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- Title
Tough Women in the Unlikeliest of Places: The Unexpected Toughness of the Playboy Playmate.
- Authors
Allison, Scott; Beggan, James
- Abstract
This article interprets the icon of the Playboy Playmate in terms of the tough woman. Although our culture most often conceptualizes Playmates as highly sexualized, commercialized objects, they are not just busty pinup girlie-girls. Playmates have unexpected elements of toughness in their collective nature, and in reality, Playboy presents them as possessing much more complex characters than popular wisdom would allow. In her book Tough Girls, Sherrie Inness examines the representation of tough women in popular culture. She identifies early instantiations of the tough girl in 1970s television, specifically Charlie's Angels, the bionic woman, and Emma Peel in The Avengers. Ultimately, however, Inness asserts that the containment of the toughness of women is never absolute. According to Inness, one way to conceptualize toughness in women is through their ability to take on stereotypically masculine traits. However, not all Playmates might earn the moniker tough, but the great majority had attributes consistent with the identity of the tough women, as defined by Inness. Only a handful of Playmates seemed to lack any attributes of toughness. In her analysis of tough women and tough girls, Sherrie Inness identifies four broad characteristics that contribute to the new tough woman. These characteristics are body, attitude, actions, and authority.
- Subjects
PHOTOGRAPHY of women; TOUGHNESS (Personality trait); PHOTOGRAPHY of the nude; INNESS, Sherrie; POPULAR culture
- Publication
Journal of Popular Culture, 2005, Vol 38, Issue 5, p796
- ISSN
1540-5931
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.0022-3840.2005.00142.x