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1. How is Male Gaze Theory relevant when analysing women in
PLAYBOY magazines?
It is a known fact that women are objectified in magazines aimed at both men and women
and I am aiming to look into women in Playboy through magazine and programmes of life
with Hugh Hefner to find out how the male gaze has relation with these through designs of
these magazine and how they include only women on the magazines or the history behind the
magazine itself. I will look into this by analysing magazines from front covers and finding
websites that include a range of articles with relation to The Male Gaze.
Moving on from this The Male Gaze Theory describes how viewers engage with visual
media through advertisements it also suggests that women in media products are not deemed
as a ‘person’ merely an object that’s only to be admired for physical appearance. Laura
Mulvey is a feminist film theorist from Britain and known for her theory made in 1975
regarding sexual objectification on women in the media, which is known as The Male Gaze
theory. Naturally, the influence on the male gaze seeps into female self-perception and self-
esteem and discourages female empowerment. However, the influence of the male gaze is not
limited to how women and girls are featured in magazines both for the female models on the
magazine and also its audience. The argument is the male gaze controls the narrative which is
that women are not equal in the world and despite the fact women make up over 50% of the
population, the male gaze relegates women to have the position of others.
One of the brands which I chose to explore into is ‘Playboy’ which is an American men’s
lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online, it was founded
in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, However Mr Hefner died in 2017
aged 91. The history behind this was when the company published their first magazine in
December 1953 the year which featured Marilyn Monroe on the front cover. The cover
includes nude images which catapulted the company to fame and the print magazine became
the centrepiece of its business for decades whereas it now describes itself as a consumer
products company that includes sexual wellness, clothing and gaming and includes its famous
bunny logo on products such as lingerie etc. Throughout its support of the beliefs and its
popularization of the notion that viewing sexually suggestive photography of women was not
only acceptable but healthy, it contributed to the so-called sexual revolution in the United
States in the 1960s. Playboy’s circulation including subscriptions and advertising revenues
steadily increased, reaching 7.2 million copies sold in November 1972 and an average sales
of 5.6 million copies per issue, however the magazines leadership declined because the
sexual revolution continued to advocate and had largely been won, rendering its images less
daring and provocative as it faced new competition such as ‘Penthouse’ which featured more
explicit photography.
When exploring Playboy, I found out a bit information on Hugh Hefner and how his former
girlfriends were treated during their time at the Playboy Mansion. The mansion is located in
Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California near Beverly Hills the mansion became famous during
the 1960s when the media began to cover the lavish parties thrown by Hefner, the mansion
includes 22 rooms and was designed by Arthur R. Kelly in 1927. All told the history of the
Playboy has been one of the fame and success, but what about its recognizable logo? clean,
simple and unique and has no doubt played a role in the international success of the
magazine. The logo vision was something that had a “Humorous sexual connotation” (LeBron
James, Playboy Logo and the History of Business) Hugh Hefner had said the meaning
behind as to why they had chosen a rabbit was because it’s a fresh animal, shy and jumpy and

2. he, mentioned that “a girl looks a lot like a bunny” (LeBron James, Playboy Logo and the
History of Business). The colours used within the logo are solid with a black tone this
conveys luxury, professionalism and class which effectively conveys the magazines image.
Moving on from this I decide to explore more into the ‘secrets of Playboy documentary’
(LeBron James, Playboy Logo and the History of Business) looking into these episodes I
found a piece which is a preview it talked about Holly Madison and the pressure to conform
in this after her first 6 months within the mansion she felt like she had gotten to a point where
she had broken because she felt she needed to look like every other girl in the house. Hugh
Hefner wanted every girl to look the same with a stereotype of blonde long hair, blue eyes as
holly had decided to cut her hair off Hugh was astonished and was screaming at her from this
it seems Asif this is his world they are living in it and have to look and act a certain way to
his standards. Holly also opens up about the show ‘Girls Next Door’(Lindsey
Iltis, Psychoanalysis:The Girls Together) which is a reality television series focused on the
lives of Hugh Hefners girlfriends who live with him, she stated that Hugh was a very
manipulative person who would try and play the three of the girls against each other. The
very first image encountered in Paul Ruditis biography of ‘The Girls Next Door’ (Lindsey
Iltis, Psychoanalysis:The Girls Together)supports the idea of the male gaze because of how
the girls are situated, camera angles and what they are wearing as well as the expressions on
their faces. The camera angle from which the photograph of the three women was taken is
from above, looking down upon them this produces the feeling that the viewer is objectifying
and distancing himself from the subject and level in which the three girls are on a much
different feeling from the entire book could be achieved through an different photograph of
the women for example a simple close up of their faces. From the image the girls are wearing
short bright colours and bikini bathing suit tops whilst posing whilst their facial expressions
all have smiles on their face which reveals to be a ‘overly-friendly smile’ (Lindsey
Iltis, Psychoanalysis:The Girls Together)whilst making eye contact with the viewers the
combination of these aspects is not to force, but to invite the male gaze upon this image.in
this photograph all of the women are holding something in their hand I noticed ‘Bridget’ who
is holding onto the stem of a flower and picking the petals off this is a reference to a well-
known childhood game in which girls pick petal of a flower repeating the phrase “he loves
me, he loves me not “ (Lindsey Iltis, Psychoanalysis:The Girls Together) this game employs
the ideas that society and relationships are centred around the male and by the male which
determines or initiates the relationship.
You may ask how does the male gaze link to the playboy brand? This is by through the show
which each girl is distinguished in several ways, most crudely by her rank that combines her
longevity with the seriousness of her relationship with Hugh Hefner. The shows own
historical discourse around women which sees them as contested but noteworthy advance in
feminine life. From each magazine of all the girls the centre of the attention on the cover and
the dress codes and facial expressions is seems Hugh is in control over these women, and he
has more linguistic power because of his social status and wants his audience to focus on the
women the male gaze twists this natural urge turning these women into passive items to
possess and use as ‘props’ in the magazine covers. I also noticed that Hugh always includes
the ‘presence of a man’ (Lindsey Iltis, Psychoanalysis:The Girls Together) somewhere in
the background of the photograph which shows even if there isn’t a man in the images, they
will certainly be a presence of a man. the photograph which I looked upon of the three
women on the cover, and many other photographs of the three together serve to re-in force
ideas of the male gaze that is prevalent in society. Included within the playboy magazines
women are presented in a sexualised way towards men and objectifies women as this then
empowers men as they feel they are ahead of the women which is shown throughout the

3. episodes of playboy how Hugh Hefner causes arguments with most of the girls because he
wants people to argue and be against each other as if it is a competition to be at the top by the
way you look and how you present yourself. The male gaze is also presented in ways in
which Hugh as a person would act to the other women who he was with he would pick what
type of hair they have to have and if they changed this it would have an huge impact on his
brand which is what he only seemed to care about this can increase low-self esteem for these
women and female objectification because they don’t feel like they are the best or enough
which is wrong. Furthermore, the shot types used on these magazines are very close up or
high up as if the audience are looking down on these women as Hugh made these women
smile and almost ‘welcome the males in’ (Lindsey Iltis, Psychoanalysis:The Girls
Together)to these magazines and by the explicit images which are used to represent the
women not for themselves but for the satisfaction of men.
Moving on to my FMP this year from finding out information from this source I can justify
that I will include these specific elements by including baggy clothing on women which isn’t
sexualised and the way in which I will take my images can be more of close ups or from a far
distance as I will be focusing on the element of fashion. As the point I want to achieve is that
the women will feel confident in the clothes and express themselves for there own creativity
not for a man’s attention or satisfaction. Choosing Playboy which includes women has helped
me to gather more information and ideas how women a portrayed especially as my focus is
print and fashion, I was able to look at these clothes and see the common problems which I
can avoid within my own work. I also think when presenting the women on the covers of
these magazine etc. and websites an idea would be to have the women’s body language very
Suttle and elegant with some women not making direct eye contact with its audience or they
could be looking at other models to empower women.
In conclusion I have simply answered the question to my essay as the male gaze is relevant
when analysing fashion magazines because women are used as props and objects for
photograph which are then used on covers to attract the male audience of how they pose with
the feminine touch and when there is more than one woman in these photographs it amplifies
the male voyeuristic fantasy since the female objectified and consumable body is doubled.
From this I can also imply the unawareness and vulnerability of these women and it seems
Asif they are dependent on men for protection or to overpower the women to the point where
the male is in control and each woman is objectified into this, I have managed to source a lot
more information on the male gaze theory and find out new facts on how they present women
in many ways through these magazines and tv programmes.
Bibliography:
Bianca Bee Garner. (29th Sept 2019). Defining The Male Gaze. Available:
https://intheirownleague.com/2019/09/29/feminist-film-theory-101-defining-the-male-
gaze/. Last accessed 17th Jan 2022.
Editors of Encyclopaedia. (.). PlayBoy. Available:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Playboy. Last accessed 17th Jan 2022.
LeBron James . (.). Playboy Logo and the History Of Business. Available:
https://blog.logomyway.com/hugh-hefner-and-the-history-of-the-playboy-logo/. Last
accessed 17th Jan 2022.

4. Rose. (.). Psychoanalysis:The Girls Together. Available:
https://people.southwestern.edu/~bednarb/su_netWorks/projects/iltis/psych.html. Last
accessed 17th Jan 2022.