Playboy’s Bold New Move:
Tim and I were about to leave our apartment and walk to a nearby coffee shop to meet with a friend. As I fastened my jacket and debated wearing a scarf, he surfs on his phone on the other side of the room.
“What’s going on with Playboy?” he asks, innocently enough.
When the words “Playboy” exit your pastor-husband’s mouth, it’s enough to cause some minor heart palpitations, especially when you’re in the final editing stages of your book, 5 Things Every Parent Needs to Know About their Kids and Sex (May 17, 2016). In the book, I briefly report on the creation and escalation of the pornography industry, including Playboy making a notable debut.
The thoughts that run through my mind: Why is my husband looking at something having to do with Playboy? Wait, did something about Playboy change and now I’m going to have to update my book again? And of course, with the increasing amount of hardcore of pornography on the internet, I wonder if Playboy made some big announcement to take XXX to XXXXXXXXXXXXXX?
I cautiously responded, “What do you mean, ‘What’s going on with Playboy?‘”
“They’re taking away nude images?”
I blink. I rattle my head to make sure my first two cups of coffee have made it up to the blood in my brain.
“I’m sorry, they’re what?“
“Next March, they’re doing away with nude images in their magazines.”
We are late for our meeting, so we briskly walk in the autumn wind discussing why? Because sex sells, right? And Playboy is iconic. And even if they start covering up, their pictures are still sensual and provocative–some would argue they objectify the female form (myself included).
“It makes sense,” I said, with a year of researching the history of pornographic magazines and websites under my belt (sorry, mom and dad. I have a weird yet awesome job.) It’s a counter-cultural, interrupt the status-quo type move. They’ve always wanted to project the “girl-next-door” look from the beginning, but they fell into the trap of biology and human nature: the mind wants more…well less, so to speak. The brain desensitizes to “soft core” porn and craves greater amounts of skin and greater amounts of the forbidden.”
Tim, with his film-making background responds with a great analogy: “What are most horror movies rated?”
“PG-13”
“Exactly. They make it as close to an ‘R’ rating as they can get, but tone it back so that 13 year olds can watch it. It generates more revenue.”
Now, while Playboy claims its new style will be PG-13, the 18-year-old purchase restriction still applies (but let’s be honest; how many people actually waited until they were 18 to see Playboy? I was 11. Another girl friend of mine was 10. For kicks, I asked three gentlemen in the coffee shop how old they were when they saw their first Playboy. One, a 31-year old, said he was probably “in sixth grade” but didn’t quite remember. The other, a 48-year old, said he was in elementary school, “maybe fifth grade? Eleven?” A third, who is 37, found his under the bridge in their town when he was only nine.)
Even the man behind the idea, a top editor at Playboy, comments:
Don’t get me wrong,” Mr. Jones said of the decision to dispense with nudity, “12-year-old me is very disappointed in current me. But it’s the right thing to do.”
Cory Jones, chief content officer at Playboy. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
Responding to the News:
At first, I’ll admit, I was happy with the news. Do I like the idea of any woman, of any person, being objectified for sexual gratification (or any other purpose for that matter?) Absolutely not. But in a click-away-from-hard-core-porn society, I appreciate the disruption and their choice to move in a way that totally diverts from what every other porn industry company is doing–while the others continue pushing the “raunchier the better” envelope–Playboy takes a risk and tries something new in “an industry that’s running out of ideas,” as one porn producer said.
At the same time, there’s still the core issue of our sexuality as people created in the image of God. Sex is awesome. The way God formed a woman and a man is beautiful, inside and out, soul and body. We are reflections of Him, and to consume a person as a product is, at the minimum, so far away from His plan for us.
Then, the cover up by Playboy shows us a very stark reality of the state of the porn industry.
For a generation of American men, reading Playboy was a cultural rite, an illicit thrill consumed by flashlight. Now every teenage boy has an Internet-connected phone instead. Pornographic magazines, even those as storied as Playboy, have lost their shock value, their commercial value and their cultural relevance.
Pornography Fuels Sex Trafficking:
One final thought: Porn fuels sex trafficking. Not every porn star hangs out in Heff’s mansion wearing a bunny tail on her tush. Some people are legally hired to create pornography, but there’s a heck of a lot of them–mostly women and children–who aren’t. Consider my trip to Moldova and how I saw with my own eyes girls get bought and sold on a patio at a nice cafe. 30,000 women go missing in this small country every year. I doubt they’re signing up to be held captive and make pornography that profits someone else.
I’ll give you a sneak peek from my next book in regard to this issue:
Remember, the more a person uses porn, the greater the amount and explicitness required to achieve the same level of satisfaction. This means more women and children are becoming commodities in this industry—and being forced to do these things we deem now as “disgusting.” Studies prove that for some regular porn users, pornographic acts they found disgusting in the past now turn them on.[i] And as you can imagine, it’s harder for the so-called “legit” porn producers to hire people to do those extreme things. It’s much easier—and less expensive—for people to be kidnapped, devalued, dehumanized, and turned into nothing more than sex slaves.
One Final Thought:
While the decision Playboy announced to cut out nudity is one to applaud (maybe with a slow clap? I’m still very torn.), we still have a long way to go as we learn about what God’s purpose is for our sexuality.
Myths-be-Gone!
- God does not want us to “cover up” our sexuality.
- Sex is nothing to be ashamed of.
- We do not need proverbial fig leaves to separate us from embracing our sexuality.
But, as technology and the economy of sex continues to change, we need to remain educated and unafraid to have conversations about sex, about trafficking, and about pornography with our friends and our families. Will Playboy removing overt nudity bring a greater acceptance to pornography in general? As the 31-year-old in the cafe said (we got into a lengthier discussion), “Why wouldn’t I pick up a new version of Playboy? It’s essentially a Victoria’s Secret catalog. Nobody’s going to think I’m a freak for looking at that. It seems tamer than Maxim in some ways.”
[i] Journal of Adolescent Health 27, “Influence of Unrestrained Access to Erotica on Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Dispositions Toward Sexuality”, Zillmann, D., 2000, pp. 41–44.
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