Please refresh the page and retry. P layboy magazine is bringing back naked models, one year after its pledge to ban nudity. The publication announced with great fanfare a year ago that it was banning all photos of naked women in a bid to attract more mainstream readers and advertisers. C ooper Hefner, the son of founder Hugh Hefner, took over as chief creative officer at Playboy last October. He was reportedly an opponent of the decision to ban nudes, which had featured in the magazine since its first issue with Marilyn Monroe as the centrefold in T he move had been widely applauded by women's rights activists. Playboy said at the time that the easy access to online pornography had hit sales and it needed to attract new readers. The magazine's record circulation was 7. We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future.
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I spent several weeks among an exhaustive back catalogue of issues while working with the James Hyman Archive, where the stylish design and quality editorial sat alluringly alongside images of naked, passive women, all beautifully packaged for male consumption. The iconic double-page spread has always been considered the most coveted position in the magazine, and has featured some of the world greatest pin-up stars, including Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Bettie Page. Many column inches have been given over to dissecting the trends and tastes that have shaped these images, from a gradual increase in the amount of flesh on show, to the changing attitudes towards body hair and physique throughout the decades. However, few have mentioned the absolutely surreal worlds that these naked models inhabit. The lack of discernible narrative leading these monthly aesthetic choices is jaw-dropping; the chosen sets ricochet from public libraries and cocktails bars to phone booths and tennis courts, all sandwiched between more obvious examples — tossed bed sheets and sultry shower scenes. A personal favourite is from April , which depicts Marlene Morrow in a frilly corset, precariously balancing on one white platform shoe while leaning against a heavily decorated bidet. The kitschy peril employed in such an act is like something from a melodramatic Carry On sketch. It is a world committed to the core of straight, male adolescent fantasy, where women inhabit strange lands that tenuously allude to a skewed, fantastical idea of adult situations. It is simply delighting in the opportunity to see naked women, who are more often than not grinning and gazing longingly at their audience. In recent years the magazine has grappled with an overarching identity crisis, proclaiming the end of the nude in before quickly reinstating it earlier this year.
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By Sarah Barns For Mailonline. If you really did 'read it for the articles' you're in luck - Playboy has announced that it will no longer print pictures of fully naked women. But - due to a major shift in editorial focus - founder Hugh Hefner, 89, has decided to drop the nude shoots from March. Scroll down for video.
The first woman to pose completely nude in Playboy has spoken out about working with Hugh Hefner, after he passed away aged She revealed that the decision to start including full frontal nudity in the magazine was a business matter, one that Hefner himself did not take lightly. When she was asked to be photographed for it, Coles rushed home to get her passport and was promptly flown out to the Playboy HQ in Chicago to shoot the infamous image, which was taken by Alexas Urba. The issue sold seven million copies, she revealed to The Daily Telegraph. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. Want to discuss real-world problems, be involved in the most engaging discussions and hear from the journalists? Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium.
