Playboy drops the butt-naked ladies

Playboy still exists?

Not for much longer!

Catalogue images strewn through rambling trite and puerile infomercials and smug political pontifications..

Awesome!

Maybe they'll manage to shift a copy to Dick Cheney?

Re: I think it's a good move

Hard to say, but part of Playboy's salaciousness (apart from the centerfolds) was their pull-no-punches articles. Lately, this has taken a slide, but they agree that this can still be a useful selling point. IOW, they can still be controversial while still be safe for work. After all, magazines like Maxim are still able to attract buyers even though they've always toed the line without crossing it.

Also, due to varying decency standards, nudity is not always an option in their various international editions, so it's not like they wouldn't know how to stay on the right side of the tracks.

Re: I think it's a good move

"nudity outdated"

I know what they mean. It's like when a current TV show or a mainstream movie puts a 'gratuitous sex scene' in the middle. You are just sat there thinking, "Why are you bothering with this??"

Hit the FFWD button.

It was welcome back in the 70's, 80's and 90's (thank you Helen Mirren and Jenny Agutter) but now, it just ruins the pace of the movie/show.

Re: I think it's a good move

"Internet has made nudity outdated"

Any naturist will tell you that nudity becomes a boring sight fairly quickly. The human animal is a curious one - they are always intrigued by what is hidden.

D.H.Lawrence wrote a poem on the subject called "Figs" which was included in the film "Women in Love". His point was that fig leaves were not worn for chastity - but to adorn and attract.

The problem nowadays is not that people have become accustomed to nudity. The current trend is a regression to a puritan attitude that outlaws any hint of naked flesh which stokes their own fervid imaginations - irrespective of the subject's sex or age. The result is that people become sexually aroused by what they imagine is hidden - as Salome proved.

Speak for yourself.

I have much lower standards.

Excuse me? If you ever run through a gallery of centerfolds, you'll find it's not dominated by blondes; there are more than your fair share of brunettes and now and then a redhead. Now, white women do tend to dominate, but that's more to do with the historic target audience (white men), and as the 80's wore on you'd start seeing more exotic centerfolds (blacks, hispanics, asians, etc).

And while there are a fair number of well-endowed centerfolds, your typical centerfold's actually pretty average up top with variation either way (either towards firmer or towards bustier).

PS. In case anyone's wondering, Lenna Sjooblom was Playmate of the Month, November 1972. The famed Test Image is taken directly from her centerfold.

Actually...

As far as blondes go, that may have been the Mattel Toy Company with something called Barbie. They are STILL apologetic about that.

I hear Hefner liked blondes but the circulation of Playboy never reached as far as did the sales of Barbie dolls.

It is not Mr Hefner

1. Hefner had quite a varied taste. It was not just blonds.

2. The nudity was abundant, but not particularly pornographic. There was quite a lot of pretty good photography and an occasional hold no-punches article. Nowhere near Rolling Stone, but still, there was some journalism in-between the t*ts.

3. Playboy went towards big t*ts, full frontal shots, blond wasteland, soft-porn, etc with Ms Hefner (his daughter) at the helm _AFTER_ the old man retired. By the way, the old man has been retired for more than a decade now.

Well, it swung in different directions. The initial centerfolds were only topless, with the bottoms either clothed or otherwise obscured. Then from about early 1955 until about 1960 or so, most centerfolds concealed the most salacious of their tops. Things opened up more as the 60's progressed, but the first full frontal wasn't until around 1973.

Re: Still Nude here!

German news yesterday also reported that this only affects the US version.

Interestingly, they interviewed a female psychologist and she stated that, here in Germany and large parts of Europe, we have come to terms with our bodies and accept nudity as something natural, whilst the USA is riding on a wave of neo-prudism.

Re: In Japan it's pretty much

That's because in Japan stuff like Playboy is...a lot more common. They're rather more open about nude and gravure (highly suggestive) modeling, so if you know where to look you can find plenty and more. Even their mainstream anime can often drift towards "fan service", to say nothing of underground media.

Re: Weak

Actually, according to other articles I've read, readership ballooned when the website went SFW. Not only that, they connected with younger audiences who trended towards social networks like Facebook (who you'll note doesn't want nudity). So it looks like they're onto something.

Re: What about Europe.

Last I heard, each country sets its own standards. It's only making news because we're talking the home office here. Also, the decision is less a legal matter and more a matter of taste (namely, we've gone past the Europeans who are comfortable with nudity; now it's too common, so it's no longer a selling point). We're not being prudes. We're just bored.

Re: Nudity is not erotic

Absolutely. The Theiss titillation theory - named for William Ware Theiss, the costume designer on the original Star Trek - states that the sexiness of a costume is proportionate not to the amount of flesh it shows but to the apparent likelyhood of it falling off. One of the greatest examples of this was a fairly modest dress, but where the top was apparently* held up only by the train thrown over one shoulder.

*In fact, it was held on by huge amounts of double-sided sticky tape - to the extent that it allegedly took chunks of the actor's skin off during the fitting, and thus she did even the dress rehearsal wearing a bath robe instead.