As we "Women of the Ivy League" are well aware, in one month Playboy Magazine and its team of photographers will make its descent onto our campus. If interested, we are invited to join the ranks of the 16,000 coeds who have competed for coveted spots on the pages of Playboy's college pictorial.
According to an ad in Monday's issue of the Dartmouth, we too can aspire to be one of those who have "gone on to become Playboy Playmates, actresses and models."The overriding sentiment expressed in this ad is not so much that Playboy wants us, but that we must want Playboy.
In order to establish that Playboy is actually getting Ivy League submissions for their magazine, I decided to give Playboy a call. I was able to confirm that the magazine had no trouble finding centerfold candidates at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University and Princeton University. The woman at Playboy stated that depending on the choices, about three to four women are featured from each Ivy League school. And, although according to her "nudity is what Playboy is all about," she also mentioned that there are opportunities for semi-nude and campus shots.
Actually, I guess I knew most of this already. If no one tried out for Playboy's back-to-school issue, they wouldn't be planning one. Ivy League features of years past have set a precedent, and it is one that I amskeptical we will be able to alter. Given what happened already at three other Ivies, I assume that Dartmouth will contribute its token three or four models to Playboy's glossy spread.
Perhaps my predictions are too hasty. I am well aware that a number of students have already gotten together to protest the Playboy visit. They organized the group with the hope that by educating the campus about pornography, Dartmouth coeds will be conspicuously absent from the pages of the magazine. However, even though I wish for the success of their group, it saddens me to believe that they will not be pleased with what they find on the pages of Playboy next fall.
In some ways, Dartmouth would be the last place that I would think a publication like Playboy could find centerfolds. Supposedly, we are among the brightest, most educated young women in the country. We should know better than to expose our bodies for the sake of male pleasure. We should know that the age-old adage of smart but ugly is not only a stereotype, but also an irrelevancy.
Body image is of crucial importance to the women of Dartmouth. Many of us exercise, diet and watch what we eat in hope of attaining a better physique. We are now being offered the chance to show off the fruits of our labors.
In some ways, the opportunity to appear in the pages of Playboy is another competition that we may allow ourselves to enter. We test ourselves at this school. We see who can run more and eat less. Now, we can see who's good enough to be selected by Playboy. We know we can stand up to Dartmouth's standards of academic excellence, but now there's a new challenge. Who can measure up to Playboy's standards of beauty? Will we resist the temptation to find out?
Can we be both smart and sexy? Playboy says we can. Or so it seems. When Playboy features an Ivy League issue, they are perhaps debunking the myth that smart women are unattractive. However, if we allow ourselves to be featured in such a publication, I am reluctant to say we would be doing something particularly smart. In fact, an Ivy League issue hurts women even more than a regular issue. It highlights the fact that although we are both educated and intelligent, we still want to be photographed and scrutinized. We are not only appearing as sex objects, but also asking to be viewed in such a way.
In spite of all this, I am reluctant to classify the issue of Playboy coming to Dartmouth as one of exploitation. Any women who appear on the pages of Playboy have chosen to be there and have been compensated for that choice. I think Playboy does have a right to come to Dartmouth, and a right to ask us if we want to voluntarily bare our bodies for them. In response, we also have the right to decline this offer. I'm just not so sure we will.
