''Playgirl'' was an American magazine that featured general interest articles, lifestyle and celebrity news, in addition to nude or semi-nude men. In the 1970s and 1980s, the magazine printed monthly and was marketed mainly to

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

, although it had a significant

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

male readership.

History

The magazine was founded in 1973 by Douglas Lambert during the height of the

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

movement as a response to erotic men's magazines such as ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' and ''

Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building *Penthouse (magazine), ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly u ...

'' that featured similar photos of women. In 1977, Lambert sold ''Playgirl'' to Ira Ritter who took over as publisher. The magazine covered issues like abortion and equal rights, interspersed with sexy shots of men, and played a pivotal role in the

sexual revolution The sexual revolution, also known as the sexual liberation, was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the United States and the developed world from the 1 ...

for women.Cara Buckle
They couldn’t get past the ‘Mimbos’
The ''New York Times'', November 14, 2008. From March 2009 to February 2010, ''Playgirl'' appeared only online. The magazine returned to print as a sometime quarterly beginning with its March 2010 issue. The final print issue was Winter 2016. As of 2016, the magazine had only approximately 3,000 subscribers. In 1986, ''Playgirl'' filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and was subsequently acquired by Drake Publishers, Inc. The magazine was published by Drake from 1986 until 1993 when Drake was merged into Crescent Publishing Group, Inc. In August 2000, Crescent was charged by the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

with over $180 million of online credit card fraud, much of which was alleged by the FTC to have taken place on the playgirl.com website. In November 2001, for one of the then largest FTC settlements involving online credit card fraud, Crescent agreed to pay $30 million in refunds and to post a $2-million bond before it could continue to operate its websites. As a further condition for the settlement, Crescent principals Bruce A. Chew and David Bernstein were barred by the FTC from operating adult entertainment websites unless first posting bonds of $500,000 each. In December 2001, Crescent Publishing Group, Inc. changed its name to Blue Horizon Media, Inc. Following the FTC settlement, in 2003 then Crescent/Blue Horizon president Bruce Chew was indicted, along with alleged organized-crime figure Richard Martino and others on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, credit-card fraud and money laundering for illegally billing web users including for the ''Playgirl'' website. Pursuant to a plea deal, Chew would later agree to testify for the government and against various of his co-defendants. In August 2008, the magazine announced that it would cease publication of its print edition as of the January 2009 issue. After that point, the magazine planned to continue with an online-only edition. The last print issue was published in January/February 2009. In February 2010, ''Playgirl'' announced it would re-launch issuing a print edition of the magazine. The first such issue would be the March 2010 issue available on newsstands as of February 22, 2010, carrying on its cover

Levi Johnston Levi Keith Johnston (born May 3, 1990) is an American model and actor, best known as the twice-former fiancé of Bristol Palin and father of their son Tripp. He first received media attention in August 2008 when U.S. vice presidential candidate ...

, shot by longtime ''Playgirl'' photographer

Greg Weiner Greg Weiner is a professional photographer. He is well known for his erotic images of nude male models. Biography Weiner has been one of ''Playgirls primary photographers since the early 1990s. Greg also shoots for Paragon Men, a monthly web-zine ...

. The magazine was issued approximately quarterly after that time. ''Playgirl'' was published by

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

–based company Blue Horizon Media, Inc. until April 25, 2011, when Blue Horizon sold the print rights for ''Playgirl'' together with those of its other titles – ''High Society'', ''Cheri'', ''Black Diamond'', ''Finally Legal'', and ''Purely 18'' – to Magna Publishing Group, Inc. of

Paramus, New Jersey Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...

. The Playgirl.com website is owned and operated by BAOL LLC. In December 2015, Magna Publishing Group was acquired by 1-800-PHONESEX.

Target markets

The magazine was mainly marketed to heterosexual women. Despite this, in 2003, ''Playgirl''s then-editor-in-chief Michele Zipp admitted the magazine also attracted much

readership. "It's 'Entertainment for Women' because there's no other magazine out there that caters to women in the way we do," she said. But she went on adding: "We love our gay readers as well, and the gay readership

f the magazine F, or f, is the sixth Letter (alphabet), letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is English alphabet#Let ...

is about 30%."Michael Rowe
"Great Scott: After years of struggling with his sexuality, ''Playgirl'' centerfold Scott Merritt is coming all the way out. To his surprise, so is ''Playgirl''"
''The Advocate'', issue 895, August 19, 2003. In the same year, Mark Graff, President of Trans Digital Media, the brand management firm for Playgirl TV, stated that a large percentage of ''Playgirl''s readership are gay men.

Throughout the history of the magazine, ''Playgirl'' has featured male frontal nudity except for the early issues in 1973, and 1987 when John Paul became the year's first full frontal

centerfold The centerfold or centrefold of a magazine is the inner pages of the middle sheet, usually containing a portrait, such as a pin-up or a nude. The term can also refer to the model featured in the portrait. In saddle-stitched magazines (as opp ...

in November after ten months of non-nude photo spreads. Apart from professional models, ''Playgirl'' features amateur models in a section called ''Real Men'' (formerly known as ''Snapshots''). A Real Men of the Year contest is held, in which readers can vote for the best layout of the year. In June of every year, ''Playgirl'' has its "Man of the Year" issue. In July, it is the "Country" issue; in November, ''Playgirl'' dedicates an issue to "Campus Hunks." In a 2000 paper published in the ''International Journal of Eating Disorders'', researchers examined 115 male centerfold models in ''Playgirl'' magazine from 1973 to 1997 and noted that the ''Playgirl'' centerfold models have become increasingly muscular over time.

Other versions

''Playgirl'' is available in English and has been published in a number of other languages and international English-language editions during its history: *Germany (1978–1980 and 1989–2003) *France (1978) *Australia (1985–88) and as ''Interlude'' in 1991 *Netherlands (1987–88) *United Kingdom (1992–93, 2011) *South Africa (1995) *Brazil (1985) *Russia (2004–2009) When the Russian version of ''Playgirl'' was launched in June 2004, it contained photographs of nude, circumcised American men despite circumcision's being less common outside the U.S., being practiced mainly by Muslims and Jews in Russia. ''Playgirl UK'''s brief 2011 relaunch was accompanied by an announcement that it would feature no below-the-waist nudity, and would focus on attractive male celebrities rather than models and pornography actors. It was a failure, and ceased circulation soon after it began. A Spanish-language edition was published in 1992–1993.

Celebrity nudes

''Playgirl'' has a monthly section entitled "Celeb Nudes" featuring photographs of various celebrities from film scenes, usually nude.

Since 2011

The

Magna Publishing Group Magna Publishing Group, Inc. is an American publishing company headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey. Founded in 1975, the company publishes a number of magazine titles and is one of the largest publishers of pornographic magazines in the United ...

"secured the print rights" to ''Playgirl'' magazine in 2011.Bob Johnson, xbiz.com
Magna Publishing Acquires Blue Horizon Titles, Internet Rights
, April 25, 2011. In 2015, ''Playgirl'' asked Miguel Pimentel, a "bulging New York City Sheriff's deputy", to pose nude and offered $10,000 to any one who could get frontal nudes of Anderson Cooper.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Playgirl Defunct women's magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1973 Magazines disestablished in 2016 Magazines published in California Monthly magazines published in the United States Pornographic women's magazines Pornographic magazines published in the United States