Michelle Smith has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council. The passing of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner prompted both positive and negative eulogising. From one perspective, he was a revolutionary who helped to dismantle the long-standing secrecy and shame surrounding sexuality. And from another , he simply popularised the objectification of women for the gratification of men. Yet the fallout from the exploitative images did not significantly tarnish the Playboy name or Hugh Hefner. Shields featured on the cover of Playboy in at age
When Nadia Foster was 22 she dabbled in various jobs, from a shop assistant at Harrods to waitressing. Unfulfilled, she had a shot at modelling using the freelance website Model Mayhem. Then one day she received an email from a French photographer that would change her life. Two weeks later she was on a plane to Italy for the shoot. She spent five hours in make-up, where she was covered in gold paint. From 6am until 2am the next day she was in the studio, stopping for just one short lunch break. Her hair and make-up was changed six times, such was the attention to detail.
This was the thought that crossed my mind as I dangled my feet into the Playboy mansion pool and watched a bevy of topless bimbettes lazing in the sun like bored, pedigree cats while lecherous businessmen volunteered to rub their suntan oils into tricky places. As I crept around the manicured gardens, resplendent with full plumaged peacocks, and skulked into the secluded pool grottos or tip-toed through the mirrored ceilinged bedrooms, I felt like an undercover under-the-covers agent. The bedroom carpets seemed to be doubly cushioned, so that I sprung upwards with each step as though moon walking.
It was a Tuesday morning at the Westwood headquarters of Playboy Enterprises, and editors are preparing to close their summer issue. The women who will pose in that water — their limbs wrapped around one another in a ballet-like pose — are not simply models but activists. One uses performance art and digital media to share stories about the HIV epidemic.