Made of Plastic, Not All that Fantastic; Part One

A friend of mine is currently taking a college-level course on human sexualities, and she lent me her textbook so I could research an article on Playboy and how it effects women's body perception. The article, written by Vanessa R. Schick, Brandi N. Rima, and Sarah K. Calabrese, is titled "Evulvalution: The Portrayal of Women's External Genitalia and Physique Across Time and the Current Barbie Doll Ideals." In this first post, I'll overview and discuss the two separate studies they conducted on Playboy, the first of which focused on genital appearance ideals and general physical ideals, while the second study focused solely on genital appearance ideals. In Part Two of these postings I'll discuss the repercussions of the results found, and the effects Barbie and Playboy have on women, girls, and society at large.

Analysis 1
In this portion of the study, the researchers examined the Playboy centerfold women for each month from the years 1953 to 2007. They examined the visibility of the mons pubis, the visibility of pubic hair, the labia majora visibility, the size and color of the labia minora, and general physique of each centerfold. Not surprisingly, from 1953-1969 none of the pubic region was shown on any of the centerfold models. From 1970-1979, just under 50% of all photos still showed no visible mons pubis, while about 50% show the mons pubis with unaltered pubic hair. The remaining percent (less that 5%) show a visible mons pubis but with limited hair. From 1980-1989 about 85% percent of all women showed their mons pubis, but less than 5% had altered pubic hair. By 2000-2007 only about 30% of centerfolds didn't show an exposed mons pubis, while about 40% showed a pubic region with limited hair, and about 20% showed a pubic region with fully waxed or shaved hair.

The study also concluded that the women exhibited a trend towards a lower BMI (body mass index) and increases in height, and that while the models' hips were growing increasingly narrow, their breasts were growing exponentially larger. The researchers also identified a trend in increasing visibility of the mons pubis and the labia majora, while the labia minora was increasingly shown as either minimized or absent.  The majority of models showing exposed labia majora (14 out of 16) showed no labia minora, only the demarcation line that divides the labia majora. Not a single model showed what is considered prominent labia minora; labia minora that extends further that the labia majora.

Analysis 2
Due to the results of the first study, the researchers felt compelled to take a closer look primarily on genital appearance, and instead of focusing solely on Playboy Magazine's monthly centerfold, they focused on all Playboy models depicted in the years 2007-2008 who showed their mons pubis. Based on the findings in Analysis 1, the researchers predicted "that the appearance of centerfold models' genitalia was becoming increasingly deviant from natural female appearance" (Schick, 2010).

Of the 183 photos, pubic hair was visible and unaltered on 18.9% of the women, visible and altered on 19.5% of the women, and nonexistent on 61.2% of the women. 1.1% of the photos were inconclusive due to dark shadowing. In 60.5% of the photographs the appearance of the labia minora could not be determined due to obscured labia majora. 82.2% of the unobscured photos depicted the labia minora as absent, only 2.7% showed a prominent labia minora. According to the researchers, only 7% of the Playboy models showed their inner labia, and all except for one were depicted as pink or light red in color.