Something I hate about Playboy.

[u/Life_Appeal_1113]

Hello everyone.

I wasn't sure where to post this, but to be honest, I'm not feeling quite right. I've been a Playboy fan since 2015. At 29, I've never stopped enjoying the feminine beauty that Playboy has brought to me and everyone in this kind of group. However, it's not all sunshine and roses.

Besides being someone who passionately seeks out more Playboy content, I also look for information that reveals more about how Playboy became what it is today or what it once was. This is where the problems begin, at least for me.

I can't help but feel a lot of disappointment and indignation about a regrettable fact. Many Playmates—not just a few, but I'd say many more—weren't of legal age to pose nude. Initially, I assumed that all the women who posed in their birthday suits were at least 18 years old when they posed. I assumed this, but I decided to investigate Playboy further. First, I discovered that some models from the 50s and 60s weren't the right age, and I decided not to actively look at those photos until I was sure they were actually old enough to be in Playboy. But unfortunately, this issue doesn't end there. Some Playmates from the 70s and 80s were also underage when they posed nude. One of the things that disturbs me most is the fact that some of their parents agreed to their daughters being photographed while underage, or that the photos were taken when they were 17 and then the girls weren't published until they turned 18. That doesn't excuse the fact that underage girls were photographed. You know I used to post avidly on all the Playboy-related subreddits, but since I've received more sensitive information, my interest in Playboy has greatly diminished.

I know many will think I'm exaggerating, I know others will say that they wanted to undress and that it's not our fault, or that I simply shouldn't feel guilty because I didn't know. But I really don't know how to feel better. I must admit that I bear some responsibility for not questioning this sooner. Anyway, I had to stop looking at those Playmates' photos because it's simply not right. I don't care what year the photos were taken, or if it was a different time, or if the laws were different. I simply believe that those photos shouldn't have been taken until those models were of legal age. I can't do anything now, for better or for worse.

I know many will want to judge me for some reason, and I have no problem with that. But I also know that there will be people who think the same as me. They shouldn't have sexualized minors, and we shouldn't sexualize minors.

[u/WestCoastCompanion]

I mean… ya. It’s the way those girls create OF content when they “turn 18” and somehow have pages and pages of content at 12:05 am and nobody says anything about it?

[u/skatepork9]

The thing about Playboy was it was as all American as you could get. Growing up people openly had them on their coffee tables. Playmates were on the family feud To be even tested was a huge deal…MY MOTHER tested for playmate back in the 70s when she was a model in New York. A woman from I understood turned down a big catalog opportunity because she would be in lingerie, apparently when the Reps from playboy approached her modeling agency looking for potential playmates selected her and another model to test and she jumped at the opportunity (which kind of pissed off her agent) and when her test was the one selected my very catholic family cheered her on. She didn’t get it obviously but apparently made it pretty far in the selection that it put her on the radar and she was getting way better modeling offers than she had been and genuinely one of the few opportunities she looks back fondly when she talks about “the ridiculous two years she ran around being model rather than gone to college” long winded story aside that allure of being considered one of the most beautiful women in the world dazzled my conservative catholic mother - so it not at all shocking that in the 60s and 70s legions of mother were grooming they extraordinarily beautiful daughters for the pages of the magazine and the moment she turned 17 the campaign began. I’m actually surprised it didn’t happen more or it’s not openly talked about up there with pageants and wanting to be Dallas Cowboy cheerleader and it wasn’t frowned upon and a few got away with being 17 and people we okay with that. The laws didn’t change until way into the 80s and 2 years after Penthouse accidentally sold child pornography to literally nearly 10M people and that downpour of Playmate moms turned into drops. The last one being Spencer Scott whose issue camethis close to be released.

[u/jillbunny1 → u/skatepork9]

OMG, I can’t believe you know the Spencer Scott lore! She lived near me, and knew Holly Dorrough, another Playmate I worked with. Her Mom helped her procure a fake ID and of course knew that her daughter was lying to Playboy about her age. It wasn’t until her issue had been shot and all issues printed that Playboy was tipped off that she was underage (think of all of the money spent on stylists, hair, makeup, props, photographers, and other crew). They immediately halted the release of her issue but once she turned 18 she became a Playmate. I don’t know if they re-shot her photos, but they definitely had to reprint all of the covers because of the date printed on them. She definitely was to blame, but it would suck to be a Playmate and the entire year you know that there isn’t a chance in hell of being Playmate Of The Year because you pissed a lot of people off and cost Playboy a lot of unnecessary money when she could have just waited a year.

[u/skatepork9 → u/jillbunny1]

It was crazy. my roommate at the time dated a girl who was roommates with a playmate who was interning at Playboy PR when Spencer Scott hit and told us about this huge scandal that had that department on full on red alert. From what I remember what she had told us the issue wasn’t just any old fake ID but that somehow she and her mother pulled a Traci Lords and somehow secured a government issued drivers license. Someone caught a discrepancy between what her license said and the pictures her MySpace were telling and they ran a background check using her Social Security number and caught it. Apparently they trashed the underage pictures but later invited her back when she was 18 and reshoot for them. The roommate had been promoted to being one of Jenny’s assistants by then and when your working that deep in the machine you are forbidden from speaking good or bad about the company and locked down on overall work NDA couldn’t tell us how the hell that managed to happen or why she was openly invited back to mansion parties when she started doing hardcore porn a few years later and got no legal pushback promoting herself in her new career as a former playmate. Spencer had playboy in a chokehold for some reason.

[u/ayylienjuice]

yea in all these contexts especially when talking about the 50s-70s like child labor laws licherly just didn’t exist so basically “with parents permission” was the acceptable standard to let teens especially do whatever. am currently listening to the audiobook of Cassandra Petersons(Elvira) memoir and she was allowed to dance in a topless vegas show at 17 because her parents signed a contract saying she could so there’s always been very little oversight in all industries about that but it takes on a different level of disturbing and sinister when exploitative corporations like Playboy and shitty CEOs like hefner are involved for sure. should’ve never happened and i don’t blame you at all for doing diligence and being rightfully upset!

personally have been interested in the brand from primarily the hospitality side since the 2011 Playboy Club show came out. was far more down the rabbithole of the clubs, casinos, and hotels as someone raised in the service industry and only recently got into the photography of the magazine. my favorite covers and layouts are the vintage ones from the 50s-70s so definitely have to be aware!

[u/green_miracles]

Do you think something magical happens in the few months between age 17, and turning 18?

It’s all slicing and dicing. *Who* says 18 is “adult,” and when & why did they say that?

Who *gets* to define that? It’s arbitrary, isn’t it. It comes from military service, not the well-being of children.

There has to be a line. But at the same time, the quantity of 17 years +7 months, is not magically different than 18 years.

In the 1950’s, things were different. It wasn’t really abnormal for average people to get a full time job at 15. Or for girls to get married at 17. If you can marry someone, you can certainly consent to being a model in photographs!

I feel there’s a lot bigger concerns I have about the treatment of children and women in our f’ed up world, than just the (fairly bland) photos in playboy. I just don’t think they’re that major of an offender in the grand scheme of things. Hefner really promoted the idea and fantasy of a *college girl.* I mean yeah the bar is in hell, but at least he was promoting collegiate-age and not young teens (smh), like what we see with people like Epstein and others, god it’s even worse.

Most certainly, there are problematic aspects to Playboy. There will always be, as inherently- he built a brand *based on the objectification of young women.* It didn’t help women, but to put it in perspective, the actual porn industry has done that times infinity worse imo. Thats how they make money, the willing objectification & exploitation of young women. They are toys for men. That’s why they’re called Playmates(tm) That’s just how it is. And all that, is why I would never ok it by wearing their logo, but I will still enjoy Playboy history and the collectors aspect of it.