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Editor’s note: Back in 2009, Playboy still enjoyed a peculiar perch in American culture—for all sorts of reasons, good and bad. It was also, as reporter Katharine Gammon found, a database. Thanks to over half a century of (weirdly, let’s be honest) publishing centerfolds’ nominal body metrics, it became a document of the way a certain kind of person thought about idealized body mass index. And that BMI didn’t exactly track with the times.
American women’s average BMI went up; Playboy’s largely imagined BMI went down.Now that Playboy is, we thought we’d look back at the numbers. The world has moved on, but data? That’s forever. Facts and FiguresPlayboy’s Playmate data sheets (you know, where they claim to enjoy cupcakes and The Deer Hunter) provide height and weight, among other stats. Our analysis shows that models are shedding pounds and gaining altitude at an alarming rate. To be fair, Playmates provide their own measurements, so they could be exaggerating. Plus, we wouldn’t put it past the editors to stretch the truth (i.e., Miss March 2008 may not actually want to write “comedic short stories” — or have a 21-inch waist).
But who cares? What’s interesting isn’t the veracity of the numbers, it’s what the magazine thinks its readers will find ideal.
Are Those Real?On the touchy subject of implants, Playboy’s policy seems to be don’t ask, don’t tell. We plotted each model’s bust size (chest circumference at the fullest points) and cup size (breast volume) for all years that data were available (early ’90s to now). While busts have shrunk faster than your 401(k), cup size has remained a buxom C or D.
The Playboy Mansion has a game room, a zoo, an aviary, a grotto, a tennis court, a wine cellar, a basketball court, and a screening room with a built-in pipe organ. Why Foreign Leaders Read Trump's 1990 Playboy Interview. In preparation for their White House visits, both Japanese and German officials studied the infamous feature for clues into the president.
We don’t think evolution can explain this phenomenon.
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Playboy, after declaring nudity 'passé' and going PG-13 on its website and magazine in March 2016, has returned to stuffing its pages with full-frontal nakedness. Presumably sales of the porn-free porno mag were floppier than expected.
Hugh Hefner's flagship publication, which published its first nude centrefold way back in 1953, originally blamed the Internet for its decision to pull out of porn. 'You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture,' said Playboy CEO Scott Flanders in October 2015, when the no-nudes policy was first announced.
When Playboy first banished nudes from its website in 2014 it was apparently accompanied by an explosive uplift in traffic. The company said that the number of users quadrupled from 4 million to 16 million, and that the average age of those users dropped from 47 to 'just over 30'—one of the most valuable marketing demographics.
Seemingly that traffic tumescence didn't stick around. Playboy hasn't released new figures, but Alexa and Quantcast show a clear downwards trend and nowhere near 16 million users.
Hugh's son Cooper Hefner, who is now Playboy's creative chief, says the change was a 'mistake,' and that nudity will be returning as of the March/April edition of the magazine. “I'll be the first to admit that the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake. Nudity was never the problem because nudity isn’t a problem,' he says. 'Today we’re taking our identity back and reclaiming who we are.”
— Cooper Hefner (@cooperhefner) February 13, 2017
Along with the return of porn, it sounds like Playboy will also have a change of tone—or at least, a return and redoubling of The Playboy Philosophy (PDF), which was first published by Hugh Hefner in 1962. '[Hugh] and I have a tremendous amount in common,' says Cooper. 'We also have vast differences of opinion ... But one thing is clear that both my dad and I understand at its simplest form, and that is what Playboy and the United States strive to represent in their greatest forms: freedom.'
Cooper goes on to discuss how Playboy fought against McCarthyism in the 1950s, promoted its racially integrated clubs in the '60s, advocated for the LGBTQ community, and generally 'challenged social norms' before other publications. Cooper draws parallels between the AIDS and Cold War crises of the 1980s, which swung the political pendulum towards conservatism, and the rigours that Muslim Americans, women, and the LGBTQ community face today.
'We should be ready to defend those rights at all costs on the intellectual battlefield,' concludes Cooper's sermon, presumably indicating that the pages of Playboy will be filled with thoughtful essays as well as naked girls.
It's all a moot point if you live in the UK, of course, as the government seems set to rolls out its porn-blocking law this year...
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