Playboy has already expanded its empire from porn to pencil cases, so it should be no surprise that it is responding to the Web 2.0 craze with a social networking site for students.

The Chronicle of Higher Education suggests some slogans, including “Facebook with foldouts”. Yet, according to Techcrunch, Playboy is keen to distance it from, well, porn:

In what may be a bummer for some, the site will be “an exclusive college-only non-nude social network”.

Of course, though, the whole thing is built on Playboy’s pornilicious reputation. Speaking of which, Shameless Magazine has picked up on an interesting quote from an interview with the chair and CEO of Playboy Enterprises Christie Hefner:

“To say you’re not a feminist is virtually the same thing as saying you’re a racist.”

Even if porn can be feminist, I’m not sure it’s possible to say that Playboy is feminist. Hefner may be a bit confused, but personally I think she’s still managed to hit this pretty much in the right spot. It’s shocking, but it’s interesting that it’s shocking.

Head over to Racialicious’ comments section for some interesting thoughts on this quote. For example:

The f-word has been demonized by people from just about every political stripe at one time or another. It’s been a convenient scapegoat for everything from sexually active teens, boys not doing well in school, divorce and rape. It’s has a reputation more like Black Power than Civil Rights for the average person: extreme, angry, society changing. This is not to say this is an accurate representation so much as a stereotype though.

Photo by Jorge Mientes, shared under a Creative Commons license

Posted by Jess McCabe on 29 August 2007, at 7:08 PM