Let's be honest--no one reads Playboy for the articles.
November's issue features the "Girls of the SEC." Five of the featured women hail from Auburn.
In the Nov. 3 edition of The Plainsman, one of the Auburn women who posed said she thinks Playboy "supports women."
Playboy supports women's genitalia. Big difference.
The central issue--beyond that the magazine is trashy and obscene--is that women volunteer for this. They see it as some kind of badge of honor. After all, who wouldn't want to join the ranks of Playboy along with such role models as Pamela Anderson and Anna Nicole Smith?
Other women think it shows how far we've come that we can be openly proud of our bodies.
This is irony at its best, considering magazines like Playboy only push us backward.
It is indisputable that Playboy encourages men to view women as sexual objects. If not, then Playboy would publish pictures of women in clothing.
And no, a cowboy hat and boots do not constitute clothing.
Women are not chosen as Playboy models for their intelligence or their leadership skills.
Instead, Playboy presents these women--our fellow students--as objects for men's gratification.
No one is going to see the "Girls of the SEC" spread and say, "Wow, that girl from Auburn has beautiful eyes."
The women who posed were given fake names. Clearly, privacy is an important value for these women.
But who needs a name when you have boobs, right?
It worries me that these ladies, who voluntarily strip down for a national publication, think it won't negatively affect their future or their reputation.
Playboy has a circulation of 1.5 million. That means you will leave nothing to the imagination for 1.5 million people, and they didn't even have to buy you dinner first.
It's not just men our own age who will be looking at every inch of your body. It's men old enough to be your father or your grandfather. For that matter, it might even be your father or your grandfather. It's your professors. It's Hugh Hefner.
Your reputation will never be the same.
It's similar to the distinction between laughing with someone and laughing at someone. Playboy viewers aren't admiring and respecting you. They're exploiting you and leering at you.
Show me Michelangelo's sculpture of David, and I might say it celebrates the human form and holds artistic value.
Not so with Playboy. Playboy serves nothing but prurient interests.
In a word, it's demeaning.
What bothers me more than Auburn women posing in Playboy is that one of them posed while wearing a shredded Auburn jersey.
To me, Auburn means class. It means modesty and humility.
Auburn's representation in Playboy means otherwise. It makes us look like a university of Kim Kardashians.
I hold women, and especially Auburn women, to a higher standard.
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