The women of Playboy: Robots, or Clones?

I finally isolated what it is that bothers me so much about the pictures of women in playboy. They look like two dimensional cardboard cut outs of 'Ideal' women. The thing is that between the airbrushing and the lighting and the hair and all the rest of it there is something vaguely inhuman and threatening about most of them. It's like looking at a picture of a fairy changeling. They're definately sexually appealing, but at the same time there is a very blunt inhumanity to them that is just disturbing.

Thoughts?

Yep.

Even their boobs look vaguely inhuman.

I like stroking to naked women, that's my excuse for my subscription!

just like the real doll....

i'd hit it

See, I know they're humans. It's just that all the processing that Playboy puts its pictures through makes them look like... not-quite-human unreal women (and not in a good way). You know? It's not the women themselves, it's the photography, for me.

I'd subscribe to Playboy if the models were robots and fairies.

Years ago I attended a lighting seminar at the LA Photo Expo given by Ken Marcus, who was one of Playboy's main photographers in the 1970s and 80s. He gave himself the credit for changing Playboy's look from the simpler Russ Meyer-esque style of the 60s to the glossy, hyper-backlit, gold-toned look that continues to the present day.

The origin of this look came from his earlier work as a commercial photographer. He did a lot of work for food magazines. As he told the story, he was a little nervous during his first Playmate shoot. He hadn't done anything like that before, and wasn't sure how he should light the model, so he just did what he knew best... he lit her as if she were a glazed ham for a holiday photo spread in Bon Appetit (his words), and the modern Playboy aesthetic was born.

So if the layouts in Playboy seem unsettling in some subliminal way, just use your imagination to superimpose some pineapple and cloves, and it should all suddenly make sense...

Playboy changed its technique about ten years ago. Also its selection process. The Playmates now don't even resemble the ones from,s ay the 80s, the best Playboy decade in my opinion. Look at Miss December 88, Laura Richmond. You'd never see that now. Yeah, they all look like video game heroines. Playboy sucks!!!! (now) Too many "personality-less blondes. Bor-Ing!!


And yet I still subscribe...

OMG!!! the pmonk is ALL about robots and faeries!!!!

(and gnomes)

You know that Earthlink commercial with the mermaid? I'd hit it.

Yep. I know what you're saying and I agree. I don't like that look at all.

Edited to add: I like their old stuff better than their new stuff (70s) Cliched I know heh.

[Edited on Oct 14, 2005 by lowroller]

I tried to phrase the statement so that it emphasized that my disquiet arises from the photography style rather than the women. It's not the girls in the picture, it's the style and treatment of the picture that makes it so unnerving.

When SG had that brief thing where some SGs were featured on Playboy.com, wasn't Mary the first one? She is absolute perfection, a goddess, in my opinion, but those guys on the forums there just ragged on her endlessly for all the "imperfections" that SG didn't airbrush away. So if you want to know why Playboy photos look the way they do -- blame the readers. Playboy is just giving them what they want, the pigs.

here's a page that's got some before and after air brushing

before and after

That's crazy!

I tend to only really like their real early stuff, back when women were real... even though calling Marilyn Monroe real is a bit wrong (I mean unreal in good way )

Back in the day they had airbrush. Now they have Photoshop.

But, those women are beautiful. With or without the Photoshop or implants, they are gorgeous.

I know, I have met a few.

Now, does the average woman look like that, no. Some women do. And some of them pose for Playboy. Some compete in the bikini contests. Some dance at the local nudie bar.

There are other jobs for beautiful women. Like model or actress.

Some avoid all that and just get a regular job. Hot Teacher, hot Doctor, hot chick at Wal Mart.




(Above all of them in hotness would be the Suicide Girls.)