The company has also launched the hashtag #NakedIsNormal in posts showing off their upcoming cover which features 25-year-old model Elizabeth Elam, topless, barely covered by the same phrase.
— Playboy (@Playboy) February 13, 2017
The issue also advertises articles on the “Free the Nipple,” movement to decriminalize women being topless in public, an interview with CNN contributor Van Jones, and ‘Cannabis: A User’s Guide.’
“Not only am I excited and honored to be on the cover of an iconic magazine that has historically encouraged the dialogue of important social issues while standing on the right side of history; I'm so excited to be on the cover of this specific issue! If you know me you know I have always been team #freethenipple,” Elam wrote in an Instagram post about the issue. “Women's bodies have always been a topic of conversation. We can be over sexualized and we can be made to feel ashamed of our bodies. I've never subscribed to those narratives and this issue of Playboy celebrates that. Naked really is normal.”
“Playboy has been a friend to nudity, and nudity has been a friend to Playboy, for decades. The short answer is: times change,” an October, 2015, statement about the end to their nudity had stated.
Not everyone agreed with his decision it seems, and on Monday, Monday, Playboy's Chief Creative Officer, Hugh Hefner’s son Cooper Hefner, announced that removing the nudes was a mistake.
— Cooper Hefner (@cooperhefner) February 13, 2017
"I'll be the first to admit that the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake," Cooper explained. "Nudity was never the problem because nudity isn't a problem. Today we're taking our identity back and reclaiming who we are."
