CLASS DESCRIPTION

This lecture explores the complex and often contradictory representations of women in Playboy magazine and its related media, re-evaluating these portrayals through the lenses of the gaze, objectification, and agency. Spanning from Playboy’s inception in 1953 to its post-Hefner digital transformation, the session examines how the brand has both reflected and shaped cultural constructions of femininity over time.

Students will be introduced to the concept of complicated empowerment, a framework that captures the interplay between agency, objectification, and commodification within Playboy’s patriarchal "Entertainment for Men" model. This approach moves beyond simplistic binaries of empowerment vs. exploitation to reveal the ways in which women involved with Playboy, whether as models, photographers, or reality TV stars, have navigated, performed, and sometimes subverted its ideals of hyper-femininity.

Through three case studies, students will gain a nuanced understanding of Playboy as both a site of constraint and possibility:

Bunny Yeager – Playboy’s first female photographer, who reshaped Playboy’s visual language by capturing women on her own terms.

The Girls Next Door (2005-2009) – A reality TV series that both caricatured and complicated hyper-femininity, offering its stars moments of agency within the constraints of the Playboy Mansion.

Playboy’s Digital Legacy – The brand’s contemporary rebranding efforts in the wake of movements like #MeToo, which challenge and reshape narratives of feminine sexuality.

By situating Playboy within evolving feminist media discourses, this lecture will encourage students to critically engage with cultural tensions surrounding femininity, empowerment, and sexualisation. The session will provide them with tools to deconstruct cultural icons through a feminist lens, encouraging deeper discussions on the ways in which media representations influence gendered power dynamics.

ABOUT OUR LECTURER

Dr Daisy McManaman (she/her) is a feminist researcher, artist, and media scholar with a PhD from the University of York’s Centre for Women’s Studies. Her research examines representations of women in Playboy, exploring the intersections of femininity, popular culture, and feminist theory. Her writing has been published in The Conversation and CNN.

INSTAGRAM: @daisymcmanaman

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This is a recording of a live session hosted by The Feminist Lecture Program in June 2025. The reading list for the class can be found alongside this rental.

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