As of March 2016, Playboy will no longer have nudity in its magazine.
Finally, the "gentleman's magazine" won't bear naked women that men can stare at like slabs of meat.
Finally, women will not be completely objectified.
Finally, I won't have to glare at the man reading a Playboy magazine on the airplane.
Have we won?
Far from it.
I will grant that it is at least symbolically meaningful that Playboy, the iconic magazine that normalized porn, will rid itself of nudes. They will still feature airbrushed women with next-to-nothing on in risqué poses. Playboy's removal of nudity is more of a smart business move than act of altruism. After the company cleaned up their website, viewers quadrupled. Cleaning up their magazine will bring in much more money than any amount of respect it could give to women.
However, the biggest tragedy lies in what Cory Jones--top editor of the magazine--stated, "That battle has been fought and won. You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it's just passe at this juncture." Women should be removed from the magazine because its no longer fashionable, not because of how it objectifies them. Women are not human beings, they are something that can be thrown out or donated to Goodwill along with the square-toed dress shoes and worn out cargo pants.
The removal of nudity is far from a victory, it's a sad reality check. When a magazine that was made famous by its nudes "cleans up," because their commodity is now so easily accessible, it's a good indication that something is wrong in society.
Humans seem to be quite effective in dehumanizing the other. Women are submissive sex objects, men are macho, sex-crazed, aggressive beasts. Women must be skinny but curvy, have flawless skin and full lips. Men must have washboard abs, a waxed chest and five o' clock shadow. Women are a pair of breasts and a butt and men are -- well you get the picture.
Would it be so difficult for us to treat each other as human beings, who are all of equal worth? I loathe porn because of how it inherently objectifies whoever is in it. I get livid when I see a Hardee's commercial with a woman essentially having sex with a hamburger. Sadly, it seems that dehumanizing each other is something that is ingrained into our society. In politics, we separate people by parties and make wide sweeping assumptions about their intellect when it comes to public policy. We think of the dangerous driver in traffic as a jerk and nothing else. We naturally put people in categories and do not think of them as persons with families and loved ones. I highly doubt that when watching porn people think of the actresses and actors and if they are in pain, have a difficult life due to their industry.
Therefore, I have a challenge for humanity.
Treat each other as human beings. Not objects.
