The Bunnies of the Pac-10

Walking around USC you might not expect to find a room full of female Trojans in various states of undress. But Saturday at the Radisson Hotel, student hopefuls posed for world famous centerfold photographer Arny Freytag and Playboy representative Eden Orfanos for a chance to one day add “Bunny” to their résumés.

As part of their “Girls of the Pac-10” issue, which has been a tradition since 1976, Playboy scoured the West coast searching for — according to the press release — “the sexiest, most beautiful women of the Pacific-10 Conference.” Playboy holds auditions at each school and, starting this year, meets the women in person to set up their “illustrious annual college girls pictorial.” Of course, this includes USC.

“Last year, we didn’t go to the schools — we just had girls send in their pictures,” Orfanos said.

Having the women send in topless photos, however, created an explosion of applicants, and this year’s decision to travel to the campuses and meet potential models was based on practicality.

For many of the young women who pose for Playboy, it is their first time modeling and having guidance helps.

“It’s my duty to work through and teach the girls,” Freytag explained.

So why would a USC student try out for Playboy in the first place? Posing nude for a male magazine seems like a slippery slope. Men justify looking at Playboy by saying they “only read the articles” and women put down the “perfect” body type that Playboy proliferates.

But undeclared freshman Sarah Hoffman sees trying out for a spot in the magazine as more of a personal choice than anything else.

“I did it to complete my metamorphosis into a self-confident woman,” she said.

She said part of the challenge for her was not letting other people dissuade her. But when it came to the opinions of her parents, things were a little trickier.

Unlike the regular-issue Playboy models, Hoffman — and the other young women who arrived at the auditions — are still students.

“If I was really intent on doing it, then they would support me,” Hoffman said.

Orfanos said that Playboy has been a magazine where young women can get a toe-hold in the modeling industry, and it’s an opportunity for them to become entrepreneurs in their own lives.

Much like Hoffman, who said she does auditions “all the time,” Orfanos reiterated that women who come to Playboy often go on to be models or actresses.

“Playboy can act as a springboard for girls,” Orfanos said, suggesting the magazine can empower them. “Women come to us.”

Playboy has long been a place where any woman can come and make her own name. In fact, the idea that any woman can get recognition in a national magazine — as opposed to only celebrities — is a pillar that the magazine is built on.

If the intent of the publication is to showcase women, it’s no surprise, then, that Playboy has tapped the co-ed population.

“It’s the girl next door [idea],” Fretyag said. “That’s the philosophy the magazine started with. She’s someone you know from home. Every guy thinks they can meet that girl.”

Although Playboy does showcase famous actresses and models, it is known as a magazine filled with girls who aren’t celebrities.

“Hugh Hefner started by shooting his own secretary,” Freytag said of the Playboy founder and chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises’ initial forays into the world of publishing. “That’s what jumpstarted the magazine.”

Playboy’s Pac-10 romp to recruit college women could be interpreted as unabashedly exploitative, with Playboy taking advantage of the young women of USC to sell magazines. Conversely, some might see the magazine’s decision to recruit from universities as refreshing, because the magazine wants to show off smart, college-educated women as objects of male desire.

While there’s definitely a thin line between what is considered pornography versus what is art, Orfanos thinks that sexuality can be depicted through beautiful photographs and that much of what Playboy shows is art.

The fact that the Pac-10 issues began during the height of the ‘70s feminist movement isn’t just coincidence, he said.

“Hefner knew that guys wanted girls with brains,” Freytag said. “That’s when they started the college girls issue.”

Whichever way one chooses to look at it, there is no doubt that Playboy is a business-savvy magazine that knows who its consumers are.

Whether it plays to the desire for smart women, girls next door or someone who is just drop-dead sexy, Playboy is in tune with what men want — and it embodies the cliché marketing phrase “sex sells,” which has driven the magazine’s success and made it so taboo.