Course:CSIS200/2025/Gazing Back: Through the Lens of Pamela Anderson, the so-called “Glamour” of Playboy Magazines.

Author

My name is Andrea Luo, and I am currently in my second year at the University of British Columbia, pursuing a double major in Political Science and French. Growing up in an immigrant household, I was encouraged to be curious and always strive for the best. This environment also helped me become trilingual in English, French, and Mandarin. Attending French Immersion since age five, while speaking Mandarin at home, has shaped me to be open-minded and eager to learn. In 2023, I was honoured to be crowned Miss White Rock, a platform I used to serve as a role model for youth, voice community concerns, and represent my city. I am also currently serving as the External Relations Coordinator for the AUS. After completing my Bachelor of Arts, I hope to attend law school or work for the Canadian government, pursuing a career where I can help others and make a positive impact.

Introduction

January 2011 Playboy cover featuring Pamela Anderson.

Pamela Anderson's appearance on the January 2011 cover of Playboy, shows how Anderson is treated as a sex commodity and how women in media, specifically Playboy, aren't permitted to age naturally. At forty-three, Anderson appeared on the cover for the thirteenth time, breaking her own record and establishing her place as the magazine's longest-lasting icon.

The cover shows Anderson posed in a very sexual manner. She is showing off her slim figure by arching her back, while also looking voluptuous. Her facial expression is seductive and sultry, with her lips parted, her hair playing with her hair, and bold eyes with heavy makeup, as demonstrated by the dark eyeshadow. As observed, instead of embracing a more natural look, Playboy seems to deliberately present her in a way that would still appeal to the audience through editing, by making her look young and styling her in a sexual way. In my view, this demonstrates that society holds expectations for women to always look young and attractive in order to remain in the entertainment industry.

As well as meeting the audience's perceived beauty standards, the majority of Playboy's audience is male, dictated not only by patriarchy but also by capitalism. This denial of natural beauty and the acceptance of aging is ultimately about money. By ensuring Anderson remained young, beautiful, and sexually desirable, Playboy directly accommodated its predominantly male demographic by using a woman's sexuality as a commodity.

The Backstory Behind Playboy

Hugh Hefner attended the premiere of Sylvester Stallone's film F.I.S.T. in April 1978.

The iconic Playboy logo.

Hugh Hefner was born into a very strict, conservative, and religious family in 1926 in Chicago. Before launching Playboy, he worked as a writer for Esquire, but quit later on, when the company relocated to New York. That decision led him to create his own magazine in 1953 that openly talked about sexuality when it was still considered controversial. Over the years, Hefner had a major impact on Playboy, turning it into one of the world's most famous media enterprises. It became well-known for its mix of nude or semi-nude pictures of women and played a major role in reshaping public opinions toward sexuality in the 1950s and 1960s.

The iconic Playboy Bunny logo was designed by Art Paul in 1953; the logo presents a bunny wearing a bow tie. Hefner was very pleased with the design because it represented fun and sexiness, which matched the magazine's theme. The bow tie makes it look classy, showing the fancy lifestyle the brand promotes.

It Girl of the '90s

November 1994 Playboy cover featuring Pamela Anderson.

Pamela Anderson became one of the most iconic figures in the 1990s, often known as the "blonde bombshell". The "blonde bombshell" has long been promoted by men, known for its platinum-blonde hair, curves, and sexy vibes. Vogue even mentioned that Anderson's style helped shape beauty trends during the '90s. This ideal can be traced back to figures like Marilyn Monroe, but it became especially influential in the 1990s through Pamela Anderson.

When comparing the November 1994 and the January 2011 Playboy covers, we see many similarities between the two. In both, Anderson is wearing a tight black outfit, and her body is angled to the side to accentuate her figure. She presents herself in a very seductive way, as shown by the way she plays with her hair and tilts her head. To add on, her dark eyeshadow gives her a smoky and sultry appearance. Despite the covers having a 17-year gap, her overall appearance remains nearly identical. The magazine's choice looks to reinforce the idea that a woman’s value and desirability are expected to remain ageless, as if anything else would undermine her worth.

It's Showtime! (video)

In The Last Showgirl, Anderson is seen playing a fifty-seven-year-old character named Shelly, an older Las Vegas showgirl. Shelly is facing the end of her career after being replaced by younger and better-looking performers. The film explores the harsh reality that older women are undervalued and how dreams can fade when you reach a certain age in the entertainment industry. Playboy is known to present appealing models; they either heavily edit their photos to remove any signs of aging or use young, appealing women. This could be associated with why Playboy portrayed Pamela as if she remained frozen in her 1990s "prime," during her 2011 Playboy cover, despite being forty-three.

This reflects that many people in the entertainment industry worry that if a woman is shown aging, viewers will stop being interested. This creates pressure for women to constantly have the urge to maintain a youthful look. Sociologist Sue Westwood describes this denial of aging as "sexageism," the intersection of ageism and sexism. She argues that older women experience discrimination because our society values youth and sexualizes younger women, leaving older women devalued and ignored. Because of this, older women are often associated as sexually undesirable and therefore socially invisible; they often get ignored in conversations and public spaces. This is exhibited by the reaction of when Anderson decided not to wear makeup at the launch of her pop-up store. People commented on her appearance, remarking, "she looks like a grandmother." This response demonstrates how deeply ingrained sexageism is in society; women are expected to maintain a youthful appearance, and anything different from that ideal comes with criticism.

At the End of the Day, It’s All About the Money, Right?

Pamela Anderson dressed as a Playboy Bunny, sitting on Hugh Hefner's lap.

The Playboy industry experienced its major boom during the late 1950s. Hugh Hefner's vision for the company was a capitalist exploitation to help male audiences explore their sexual desires through magazines within a patriarchal structure. This structure exists because sex is a social invention whose rules and norms are defined by those in power, which historically were implemented in a patriarchal system led by white and heterosexual males. By the 1990s, the company had turned into a multi-media brand that earned hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Historically, Playboy magazines have featured only women. The choice to exploit women as their primary source of income directly connects to Baumeister & Vohs' work. They explained that sex is primarily a female resource, with "women become the suppliers of sex, whereas men constitute the demand for it and play the role of purchasers and consumers." The existence of the market is due to "men's desire for variety in sexual partners...that has fuelled the world sex trade." Playboy generates tons of money, showing how much profit a capitalist company can generate by selling and reselling women's shots.

Leisse and Keina's podcast episode, "Finding the Root of the Problem: The Patriarchy and Our Money", discusses how industries are so profit-focused, driven by capitalism and patriarchy. They argue this system reinforces the belief that "women are meant to serve men," allowing industries like Playboy to, exploit women's bodies for financial gain. Pamela is a victim of this; she was often used and taken advantage of by the business, which was mostly run by white men like Hugh Hefner, to make as much money as possible.

Liberation Of Standards (video)

Pamela Anderson attended the 2023 Paris Fashion Week makeup-free.

In the Drew Barrymore show, Anderson is being praised by Barrymore for attending red carpets and participating in interviews makeup-free. Anderson describes feeling a sense of liberation and empowerment in her natural state, feeling relief from the pressure to conform to society's beauty standards, remarking, "it's like a relief." This concept connects to Patricia Hill Collins' feminist belief that the pressure on women to conform to appearance standards is a form of oppression. To liberate these toxic beauty standards and ideals, society should actively reject them, recognize and change the ways we have accepted oppression, if we want to create positive social changes. Anderson demonstrates her own rejection of these standards by deciding to go makeup-free and embracing the natural aging process.

History Repeats Itself (video)

Researchers like Toni Daniel and Christine Campbell note that modern sex workers often use strategies like hiding parts of their lives or creating different identities to cope with prejudice present in the entertainment industry, while trying to feel good about their work. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Pamela said, "I’ve been playing characters my whole life," showing how much external expectations have shaped who she is.

The pressures on modern sex workers, like OnlyFans creator Lily Phillips, highlight the persistent resentment and judgment society has towards the sex industry. Lily shared how stressful it is to satisfy her clients, saying she felt the "pressure to have to make them cum...you didn't give them enough time." This reflects the prejudice faced by entertainers like Lily, who is criticized both for their work and for failing to satisfy clients. Lily described feeling guilty when she couldn’t meet a client’s expectations fast enough and received backlash for her work at the same time. This shows that negative views concerning sex work and expectations set for them are still very much present.

However, the discrimination faced by sex workers has occurred repeatedly throughout history, existing long before figures like Pamela. An example is the sex workers in Vancouver during the 1980s, who were often shamed away for their work by neighbours who called them "vulgar, lower-class, and deviant." These comparisons reveal that, even decades later, people in the sex industry continue to face prejudice, impacting and affecting their self-esteem. While their work may not be identical, they are seen to be valued for what they do, not who they are.

Conclusion

Pamela Anderson's January 2011 cover photo for Playboy demonstrates how consumer culture and media institutions often commodify a woman's sexuality for currency. Looking into the industry, we see how the company pressures women to always look young to stay "valuable." The denial of natural aging is done to maximize profit; this is driven by capitalist and patriarchal systems. Due to this, the female body is often treated as a resource to satisfy the demands of a predominantly male audience. Styling Anderson to appear ageless is an example of sexageism, where women are judged and valued less as they get older because society associates a woman's worth with being young and sexualized.

Her decision to reject these standards implemented, such as choosing to go makeup-free at many events, shows her resistance to conform. However, when reflecting back on her figure, many still associate her as her '90s prime, proving that society doesn't accept her current state and that industries, such as Playboy and society care more about her beauty than who she really is as a person.