Playboy and Pornification: 65 Years of the Playboy Centerfold

Abstract

In the more than 6 decades since its founding, Playboy magazine has had to contend with a great deal of cultural change, most significantly the rise of the Internet pornography industry. The magazine, particularly its signature centerfold, the Playmate of the Month, has had to adapt accordingly. In this visual analysis, I review 65 years of Playboy centerfolds to consider how their bodies—physical characteristics, positions, contexts, and explicitness—have changed, and how this reflects the broader social change to which they are subject. I find that, overall, very little changes over the years, with two notable exceptions: increased visibility of the montes pubis and the slow decreasing in the amount of pubic hair the models have, and the brief time period in which the magazine attempted to remove nudity altogether. My results show that the magazine appears to place more value on staying true to the Playboy image than to adapting to a new market and has continued to be a recognized symbol of gender and sexuality even in light of decreasing readership and publication.