Does anyone else find this disturbing? It seems to me that the whole p-o-r-n industry is devoted to the objectification of women and spiritual/psychological estrangement. We use r-a-p-e as a metaphor for environmental exploitation for a reason, and I suspect that p-o-r-n like this feeds the kind of spiritual deadness on a personal (and interpersonal) level that many people see on a cultural level as the root of our environmental problems.

I'm sure there are Treehugger readers with much better informed and more articulate views on this than I have. But I had to say something about this.

(By the way, I had to mess with the p-word the r-word because my submission was denied, for "questionable content.")

As a conscious person and an activist, I am against the objectification of women. I am appalled that any environmental justice worker would consider doing this. You cannot be against exploitation of the earth without being against exploitation of women, minorities, animals, etc etc.

Please think more critically about this. It is simply a marketing attempt by a corrupt industry in order to be accepted by fringe groups and not questioned about their ethics.

I just read it for the articles.

Smiles.

How about turning the tables on Playboy and inviting X-Bunnies and centerfold models to be interviewed for TH about their views on environmental issues?

i don't think there's any connection to a strong sex drive and being anti-environment. if someone can appreciate human forms, it seems that person could just as easily be more in touch with what it means to be human on a basic, natural level. it would be unnatural to deny that men have a sex drive rooted in visual stimulation. i think these mags can actually reduce the occurance of sex-deprived men raping women by encouraging masturbation. how exactly is this industry more corrupt than any other? women who understand this and choose to model for these publications are not being exploited, it's the reader who pays for the satisfaction.

It's not about sex drive - it's about exploitation of the s-e-x drive. It's about our priorities as a culture. As activists, we strive to change people's modes of thought - most of which are dictated by mainstream media such as Playboy Magazine, among others. Rarely will you ever see an accurate representation of our society's females in Playboy Magazine. (ie. large-sized women, small-breasted women, non-physically-altered women, women with freckles and pimples, women who don't shave, women with physical deformities, etc.)

Furthermore, I don't think men need magazines to keep them from raping women. R-a-p-e is about control - not sex drive. If you want to stop r-a-p-e, teach men that s-e-x is about love and not a particular body image.

p.s. I had to spell out the "bad" words in order to get this posted.

i don't deny that most of these mags select the most attractive models they can find but there's an obvious reason for this. humans are almost universally attracted to certain body types. if this gives 'normal' women bad feelings about their body image, then that could also be a priority for change. help women to appreciate themselves instead of 'teaching' men to change their instincts because that is at the core of their being. have you ever heard of any animal in the natural world persuing the deformed or ill-equipped? animals persue mates with the most healthy, desirable traits and you're never going to change that with activism. it's nature and we are sill part of it. what you call curbing cultural exploitation, i see as an attempt to change the reality of the natural world.

i know it's beside the point of the debate, but i don't think you can simplify r-a-p-e as purely about control. it is still a s-e-x act and therefore must have some component of sexuality to it, albiet demented. it's not inherently harmful to encourage men to satisfy their urges in the privacy of their homes instead of demonizing male sexuality at a societal level. s-e-x is certainly not strictly about love and men cannot be 'taught' to overcome their biology. s-e-x is not merely a 'mode of thought'. not all men have access to s-e-x... magazines like this provide them with an outlet. repression often creates undesired effects. do you think we'd have so many clergymen molesting children if they were encouraged to persue a natural s-e-x life? do you think it's purely about control? i don't know, but until we have some deeper understanding of human sexuality, i wouldn't be quite so one-sided about it.

"Attractive" is relative. The majority of humans are attracted to certain body types, depending on what the mass media of that region and time period drives into our heads. We are part of a sick society made of non-thinking people who follow what magazines and tv preach - even unconsciously! There are plenty of healthy people with 'different' body types that are NOT represented in these magazines. I am a "natural human being," yet I have been turned on by "alternative" girls/boys with shaved heads, pimples, birthmarks, burns, freckles, small breasts, etc. and it's because I don't buy into the mainstream b_llshit that the media perpetuates. Maybe it's because I stopped opening mainstream magazines and turning on TV eight years ago. I know that it's certainly NOT because I am an abnormal human. I am not instinctually trying to sniff out the healthiest partner I can find. I am reconstructing my own mind. It's not all written for us.

How many animals have you seen with breast implants? We need to take one step back at a time before we can even begin to compare ourselves to non-human animals. We are way too far removed from the natural world.

(So you know, I *have* posed nude in the past, so I feel I am coming from a balanced perspective on this issue.)

Lighten up... sex is good! Sex sells!
I stopped buying or looking at Playboy a few years ago... The photography and the articles just got too old fashion. Hef's always done the mag for himself, and now he's doing a babe mag for guys his age, and it shows... it's boring. This is a fun idea though... But Playboy should have NEVER sold OUI, because now, today, it would have a baby sister all grown up. I can't bare to imagine what Playboy will be "after" Hef... it will probably die with him, because it was his own personal family album, and a post-Hef Playboy would simply degenerate into a sleazy porn fest. This might in fact be the last editorial worth a dime in the mag... It's last Hoorah. We don't need green chicks bending over to be in Playboy. We need a brand new mag with nothing but groovy green chicks, all the time!

asd

i looooooove playboy