Ines Rau just made history being named Playboy magazine’s first transgender Playmate.
The 26-year-old U.S.-based model originally from Paris, said nudity shouldn’t be taboo in a recent interview with the magazine.
“Nudity means a lot to me, since I went through a transition to get where I want to be. Nudity is a celebration of the human being without all the excess. It’s not about sexuality but the beauty of the human body, whether male or female. You can’t lie.”
In the interview, the November playmate also talked about being an advocate for others, especially those who fear being judged or rejected.
READ MORE: How Playboy elevated the art of the magazine interview
“They should be empowered by their differences and not be who society tells them to be.”
Rau, who was featured previously in the magazine’s May 2014 issue, also has worked with Vogue Italia and fashion brands like Balmain.
Social media users react
This news comes weeks after the death of Playboy’s founder Hugh Hefner. He was 93.
And although she won’t be featured on the cover (the cover will be a tribute to Hefner), People magazine notes, the model will have her own pictorial and centrefold.
READ MORE: The legacy of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner
But there were also several transphobic comments about Rau’s new title on social media, including a tweet from former porn star Jenna Jameson.
But for Rau, who has heard her fair share of transphobic comments, adds her body shouldn’t be anyone else’s business.
“People have said that being transgender goes against the laws of nature, but they’re the same people who aren’t doing anything to help nature. If I want to get a sex change, it’s between myself and my body. I could hide it, but I don’t because I respect people.”
Another first
Rau, however, was not the first transgender woman to be featured in Playboy. According to a 2015 interview with the magazine, former Bond Girl Caroline Cossey was featured in 1991.
In the piece, she also talked about being part of the LGBT community.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever stop feeling like a second-class citizen. It’s embedded and instilled from birth. You grow up, you don’t fit in, you don’t belong, you’re bullied. That doesn’t go away in five minutes. I don’t think it ever goes away. When I look back at it all, what I went through was tragic. But how do you deal with pain? You shrug it off. That’s the British way of doing it, at least,” she said in 2015.
READ MORE: Hugh Hefner set out to ‘shake up the sexual order’, biographer says
After the news of Rau becoming a Playmate, some magazine readers expressed it was disrespectful to Hefner’s vision of the brand.
On Wednesday, Playboy’s executive editor Shane Michael Singh responded to some of the transphobic backlash.
Playboy‘s November/December 2017 issue is avaialble October 31.
arti.patel@globalnews.ca