Students explain why they're trying out for Playboy pictorial

Angie, a 21-year-old Mississippi State University aerospace engineering student from North Carolina with strawberry highlights, did not spend her spring break working on her tan on the Florida beaches.

She was here in town studying.

But Monday afternoon she and fellow student, Andy, 21, an educational psychology student at State, put away the books and instead were sitting on a sofa in suite 101 of a local hotel beneath a large framed black and white poster with the Playboy bunny logo, awaiting an audition with Playboy photographers for the “Girls of the SEC” pictorial to run in a special fall 2007 college women edition.

Both of the women asked that their last names not be used, and Playboy asked that the name of the hotel not be revealed.

“I've always been interested in Playboy, and just recently when they said they were coming out to Mississippi State, I said, well here's an opportunity here,” said Andy, 21, from Grenada.


Angie, like Andy, was anxious to step in front of the camera, and both see Playboy as a way to break into other forms of modeling and possibly acting.

“I was actually nervous a little, and then it was like, OK, this is no big deal. So I'm fine,” said Angie.

“I thought it was funny that people on campus were saying not to do it. And I said, ‘Wait, Playboy's coming?' And then I grabbed the (news)paper,” said Angie, referring to buzz around MSU after a petition began circulating bemoaning Playboy's presence on campus.

The magazine never intended to hold its auditions on campus, but picks the women for its Girls of the SEC from the members of the student body who come out to audition.

Playboy and magazines like it have held sway over a long line of criticism from women's groups - both liberal and conservative - who argue the photos of nude or mostly nude women reduce women to sex objects.



But for the women Monday, they say this view is overly simplified, and how the women in Playboy are summed up - many are depicted as sliding out of gauzy negligées - is in the eyes of the viewer.

“For me personally, it's not about that (women as sex objects). It's just the person who looks at the magazine, and what they're going to think,” said Angie, wearing a short denim micro-skirt and red stilettos.

Andy agreed, saying too much criticism has been directed at nudity in general.

“It's kind of like you have a model and maybe you happen to be in the nude,” she said.

Others in the MSU community wonder what, if any interests the Playboy interviews will really raise.

“I have never seen any evidence that most of our students would be at all drawn to this experience,” said Dr. Kelly March, an English professor in the Women's Studies program at MSU. “I'd be surprised if anyone really showed up.”

“I think MSU students are just not drawn to this type of activity,” added Marsh.

Playboy photographers say the only real difference between women in Mississippi and other parts of the country is here, they're older.

“The only difference we have now, with us being in Mississippi, is we're getting girls a little older, so they're a little more mature than what we usually get,” said Playboy photographer Kim Mizumo, noting a Mississippi state law which requires women to be 21 to pose nude.

“Usually, we get a lot of 18-year-olds,” he said.



Also on this college circuit is the University of Arkansas, Louisiana State University, and next week, the crew will be at University of Mississippi.

Playboy would not comment on how much the women were paid for the photo session.

“I can only say that it's a fair amount and should help them with some of their education expenses,” said Playboy spokesman Stefan Prelog.

The last time MSU women were featured in the Girls of SEC pictorial was 2001, and the series is part of a long-running tradition at Playboy featuring college women such as Girls of the Ivy League, introduced in 1979 and then followed by Girls of the Big 12 or Girls of the Top 10 Party Schools.