Men are much less likely to be on board with the decision to stop publishing photos of fully nude women, while most under-30s have never looked at a print copy of Playboy
Playboy may have played an outsized role in the sexual revolution, bringing glossy nudity into millions of American homes, but Playboy has decided to stop showcasing fully nude models in its magazines. Executives at the magazine admit that, with the proliferation of pornography online, Playboy is offering nothing special by having photos of fully nude women in its magazine. From now on the magazine will continue to feature female models, but they will not be totally nude and more resources will be dedicated to articles.
Research from YouGov shows that men are noticeably cooler on this decision than women are. 73% of women approve of the decision to end fully nude 'pictorials', while only 6% disapprove. Among men, however, approval (41%) only narrowly beats disapproval (36%).
Playboy's problems of falling circulation may largely be generational. Over two-thirds of Americans (69%) say that they have ever read or looked at a copy of Playboy, but figures among under-30s are dramatically lower than for the rest of the population. Only 32% of under-30s have ever looked at a Playboy, compared to 70% of people aged 30 to 44. Well over 80% of people over 45 have browsed through a Playboy at least once.
Past research from YouGov shows that the youngest Americans are no less likely than the population as a whole to think that porn is morally wrong. This may mean that the decision to remove fully nude women from Playboy may help boost circulation among under-30s, as two-thirds of them say that Playboy is pornography, a figure that declines with age.
