The Sex Symbol of the Twentieth Century - The Playboy Bunny

The first sex kitten of the Sixties wasn't a kitten at all. From her dyed-to-match three-inch pumps to the tips of her satin ears, she was all Bunny. When the first Playboy Club opened its doors on a windy Chicago night in 1960, the image of the Playboy Bunny became the first symbol of the pending sexual revolution. Over the past 40 years she has inspired artists, fashion designers, writers and filmmakers. And she couldn't have done it without her famous outfit. Here's how the girl in the Bunny suit became an icon of pop culture. The original Playboy Club in Chicago was patterned after the city's exclusive Gaslight Club, an elegant key club for Second City powerbrokers and VIPs. When Playboy Magazine ran an article about Gaslight in 1959, reader response was overwhelming. Playboy Promotions Director Victor Lownes pitched an idea to the notorious Hue Heffner proposing to bring the magazine’ s bachelor pad image to life in playboys own Ubran Hangout. Hef loved the concept, but a key element was still missing. 

The "Gaslight Girls" served their male patrons in Gay Nineties-style corsets and fishnet tights, and the Playboy Club needed a sexy costume of its own. Hef's first thought was to have scantily-clad "Playmates" in nighties serving drinks, but a better idea soon came. Ilsa Taurins, a girlfriend of Heff’s looked at the magazine's logo and suggested the idea of seeing the girls as “rabbits”, which was rejected. Taurins was determined and tinkered with a costume design with her mother. A few days later she entered the half-finished Chicago Club in a satin bodice, fluffy tail and headband with ears, and a new sex symbol was born, the beginning of the infamous Playboy Bunny suite. But the true art of the suit was in the details. "A lot of thought went into this costume," says Pat Lacey, Director of Playmate and Bunny Promotions for Playboy and a 13-year veteran of the LA Club. "There are so many things that people don't realize that were really thought out so that Bunny could perform her job very easily and at the same time remain glamorous and graceful." Every girl was required to wear a pair of nude nylons under her black ones so that Bunnies of all races had the same skin tone. There was still class and elegance that Heff wanted to portray. In the late Sixties the Playboy Clubs broke away from the 12-color standard and started designing suits in everything from leopard prints to psychedelic Pucci swirls. 

A favorite was one nicknamed the "Wonder Bread" costume because it was covered in multicolored polka dots. There were even holiday Bunnies for December, who wore red velvet trimmed in white fur. In an attempt to update the suit, a lace and satin "Bunny Cabaret" costume was developed in 1980 and worn until the last Playboy Club closed its doors in 1991.

            Today, the Playboy Bunny suite is still a hit within Costumes. Almost every Halloween you will find at least one girl rocking the bunny ears and the silk corset. We found this history to be interesting because for our generation, we are already inclined to see a bunny costume to Playboy. Who knew such a simple concept had so much production. Gotta love fashion. HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Inside a Moroccan Bath

Inside a Moroccan Bath is an article of an older woman, Hanan reminiscing her battle with body image, as she sits in a women's bathhouse in Morocco. She is shocked by the discovery that she is not completely at ease with the shape of her body.

Growing up, Hanan struggled with body image, because she was "too thin". Peers lead her to believe that she was too thin because she was told nearly every day. Friends and lovers would make degrading comments like, "Why are you so thin?" "Why don't you just eat some macaroni?"

"Being thin meant I was branded as sickly and physically weak, and so I was never encouraged in sports or picked for teams. Hanan had jealousy toward for the "ripe, round cheeks of the other girls, and their chubby arms and legs."

One boyfriend even said to her, "I know what your problem is. It's because you're thin. That's what's responsible for all your grief. This uncertainty. You have to put on weight. A few kilos you'll see, you'll be a different person."

No matter what Hannan ate, she could not gain weight because she was genetically thin. She claimed she did nothing to change her image until she saw a poster of Audrey Hepburn that stick in her mind. She felt she had come to take revenge on Bridget Bardot's curvy figure, with Audrey Hepburn's slim figure. Hanan felt she could relate to Hepburn because they were both misunderstood with slim bodies. Hanan followed everything Hepburn did in the media, and even copied the way she dressed and mimicked her personality traits. At last, she felt she could relate to someone, and she was comfortable in her own skin.

Fast forward to present, Hanan finds herself soaking in a public bathhouse in Morocco and she is ashamed of her figure again. She is instantly brought back to her negative self- image, and is ashamed to get dressed in front of the other full-figured, Moroccan women.

This article is examines the cross-cultural standards of beauty. In the US culture, especially Los Angeles, being thin is the holy grail of most people. We are constantly bombarded by media ads, magazines, and commercials about striving to be thin. In contrast, as Hanan viewed the plump women in the Moroccan baths, she felt uncomfortable because she was thin.  Now more comfortable in her body, she is still struck by the ancient standards of beauty and brought back to her once insecure teen self. In conclusion, the standards of beauty and body shape all root from cultural standards.

-Kelsey & Kirstin

Dress and the Columbine Shootings: Media Interpretations

Dress and the Columbine Shootings: Media Interpretations

At Columbine High school on April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold took the lives of twelve students, one teacher, and themselves in the worst school shooting in the US to this day.

Major newspapers in Colorado published over 1,000 articles about the massive school shooting. The media made substantial links between the Columbine shootings and appearance cues including appearances and dress of the victims and the gunman. Out of all of these articles, approximately 12% focused upon dress of the gunman and the victims.

Appearance had quickly become a factor in the media's interpretation of the incident, associating dress with actions, linking violence to appearance.

Gunman Appearances

Sophomore Amanda Stair explained, "We hid under different tables. Two guys in black trench coats walked in. They said get up or they would shoot us." (Anton, 1999).

Much of the media was associated the gunman's black trench coats with the popular movie The Matrix. In the film, Keanu Reeves wears a black trench coat and battles the forces of evil with his gun. The gunman called himself the "Trench Coat Mafia" resulting that the film is likely influence for the 2 gunmen, as they carried weapons wearing long black trench coats, enforcing power.

Within the first week of the incident, the media switched over from what the gunmen and victims were wearing, to why they were wearing it and how it could have contributed to the violence.

Victims Appearances

"The masked shooters targeted specific victims, especially ethnic minorities and athletes then randomly sprayed the school hallways about 11:30am with bullets and shotgun blasts, witness said. The bloody rampage spanned four hours." (Obmascik 1999).

Targeting Jocks

Several students were quoted saying that the gunman had targeted jocks and athletes on their shooting spree by associating jocks with sports hats or jerseys.

Student Brittany Bollerud quoted, "They yelled, "This is revenge. They asked people if they were wearing a sports hat, they would shoot them." (Obmascik 1999).

Targeting Minorities

Ethnicity appearance also played a major role in which the gunman targeted. The shooters targeted ethnic minorities.

"They shot a black kid. They called him a nigger. They said they didn't like niggers, so they shot him in the face." (Obmascik 1999.)

Possible Solutions For Prevention

By constructing the Columbine shootings as an appearance-related problem and proposing appearance based solutions, they media may have shortchanged am opportunity for real social change to prevent future shootings.

It may help to steer away from dress and physical appearance by forcing school districts to consider implementation of dress code and uniform policies. This way, there are not extreme subculture groups formed for other people to judge or target.

Symbols in School

Symbols in School

Symbols in School focuses on schools having regulations on expression of speech. Such as T-shirts and things that symbolize regional or ethnic pride. The article uses an example of previous court case where teens are penalized for wearing racist shirts such as the confederate flag. The Southern Resource Center has made massive efforts to stress the need of more regulations within school systems and freedom of speech. In the Castorina example two Kentucky students were suspended after sporting T-shirts of the confederate flag and the slogan "Southern Thunder". The Castorina case a decision was ruled that the suspension was erred and flawed due to the fact that the school had no previous racism problems. In another example a boy came to school wearing a shirt with the slogan "Not only am I perfect, but I am a redneck too". This term redneck has been very controversial, so much so that he was suspended after being to remove the shirt. Ten days after the school enacted a new policy of prohibiting "racially diverse" clothing. Referring back to the Southern Resource Center these efforts to prohibit freedom of speech is being argued to violate the rights of the first amendment. 

After reading this article a lot of different emotions come into play. On one hand we believe that one should not condone racism or criticism of any individual due to their ethnicity. On the other hand being an American our rights are very important and it is agreed that the first amendment has allowed us the power of freedom of speech.  All and all the article shows the power of self expression and verbal communication within personal style. In any means if something can be taken offensive it should not be worn within a place such as school or for that matter at all.

Young and Chubby

Young and Chubby

The article Young and Chubby elaborates on the uprising amount of obese adolescents flaunting their bodies in tight clothing, and feeling very confident about it. Author Gina Bellfante explains, "Teenage girls unabashedly show their bellies, even when they have actual bellies to show." (Bellafante 2005).

In a celebrity driven hyped up world, with stick thin ideals, it is easy to be brainwashed in thinking you must look or dress a certain way. However, notable magazines like Teen Vogue are turning the tables, pushing fuller figures to be the "beautiful" more socially accepted figure.

A recent Teen Vogue issue has a bold cover stating, "Making it big; How curvy girls are changing Hollywood's stick thin standard."

Editor of Cosmo Girl, Atoosa Rubenstein expresses by using plus sized models, teenage readers are less obsessed with dieting and exercise to reach the traditional model thin ideal.

Plus size chain stores like Torrid are excessively promoting overweight women to flaunt their bodies in skin right clothing. Is this contributing to obesity in America? According to the article, "14 percent of American adolescents are already overweight-triple the rate two decades ago- the danger is an increased acceptance of bigness is that young people will balloon to perilously greater proportions, threatening their health."

So they question remains, is there a difference between a round body and overweight one? In my opinion I believe there is a difference depending on height and age. I would like to propose using the word athletic, curvy, or muscular instead of the word round. A woman can have a naturally more muscular, big boned body, while an overweight woman is considered obese.

There are many celebrities such as Beyonce and Kim Kardashian that embody a muscular, curvy woman. These women are not stick thin, but they are also not overweight.

I feel that the media should stop focusing on "big is in" because it could be translated into, eat whatever you want and look like Beyonce because she has a fuller figure. It is important to live a healthy lifestyle while not overeating, nor starving yourself. A healthy balance is what all media should be promoting. 

-Kelsey & Kirstin