Pubic War

                                                                 By: Shanna Cronley

The pubic wars started as a rivalry between Playboy and Penthouse magazines. The pubic wars would forever change the future for Playboy.  When Playboy first began publishing it included articles called the “Playboy philosophy”.[1] Penthouse changed all that when it showed naked women. In 1984 there were pictures of Miss America naked and enacting lesbian scenes in Penthouse magazine.[2] The pubic war also had to do with the war in Vietnam at the time. The soldiers felt as though they were going to go to this war and they may not return and therefore they wanted to be able to look at these pictures of women.[3] The pubic war was named just that because Penthouse was the first magazine to show women’s pubic hair. Penthouse continued to find different ways to expose women’s bodies and ironically began eliminating pubic hair from the pictures in the magazine.[4] The pubic war completely changed the magazine world and the porn industry. It also changed the way women look at their bodies. This rivalry between Playboy and Penthouse had a large impact on what the two magazines would publish. Because Penthouse was publishing more risqué photos of women Playboy felt the need to do the same in order to keep up. This caused Playboy to be transformed into what it is today. As stated earlier Penthouse went from showing pubic hair to eliminating pubic hair from photos, which led to the use of Photoshop and women wanting their bodies to look like those in the magazines. I believe that the pubic wars even led to the objectification of women that we have today. Women or more like women’s bodies are seen as objects of sex rather than seeing women as people. This can all be traced back to this war when two magazines struggled to get people to buy their magazines by competing to see which magazine could have the most risqué photos. The use of Photoshop and plastic surgery that is often used to get women to look a certain way for these magazines also leads to an unrealistic idea of women for both women and men. This is why many women have body issues and why men often have an image in their mind of a perfect woman that is just unattainable. The pubic wars no doubt had an effect on both of the magazines but I believe it also had a large effect on the culture that we now live in.  

 

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[1] Sex in '69: Sexual Revolution in America. DVD. Lawrenceville, NJ: Films Media Group ;, 1990.

[2] Stone, Jay. "Bob Guccione: The surprising man behind the pubic wars." canadacom. http://o.canada.com/entertainment/movies/bob-guccione-the-surprising-man-behind-the-pubic-wars (accessed April 30, 2014).

[3] Sex in '69: Sexual Revolution in America. DVD. Lawrenceville, NJ: Films Media Group ;, 1990.

[4] Quan, Tracy . "Th Pubic Wars." . http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/40444.html (accessed April 30, 2014).