Male nude playgirl

Shelves are toppled with tin gladiator helmets, enamel plates etched with the cityscape are glued to walls like stamps, and replica figurines of Michelangelo masterpieces are aplenty. And for 10 euros a pop, their sex appeal is a palpable, accessible thrill. It was the image of these pint-sized Adonises, which I encountered regularly while on a Roman holiday last summer, that immediately came to mind when I heard about the relaunch of Playgirl Magazine. The title, which dates back to , has a scantily clad history of putting the male form on full display. While its medium was paper, not plaster, like the statues, the magazine was, in its simplest form, a means of distributing an ideal vision of the male body to the masses. From to , when the magazine folded, the definition and shape of masculinity have evolved tremendously.

Douglas Lambert wanted to give Playboy a run for its money. It was , and Hugh Hefner's magazine had created a new mainstream market for soft-core porn. Lambert, a nightclub owner in Garden Grove, California, decided to get in on the action. Lambert's wife Jenny saw a bigger opportunity: a magazine with nude male centerfolds. Lambert wasn't sold. What woman wanted to ogle photos of nude men, much less buy a magazine full of them?

We can all agree: nudes are fundamental. National outlets like Playboy and Hustler disseminated varying degrees of erotica with record abandon. Primarily targeted at straight, male eyes, this semi-mainstream pulp found a notable exception in Playgirl — the magazine of adult entertainment for women, launched in However audacious, the Playgirl brand paled in size to that of Playboy , possibly muddied by concurrent gay-liberation forces: by not explicitly courting a male audience, the magazine seemed to reinforce a kind of glass closet. Before I knew it, a breathless commotion had erupted: mum, the stylist, the entire salon lunging to intercept my wandering, impressionable hands.

Playgirl was an American magazine that featured general interest articles, lifestyle and celebrity news, in addition to nude or semi-nude men. In the s and s, the magazine printed monthly and was marketed mainly to women , although it had a significant gay male readership. The magazine was founded in [2] by Douglas Lambert during the height of the feminist movement as a response to erotic men's magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse that featured similar photos of women. In Lambert sold Playgirl to Ira Ritter who took over as publisher. The magazine covered issues like abortion, equal rights, interspersed with sexy shots of men, and played a pivotal role in the sexual revolution for women.