Bye Bye Bunny: Playboy’s Latest Cover Model Is…A Man?!

Playboy is known for its provocative covers. But with the exception of Hugh Hefner, the porn mag’s cover has always been graced by women…until now. The latest Playboy digital cover features none other than Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio – better known as Bad Bunny, the 26-year-old Puerto Rican trap artist whose album Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana (I Do Whatever I Want) became the highest-charting all-Spanish language album of all time.

If you thought a man on the cover of Playboy would be uninteresting, you’d be wrong. Bad Bunny likes to thumb his nose at the conventional trappings of masculinity. One version of the cover, which was shot by celebrity photographer Stillz in Miami, Florida, features the Latin artist’s eyes obscured with colored glasses, lips studded with gold Playboy emblems, and nails elaborately painted and bejeweled. He also dons a bit of bling on his fingers, earlobe, and neck.

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In the article, Bad Bunny, who addresses sexism in his music, is quoted as saying, “The music industry and society in general (treat women) like they’re nothing. Women are human beings and deserve respect and the same treatment as anybody else.” (Let’s hope this isn’t news to anyone. Jesus.)

We suppose Playboy wants a pat on the back for stepping out of their comfort zone but eccentric male musicians aren’t exactly what “readers” come to Playboy for. (That’s Rolling Stone’s deal.) We’re all for equal representation, but unless Bad Bunny appears in the mag nude, is this really that? Or does he get to keep his clothes on because he’s a man?

Rather than putting men on the cover, what would be a truly woke move is for dudes to cancel their subscriptions altogether – not because Playboy has redefined what makes a bunny but because objectifying anyone in porn mags is so 20th century.

Cover Photo: Matt Winkelmeyer / Staff (Getty Images)

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