Ines Rau has made history with Playboy Magazine, when the publication announced that it had chosen to feature the French fashion model as the first transgender playmate to appear centrefold in their 64-year history.
Rau will be featured in the November/December 2017 edition, and has sparked controversy. But, Playboy has proudly stated that they are "Standing on the right side of history" by choosing to feature Rau.
The publication shared some reactions they received in the 60s, when they featured the first ever African-American woman, Jennifer Jackson.
Playboy compared some of the reactions they have received with Rau's feature to some from Jackson's, showing the similarity between the two. In both cases, many fans revoked their subscriptions or returned the issue.
In March 1965, we featured Jenny Jackson, our first black Playmate. pic.twitter.com/2zXtQ4EDrd
— Playboy (@Playboy) October 19, 2017
Many fans revoked their subscription or returned the issue. pic.twitter.com/Xueo3hSDmx
— Playboy (@Playboy) October 19, 2017
"After all, a woman is a woman is a woman," said one letter to the editor.
Hugh Hefner’s son Cooper Hefner, defended the company’s decision, saying “We should collectively be fighting for a more open world, not one that promotes hatred and a lack of acceptance.”
We should collectively be fighting for a more open world, not one that promotes hatred and a lack of acceptance.
— Cooper Hefner (@cooperhefner) October 19, 2017
Playboy says that Rau has an "irrepressible passion for self-love and honesty."
“I lived a long time without saying I was transgender,” Rau said in a Playboy interview. “It’s a salvation to speak the truth about yourself, whether it’s your gender, sexuality, whatever. The people who reject you aren’t worth it. It’s not about being loved by others; it’s about loving yourself.”
At 26-years-old, Rau has appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia, walked couture runways, and starred in a Balmain campaign.
Commentors on social media insist that Hugh Hefner, whose death in September of this year came with divisive reactions, would be rolling in his grave at his son's decision to have a transgender woman in his magazine.
However, Rau did make an appearance in a May 2014 issue in a spread titled Evolution, which surveyed "humanity’s halting shift toward acceptance of gender identities beyond the male-female binary."
Although she isn’t the first transgender woman to be shot for Playboy Magazine, she is the first to be recognized as transgender. According to Playboy, the first transgender woman to pose for Playboy was Tula in September 1991, although she wasn't out at the time of the shoot.
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