IU students pose for camera at Playboy audition

Personalities weren’t the only perky things at Bloomington’s Fairfield Inn on Monday and Tuesday. \nPlayboy magazine held auditions for its “Girls of the Big 10” issue, which is due to hit newsstands in May.\n“We’ll probably see a total of about 100 girls,” said Eden Orfanos, a producer for Playboy magazine. “Unfortunately, we can only take 12.”\nAmong the 100 women were two roommates, sophomores Megan Yapo and Casey Miller, who said they thought trying out would be fun.\n“We’re kind of using this as a bonding experience,” Miller said.\nThe women were asked to fill out biographical information while they waited to be photographed. Some flipped through previous issues of Playboy that featured college girls, while others chatted about the pictorials, saying the photographs were beautifully done. \nAfter waiting for their turns, the women were called one by one into an adjoining hotel room to undress and be photographed.\n“My parents don’t know I’m doing this,” Yapo said, laughing. “They would probably just ask me if I had to work out beforehand.”\nAlthough Playboy is predominantly known for picturing scantily-clad women in its publications, the “Girls of the Big 10” issue is looking for a good personality, including someone with a lot of school spirit, Playboy spokeswoman Tina Manzo said Monday in an Indiana Daily Student article.\n“Hef (Hugh Hefner) will see photos of every single one of the girls we have chosen,” Orfanos said. “He loves it when a girl doesn’t want to just be a model or an actress. He is inspired by women who have more going on than that.”\nTwo or three women are chosen every year from the college-girls issues to become full-time playmates, Orfanos said. With that, Yapo said her ears perked up.\n“It’s something I’d maybe consider looking into if it was offered to me,” Yapo said, even though she had said earlier that this was the first time she had thought about posing in Playboy. “It’s so exciting that Hef actually sees all of our pictures.” \nEach pictorial that goes into the magazine is first approved by Playboy founder Hefner, Orfanos said. Sometimes the decision of which pictorial to include is not chosen based on beauty alone, but on ethnicity or hair color to ensure a diverse magazine. \n“I wish we would have had half of the girls here come out at Illinois,” Orfanos said. “It was so shitty there, and there are so many amazing girls that have come out here.”\nAs long as the women who choose to participate in the pictorials do it of their own free will, Carol McCord, the assistant dean of the Office for Women’s Affairs, said there is no problem with it.\n“It wouldn’t be a personal choice of many women,” she said. “But others who are comfortable with their bodies should have the choice.”\nOrfanos sees magazines such as Playboy as a way to for women to express themselves.\n“What could be more empowering to young women than expressing themselves in an artistic way?” Orfanos said. “The magazine has featured incredible female authors, artists, athletes, models and actresses. It’s absolutely empowering.”