Playboy magazine breaks taboos by putting a publicly famous gay man on the cover for the first time
Many international media outlets, such as NBC and Gay Times, are reporting that Playboy has chosen a out gay man for its cover for the first time. In the photo, Bretman Rock is styled like the famous Playboy bunny, wearing high heels, a corset and standing in a large black metal frame. "It's a huge thing for the LGBT community, it's absolutely surreal. I can't believe it, is this really happening?" said twenty-three-year-old Bretman Rock. The magazine has faced criticism for the cover, but stands by it. By putting a gay man on the cover, Playboy is breaking taboos.
Soon after the cover was published, voices began to be raised criticizing the choice of the face of the October issue, on the grounds that until now it has been customary to style women in this way on the cover. Before him, stars such as Kate Moss, Dolly Parton and Kylie Jenner have appeared on the cover dressed as the iconic bunny.
Haters gonna hate
"Last week we published our first cover featuring openly gay model, Bretman Rock. Since then, we've gotten a lot of great reactions, but also a lot of negative ones," Playboy writes.
But the magazine defended its decision to feature the famous influencer on its cover. "Standing as a platform for free speech is what we stand for," it added.
Bretman Rock is known for his beauty vlogs on YouTube and MTV has aired a reality show about his life. He shared the fresh cover on his social media, where he has 5.7 million followers on Twitter and 17.7 million on Instagram. A tweet about the front page of the famous magazine immediately received over 120,000 likes and a post on Instagram even got 2.1 million.
The Rock is not the first man on the cover of Playboy. Before him, Steve Martin and Burt Reynolds, for example, have appeared on the cover. Martin posed in lingerie and a jacket, Reynolds in a tuxedo, and both of them together with women. In the recent past, actor Ezra Miller, who considers himself non-binary, meaning he doesn't feel like a member of either gender, has also been photographed as a Playboy cover bunny.
