Pubic Wars
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pubic Wars, a pun on the Punic Wars, is the name given to the rivalry between the pornographic magazines Playboy and Penthouse during the 1960s and 1970s. Each magazine strove to show just a little bit more than the other, without crossing the "line of decency" generally accepted at the time.
In the 1950's it was generally agreed that nude photographs were not pornographic unless they showed pubic hair. Respectable photography was careful to come close to, but not cross over, this line.
Penthouse published pictorials featuring visible female pubic hair almost from its inception in 1965. Playboy, however, did not show any pubic hair until its August 1969 issue, and not on its featured centerfold model until December that same year, when Gloria Root showed (hardly visible) pubic hair. The first playmate to clearly have the first full frontal nude centerfold was Miss January 1971, Liv Lindeland.
Eventually, the two magazines would move their content in opposite directions. Playboy positioned itself as the less explicit softcore alternative to be "read for the articles". Penthouse gravitated towards raunchier images, ultimately arriving at hardcore pornography in the late 1990s. Under new ownership in 2005, Penthouse began to steer toward a more softcore direction as well.
The term is somewhat ironic today, as most nude and pornographic models now generally shave their pubic hair.
