Sine 1960, Playboy magazine has picked a “Playmate of the Year” from its 12 monthly “Playmate” centerfold models. But as part of the publication’s revamped, “woke” approach under a management team who all come in at under 35 years old, the once-iconic publication will now reportedly eliminate its equally iconic annual honor.
Instead, according to a report by the New York Post, the magazine will now opt for what a spokesperson called “a more inclusive celebration,” by honoring not just one of the 12 Playmates, but the whole dozen.
“The point of this change was to not exclude anyone and instead of honoring one Playmate they’re honoring all 12 diverse Playmates of the year for each of their unique contributions to the brand,” The Post’s Page Six quoted the magazine’s unnamed spokesperson as saying.
“They had an exceptional group of impressive diverse women join the Playboy family as Playmates for 2019. These women are accomplished advocates and admirable personalities in their own right,” the spokesperson continued. “We wanted to raise the group up as a whole and felt that there was a need to commemorate each of them one more time.”
Jordan Emanuel, a “bunny” at New York City’s Playboy Club, was named last year’s Playmate of the Year—making her the first African-American honoree since 2016’s Eugena Washington (pictured above), and the last Playmate of the Year ever (at least for now).
Despite threats to close the magazine down by new owners Rizvi Traverse Management, the investment group that gained control of the magazine following the 2018 death of founder Hugh Hefner in 2017 at age 91, Playboy actually relaunched last year in an ad-free, matte-printed format.
The result was “a newer, woke-er, more inclusive Playboy,” wrote New York Times reporter Jessica Bennett in an in-depth profile of the magazine’s new editorial staff. “The result is a magazine that is virtually unrecognizable from the one Mr. Hefner created—and, for the first time in Playboy’s history, with no Hefners involved.”
Photo by Cjrobe / Wikimedia Commons
