
Modernisation is the name of the game at the moment.
Which is why Playboy magazine is moving away from its history of objectifying naked women and instead dissecting identities with its first ever digital cover.
It features the second ever man to appear solo on the iconic magazine’s front page, after founder Hugh Hefner: Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny.
Real name Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, Bad Bunny’s cover shoot is making waves for several reasons, including his decision to aesthetically play around with traditional boundaries of masculinity.
Bad Bunny for Playboy Magazine. https://t.co/Cpp7AqCav5— Pop Base (@Pop Base) 1594227664
The trap artist is a cisgender man who uses he/him pronouns and has a long-term girlfriend, model Gabriela Berlingeri.
Yet he regularly presents wearing acrylic nails, make-up, jewellery and clothing that are regularly seen as the preserve of ‘femme’ identities.
So Bad Bunny’s appearance on the cover of a publication known for its entrenched ideas of what ‘men’ and ‘women’ should be, has prompted an intense discussion.
In an interview conducted by Venezuelan-American journalist E.R Pulgar, Bunny talked about how he wanted to make reggaeton inclusive and break away from its past of toxic masculinity.
“There’s nothing worse than being somewhere and feeling like you don’t belong,” Bunny told Pulgar.
“I’ve been trying to make sure everybody feels part of the culture of reggaetón. I want to make sure they feel that they have someone there, that friend that can stand up for them”.
His gender nonconforming cover shoot has impressed many.
One fan wanted to hang the pictures in the Louvre.
i know a million people have tweeted this already but i’m hanging these on my profile as if it’s the louvre— frankie ✰ (@frankie ✰) 1594223834
There was a lot of… appreciation.
Bad Bunny para Playboy, that’s it that’s the tweet https://t.co/OhPP3jXARe— johana (@johana) 1594144010
However, the cover also led some to say Bunny was appropriating ‘queer aesthetics’.
Queer aesthetics are always marketable when it’s not queer people using them. How many queer musicians are there in… https://t.co/XMqW4YnmDm— AUDEN (@AUDEN) 1594145309
A stance that was quickly challenged for being too rigid and binary in its thinking.
what even is this “queer aesthetics”? men embracing femininity is not appropriating anything. and for someone with… https://t.co/CVKnHmxFQ1— QUINCY (@QUINCY) 1594229017
And others said they were already disappointed in Bunny for his alleged silence regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.
Bad Bunny wasn’t very vocal about the BLM movement so no, i don’t care about his Playboy cover— juls (@juls) 1594136384
Several people criticised what they perceived as a lack of of public response from the artist, given his position as a progressive celebrity.
But others reminded them that Bunny had been showing solidarity from Puerto Rico.
And that not every celebrity makes all their actions public.
Like everything to happen on the internet, Bad Bunny’s cover received first praise and then backlash.
Either way, he’s made history.
And worn perfect Versace nail art while doing so.
Iconic.