the word nudity was trending for several hours earlier this week. NUDITY! wtf

nudity and nude mean naked. nude sounds more artistic than nudity or naked.

frida appears semi-nude in her self-portrait la columna rota.

nudity is often the reason parents are warned and viewer discretion is advised in reference to a movie or tv series.

a tv warning for language, violence & nudity

in a surprising move, playboy has announced that they are dropping naked ladies from their print version. abc.go.com (u.s.) spread the news with this headline

Playboy Magazine Is Getting Rid of Nudity

for a little historical background, the article shares that

the groundbreaking magazine has shown women unclothed and unashamed since its 1953 debut

groundbreaking indicates that playboy was a pioneer, a gamechanger. unclothed is naked. unashamed means the women were not embarrassed to be posing nude.

ok, ima go put my clothes back on then.

debut indicates a first time or an introduction. it is one of several english words that come from french and end with a silent “t” such as ballet, gourmet, valet and depot.  that’s right,

hugh hefner with the first issue of playboy in 1953

this video, also from abc news, offers more on playboy’s cultural impact at :30

starting in the 1950s, the iconic hef fired the first shot of the sexual revolution

hef is playboy founder hugh hefner’s nickname and the observation is that his magazine was responsible for loosening traditional values about sex.

at :55 hefner shares this from his personal philosophy

i believe that embracing sexuality is a part of what it means to be free.

embrace is the same as hug, but applied in this way it means accepting or welcoming.

hef & pamela anderson sharing an embrace

so why would playboy decide to get rid of nudity? at 1:13 the video explains

hef changed the world, but the world changed too. with “anything goes” sexual content all over the internet,  the magazine’s readership plummeted.

anything goes means no rules, even the craziest things are available. plummeted means decreased quickly and significantly.  before internet, playboy enjoyed a high level of popularity. nowadays, with nudity all over the internet, playboy has lost a lot of readers.

hefner in a dope ass shirt

in the abcnews.com article, playboy enterprises ceo scott flanders said

1953, the year hugh hefner introduced playboy to the world, bears almost no resemblance to today,….we will stay true to [our] core values with this new vision of playboy’s future. once our readers see all of the innovative changes we’re making to the magazine, we’re confident they will love the end product when it debuts next year.

bears no resemblance means 2015 looks completely different than 1953.  but despite the changes, flanders is confident fans of playboy will like the new version. core values are central or the most important.

is it just me, or did hefner kind of bear a resemblance to the sean connery version of james bond?

finally, the article reports

the shift, which goes into effect with the march 2016 issue, follows the 2014 re-launch of playboy.com as a safe-for-work site

shift means change.  goes into effect (similar to in full effect) means starts. safe for work is used to label material from the internet. it is the opposite of nsfw, not safe for work, which is often included as a warning with a file or link that could be embarrassing if co-workers see u watching it. nudity is probably  the most common motivation for an nsfw.

(wikipedia)

is playboy still an important brand? what do u think of their decision to get rid of nudity? share your opinion under leave a reply

NOTE:  playboy announced in february 2017 that they were bringing nudity back to their pages. in the words of chief creative officer cooper hefner (hugh’s son): nudity was never the problem because nudity isn’t a problem….we’re taking our identity back.