Penthouse, Hustler & Playboy in South Africa’s neoliberal nineties

ABSTRACT The nineties saw the lifting of sanctions in South Africa which implied an influx of brands that needed appropriate spaces to advertise their wares. For this reason, and the virtual end of censorship, this was the ideal context for international men’s magazines to enter the South African market. Hustler, Penthouse and Playboy all started South African editions as the country transitioned into democracy, manifestly contributing to a globalising of the local, sexual imaginary. The origin story of each publication is told here as a documentation of the “Americanisation” of sex in nineties South Africa, meaning, the way sexual representation was standardised via print capitalism and a postfeminist ethos. The article investigates the ways in which these publications engaged with psycho-affective discourses of progress in order to further and normalise a nationalism caught between the dream of decolonisation and the reality of globalisation.