My Perspective: Playboy's "Girls of the Big Ten"

By Michael H. on March 22, 2012

photo from flickr.com, uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlottegodfrey/6326161953/

After I posted a comment about Playboy Magazine coming to my university on a social networking site, an argument ensued about whether or not a student could be punished for being selected.

I feel that I must make the statement that I am not aware if students will be asked to pose nude. However, looking at the usual Playboy business model, it could be assumed that the girls selected will probably be asked to do so.

Many of my friends began to argue that any girl selected would probably get in quite a bit of trouble with the university. I refuted this claim by stating that, to my knowledge, the student handbook said nothing about posing nude while, “representing the university,” as a punishable offense.

One friend continued to argue that it had happened in the past. This is when I decided to activate my investigative skills (Google) and get to the bottom of this. As I searched, I found a treasure trove of articles about students who were punished by universities in other countries for posing nude in photographs. However, I couldn’t find anything on whether or not American students had been punished.

I switched some of the words in my search and delved further. Finally, in an excerpt from Major Principles of Media Law by Wayne Overbeck, I found out that in 1980 the President of Baylor University actually did warn students that they would be punished for posing in the “Girls of the Southwest Conference” photoshoot that Playboy was organizing.

From the excerpt, it was made clear that part of the problem was Baylor’s status as a private institution. I got to Michigan State, which is a public institution. To my knowledge, they couldn’t expel students for trivial reasons – unlike a private university.

So far, I have still been unable to come up with instances where students from my university were threatened with punishment for posing for the magazine. Looking simply for cases in which students were threatened for posing for the magazine gave me a bunch of articles about Baylor threatening students who chose to pose. Several articles contained information about schools (Mississippi State and University of Arkansas, for example) where students were NOT punished for posing.

One article contained information about a student government leader at ASU who advocated that students should receive punishment if they chose to pose. The university President said that he didn’t believe students could be punished with expulsion or suspension for doing something that they are legally allowed to do above the age of 18.

In my opinion, I think students should be allowed to do whatever they choose to do as long as it isn’t harming other students or illegal. A university may not want to be affiliated with the magazine, but they shouldn’t punish students for it. Luckily for me, it would appear that my school doesn’t have any qualms with students participating.

The triviality becomes illogical when considering that many universities will pay students to pose nude for art classes. This goes back to the argument about obscenity and whether or not Playboy could be considered art. It is difficult to see how anyone could claim that the professional photographs taken by the magazine are not a form of art. Why, then, should students be punished for posing nude for another organization but not for the university?

Perhaps a day will come when all students can enjoy the freedoms that are enjoyed by others. Some people may enjoy showing their school spirit by posing nude for the magazine, and they should be allowed to pursue that without fear of punishment.

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