde.
They are, in fact, the exact standard of beauty that Hollywood and the media have been telling men they should want and women they should aspire to, for a long time.
But internet porn tells a different story.
Pornhub helpfully releases site data on searches, and a quick look at their 2014 roundup shows a number of interesting searches. You can find just about anything online, and likely connect with other people looking for the same. When it comes to internet porn searches, some people are looking for different ethnicities, for older women, for women who are curvy. Basically, everything mainstream magazines don’t offer.
In other words, the internet allows people to look for the things that they find attractive on a personal level, instead of assuming that attractiveness and attraction are objective standards that only fit into one mold.
Of course, Playboy wasn’t just selling naked women. It has sold a lifestyle, full of informed, male readers who aspire to a world of nice apartments, classy cocktails and that eye candy centerfold for a girlfriend.
Even if you’ve never picked up a Playboy in your life, the very name conjures that image. It’s the Don Draper dream, full of men who dress fashionably, hold cocktail parties and have an endless parade of vaguely interchangeable women.
But that lifestyle is increasingly out of reach and out of favor among many broke and equality-minded millennials.
With a move away from nude centerfolds, it remains to be seen if Playboy’s journalism — and make no mistake, the magazine has done some very good journalism — will be enough of a lure for readers.
