Juliette Frette: Playmate Feminist

In the June Playboy, the Playmate of the Month Juliette Frette defends her decision to pose for the men's magazine while resolutely remaining a feminist. She first posted in Playboy for one of their Special Editions and then now as Miss June. For her troubles from the first appearance, she was put on probation by her sorority Kappa Delta and some of her friends and family were unhappy as well. But, like myself and Roxy and Caroline, she refuses to prepetuate the stereotype of the intelligent woman who must "tone down" to be taken seriously. In addition to being a UCLA graduate in women's studies, Juliette is also a writer and very talented artist (her official site has some of her work up).

Ms. Frette also corrects the assumption many have about feminists that they are all man-haters, "...a real feminist is anything but a man hater, and I, for one, am definitely a man lover" before emphasizing that a desire to see parity between men and women and to insist on equal rights for women is what makes one a feminist. I think that's a message a certain group of feminists have missed. She also believes that women have the right to fluid identities, that we can be Barbie doll one day, dowdy the next or a hippie next week, which also ties into that other pernicious myth of Whore-Madonna (if you're one you can never be the other and it's the latter a woman should always aspire to). Juliette also admits that Playboy isn't perfect with regard to the feminist movement but, I have to say, more often than not, the magazine acknowledges women as whole people a lot more often than people like, oh, Gail Dines do.

Yes, I have quite the crush on Juliette now!

Miss June finds it personally empowering to pose for a myriad of reasons and voices the opinion of many sex-positives in that mainstream feminism needs to approach Playboy and by extension other forms of sexual, adult entertainment, with an open-mind. Indeed. Her issue obviously is not on the newsstand anymore (and I only saw it because my brother has a subscription) but if you're truly interested then Playboy.com sells old issues via its site. Her official site also has the unedited version of her Playmate article, which is a very good read (especially when she comments that some will consider her Playboy connections a setback, impedement or traitorous to the feminist movement).

Juliette Frette Official Site

WhiteHot Magazine: article on pinup artist Olivia de Berardinis by Juliette Frette