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The end of an era...Playboy Magazine to stop publishing nude photos
I know that many of the younger members of GBT are thinking: "Who cares? Magazine publishing as a whole is a dying business, and Playboy in particular is a lurid relic from the fervid, pre-internet, masturbatory fantasies of our decaying grandfathers. Playboy objectified women, and its carefully airbrushed images created unrealistic and unfulfillable expectations of feminine beauty that corrupted an entire culture. Its millions of deluded monthly subscribers were buying into the myth of an accessible "Playboy Lifestyle," with private jets, celebrity-filled parties at the mansion, hot new cars, and even hotter young women--a lifestyle that only publisher Hugh Hefner himself could afford. And oh by the way Doc, you do remember that this is a GAY website!" Yes, of course, to all of that. But pause a moment. The purpose of this blog is to provide a gentle reminder of just how repressively puritanical American society was when Playboy began 62 years ago, and still largely remains, but also how the success of this admittedly sexist publication played an enormous positive role in helping to create some space of freedom for the pleasures we now take for granted here at GBT. Farewell and thank you, naked centerfolds!