Abstract
Playboy centerfolds were assumed to represent cultural images of women. Greater numbers of fetish symbols were strongly associated with greater anatomical femaleness in centerfolds, supporting the psychoanalytic hypothesis that fetishes devalue women to alleviate the anxiety aroused by anatomical femaleness. A learning theory explanation of fetishes was not supported. Anatomical femaleness of models, measured by bust, hip, and waist size, decreased, in that from 1959 to 1970 models became decreasingly voluptuous, then using a second measure of anatomical femaleness, increased, in that from 1971 to 1985 models became increasingly genitally explicit. Fetish symbols decreased and then increased in corresponding fashion. Footwear most unambiguously symbolized fetishes.
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