Admittedly, Playboy has never been your typical girly magazine. The ubiquitous bunny has always mixed scantily clad (or less) ladeeez with articles about politics, technology, literature, alcohol, and other fancypants men’s interests.

During Hef’s era, there was an element of “guy smoking a pipe in a high-back leather chair” to it all.

And then BOOM — a topless cheerleader.

But are men as sophisticated these days? And are they randy (and) savage enough to admit they wanna see girlparts? Or have contemporary American males taken a hard look at their genitals and distilled, “#TimesUp”? And can they even spell “genitals”? This ain’t the tuxedo generation.

But if the ol’ spirit’s still alive, where does aristocratic love for the flesh go from here?

Playboy tried to…uh…play by the new rules, but it didn’t work: For about 10 seconds, the hare stopped the bare. With all nudity cut from the book, a whole bunch of people suddenly and curiously lost their love for reading.

So skin came back in, and now there’s a new chief in town.

As reported by Queerty.com, the new executive editor for Playboy is 31-year-old gay man Shane Michael Singh. He’s been hoofin’ it since September to make all your “Entertainment for Men” dreams come true.

And some of those dreams’ll be new. Just ask KCRW:

Playboy Magazine built a culture of objectifying women that doesn’t fly in the #MeToo era. Now the magazine is embracing diverse models and photographers, more LGBTQ representation, and political themes.

In a recent interview with Santa Monica College’s National Public Radio member station, Shane explained the new wave. Now, it’s just about pleasure for everyone:

“We want to create a culture where everyone is free to pursue pleasure. … To say we were only appealing to men was very limiting from an editorial and creative perspective. Especially because we have decades and decades of readership across demographics.”

I'm skeptical. "Shane Singh, #Playboy’s executive editor, explained that the underwater photo shoot, to be photographed that weekend, was for the magazine’s cover — but not in the way that older, leering readers might expect." https://t.co/hfwrbZBgoP

— Man w/o a Plan (@MidWestMet) August 4, 2019

As stated by Queerty, “[Singh] said that gay people think about issues regarding sex, sexual expression and sexual freedom more than others. So that, combined with his journalism background and past work with Playboy make him a good fit for its executive editor.”

So how does Shane go about giving the nekkid rabbit a makeover? Like this:

“It starts with creating with intention. … We acknowledge parts of our legacy that others find problematic, while also saying, ‘What are the best parts of our legacy? What else have we been on the right side of history about? LGBTQ rights has been one of those. That’s how we have been leaning into that space a little more.”

They’ve certainly been leaning — as I noted just days ago, in 2017, the lusty lagomorph featured its first man identifying as a woman (here). Check out the cottontail of Ines Rau:

Ines Rau named Playboy’s first transgender Playmate https://t.co/lKCDUhIY4N

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 21, 2017

Do you have questions? So does Queerty:

As for whether the new magazines will feature frontal male nudity now that a gay man is in charge, Singh says the current issue has a retrospective of all the times the magazine has featured that.

Singh also says it’s possible that future issues might contain male nudity, but that the editorial leadership hasn’t decided on it yet because they’d want to do it intentionally, to consider the effect that presenting male nudity along female nudity would have on the magazine and the culture they want to create.

Singh also highlighted the magazine’s recent shoot with Ezra Miller wearing the iconic Playboy bunny ears and mentioned that the ears bring out a playful and sensuous side of anyone who wears them — male, female or otherwise. As such, the magazine had seven queer artists redesign the ears and they sold them to raise funds for the Trevor Project to help campaign against so-called “ex-gay” reparative therapy.

Straight men, is that gettin’ your motor runnin’? Gay men, will you rush to the Rabbit for your foxyman fix?

Time will tell.

For those of you whose appetite has just been whetted like it’s goin’ outta style, get the 411 on your brand new savory subscription here.

-ALEX

Relevant RedState links in this article: here.

See 3 more pieces from me:

Respect Your Elders: Viral Video Of An Arby’s Boxing Match Shows A Young Buck Find Out Old Guys Know A Thing Or Two

GRAPHIC VIDEO: Auburn University Gymnast Instantly Ends Her Career With A Jaw-Dropping Injury

This Video Of Parents In The Armed Forces Surprising Their Little Children Will Leave You In Tears

Find all my RedState work here.

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