Not only were women interpolated as untutored viewers within this regime of genital obstruction, but models also were all but emasculated. Yet given its “better lifestyling” advice on how the sexually liberated woman might find empowerment by viewing male nudes, Playgirl’s reluctance to display full-frontal nudity until the midpoint of its first year fashioned an initially compromised aesthetic. Employing established conventions of the women’s magazine, Playgirl utilized that form toward granting women access to explicit images. Although the magazine often is dismissed as the token attempt of a masculinist industry to equalize its representational politics, I argue instead that a significant synergy exists between Playgirl and entwined debates over pornography, gender, and commercialized sexuality in 1970s America. This essay examines Playgirl as a rich, yet overlooked, archive in the history of American pornography.
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