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| First Edition 1953 Playboy Marilyn Monroe |
Playboy decided to stop printing pictures of naked women.
Yep.
The first issue of Playboy featured Marilyn Monroe and was not dated because ol' Hugh Hefner wasn't sure it would even sell enough copies to stay afloat. Little did he know...Playboy of course skyrocketed and played a major roll in how women are viewed (literally) in America.
The yin effect of this widely circulated naked female in suggestive pose fantasy feast was that it imprinted the idea that women are fundamentally sexual objects. The yang effect however, was that it also imprinted the idea that women could acknowledge and even display their sexuality openly if they chose to, liberating them from eons of strict social stigma.
We have just witnessed a major indicator that an entire era is coming to an end.
Of course, nudity and sex pictures are free and abundant in the age of the internet, so a magazine with a cost is going to decline....the interesting note here is that when Playboy announced 'no more naked women' for their website, their traffic Quadrupled!
Another interesting note, published by The New York Times, is the nude magazines that Are selling have an atmosphere of art and fashion , and are mostly run by women.
As if that wasn't enough of a post marker in the trail, there is the Pirelli Calendar story.
The Pirelli Calendar is a VIP gift to billionaires and tiger-on-a-gold leash types. It has been printed exclusively for elites for 50 years by the Italian tire company, featuring nude famous models and has an annual unveiling party that has been attended by Presidents of actual countries!
Well, this year Pirelli announced......drum roll.....their next calendar is full of women not only clothed, but brilliant, talented, and accomplished. Are you hearing this?! The elite naked calendar is now showcasing brilliant women with clothes on their bodies. You can click here to see Pirelli's video on the photo shoot with famed Annie Liebowitz.
Lastly, for this post anyway, is the smart move by Genius-Model-Actress-Archer and now media institute owner Geena Davis that is currently benefiting American females in media. After having a little girl and watching movies together, Geena Davis noticed there weren't too many girls in shows, and there were even less girls with jobs or girls of color. She started asking people in the entertainment industry about it, and people seemed not to notice, saying 'no, no, there's women roles now.'
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| Geena Davis Institute- SeeJane.org |
So she did some research, and it turned out there was 1 girl on TV to every 5 boys, and usually the girl's job was being eye candy. Being the smart gal that she is, she pragmatically went about opening an institute to research gender in film, and now she takes her research to producers and such and shows them, and they say 'wow, i didn't know that', and she says 'are you willing to create a more realistic show, with like half women and women who do things like in the real world?' and they have been saying yes! Since 2007!!! So if you have noticed more girls and women on TV and movies, Geena Davis definitely deserves some personal credit (and I think some extra mothers day cards).
She's also launched a new film festival where the winners get guaranteed distribution of their movies, and.....if you didn't know this...she also pretty much hand picked Brad Pitt in the role that launched his career.
(I had to throw it in there.)
(I had to throw it in there.)
I think it's safe to say the social media trend is heading towards post-male-fantasy.
post script- Happy Birthday to my Munchkin girl who slept on my lap while I posted this, and this is also for my Sprite girl who said she would like to be President after we talked about our current Secretary of State and our UN Ambassador and our women state representatives; also for my MyMy girl who graduated from college at 17 and is training for the US Air Force.
