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Playgirl's Eve-olution
Playgirl Magazine started out with the best of intentions. They were going to create the sensation of Playboy for the other half of the population -- women. Using the same formula that had made Hugh Hefner wealthy, they propped young men up into seductive poses with thematic backdrops and called it a day.
The problem was that formula didn’t work for women. Playgirl’s main consumer became gay men and women were labeled “non-visual”, not considered to be consumers of porn again…until now.
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Where Playgirl went wrong originally
I remember being excited about Playgirl when I found out about it. Fifteen and already loving pictures of naked people, I looked for every opportunity to find images of people splaying themselves in all sorts of sexy positions. The only images I could get my hands on (pre-internet) were of women, however. That was what was available. My step-grandfather's stash was easy to find in the basement, and I don't think anybody thought such an innocent little girl would be interested in such filth as Penthouse, so they never thought to hide it well. I stole some pictures and stashed them away in a wooden lock-box I was allowed to keep my secrets in. But this was just not enough. I was a “1” on the Kinsey scale (meaning I mostly sexualize the opposite sex) and I was terribly curious about what a boy looked, and acted when naked.
It took a lot of nerve to buy that first Playgirl. The Tampax and the toothbrush masked my obvious desires to the twitchy corner store clerk. Or at least I thought so. After all, I wasn't a sex freak. I was just a curious 16 year old with healthy sexual appetite.
The Men
I was bursting with excitement as I carried my boy-ie magazine home. Naked women had made my genitals dance, so I reasoned, men must make them do cartwheels. I found a private space and I opened the magazine. Page after page, I flipped through it, trying to find some image I found mildly arousing. Some of the men were buff, but they were too young -- they looked like boys. And the erections were non-existent. Their penis flopped against their thighs in a semi-erect state. They looked thin and almost feminine.
Compared to the girls in the Penthouse magazine, who all looked like they were aroused, or at least as if they were into what they were doing, the men in Playgirl looked flat, even a little bored. I never did buy another Playgirl.
Nothing. Nothing. Was I gay? Maybe I just thought I was attracted to men. Maybe I was really into women. After all it was the images of women that got my juices flowing.
But, wait, I had seen drawings of naked men in my parent's Joy of Sex that turned me on. Once you overlooked the beard, the 70’s looking male model’s straining penis was immensely arousing.
I abandoned the limp disinterested penises and found hardcore. At least the hardcore images had erect penises. But hard-core had (and still has) its shortfalls. The men are not in the focus. It is difficult to see anything but their penises. No face, no buff body, they seemed to be tools to describe a woman’s sexuality.
And the films were almost completely void of emotion. Sex becomes sterile and unreal in them. Porn is a fantasy -- designed to leave the unpleasant or laborious sides of sex aside. But, to women, emotion is not unpleasant or laborious and in many cases it is essential to context and arousal.
Playgirl Sees the Light
PlaygirlTV has come out with a line called Private Pleasures -- together with Wicked, a hard-core video production company who puts out award-winning couple's porn, such as Manhunters. After years of searching for porn that was tailored to women, the question I wanted answered was, has Playgirl eve-olved? Libida watched two of the most popular titles, Naughty and Uncensored, and Hitting the G-Spot to determine whether they are getting to the heart of what women are interested in porn. Or were they playing to a stereotype of women, or, even worse, hiding it from the fact that there real audience is gay men?
Playgirl Adult Movies: Private Pleasures
Naughty and Uncensored is a series of vignettes where women go out and get what they want from men. The women have real bodies (albeit really skinny, "real" bodies). What makes this, and the other Playgirl video stand out from more traditional porn is not the women's bodies, however -- it is the man’s body.
In traditional porn we follow the woman, her face, her boobs, her expressions, her yelps of pleasure, her everything. The man is a prop to make the woman look better. The audience is, after all, usually imagining what it is like to "have" the woman, not to "be" the woman. But in the Playgirl/Wicked productions the camera follows the man’s face, his hands, and his rippled muscles. The men are shaven, ripped with sculpted bodies. Oh, yes, did I forget to mention all of the men are extraordinarily buff? His penis is erect, his body looks strong, and at least old enough to drink in California.
Emotions Anyone?
It is not only the man’s body that stands out, however. His touch is sensitive and gentle, even when he is playing rough. He touches her with his whole hand, as if he really wants to experience her.
While there was little character development, plot or real dialog to develop any emotional connection with the characters, the physical connection in the Playgirl movies make up for it with emotional touch around the sex in the form of lots of kissing and hugging. The plot, with mainly romantic themes, is implied by a title and a few moments to establish a reason why the couple’s would want to have sex.
The Sex
The sex is explicit. Oral sex and intercourse are in full sight, in all of its glory (the first scene in Naughty and Uncensored was particularly visually enticing). Perhaps it is not as graphic as the 'anal-in-every-scene', 'cum dripping from the mouth', that are so common in the current, mainstream porn.
All vignettes have the intimacy of being between one man and one woman -- no threesomes or eightsomes. Come-shots are not in the face, but visibly on the body. These films have no anal and nothing kinky. They follow a formula, and it seems to work.
With over 25 titles in the line, there is a variety for everyone. You feel like this could actually be a woman’s fantasy. Playgirl has eve-olved.
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