Earlier this week, Playboy made its message clear on its view of the body-positivity movement when it featured its first-ever plus-size cover model. That honor would go to Hayley Hasselhoff, the daughter of former “Night Rider” star David Hasselhoff.
The 28-year-old Hasselhoff said that it has made her feel “empowered” to pose nude for Playboy Germany. She first became a curve model at the age of 14.
“My dad is very supportive in the choices I make for my own career. My mum and my dad are always very supportive in everything that I have done,” she said. “You have to remember I’ve been in this industry since I was 14 and I’ve been a curve model since I was 14.”
“We all have different journeys in the curve industry, but for me, I started out as a curve model and I am still a curve model today,” she continued. “To see the progression of where I’ve gone, to where I am today, I think they’re both very, very supportive and they believe in me and all the choices I make in my own career, just like I do for them.”
The photos for the cover shoot were shot during the pandemic in Paris.
“There are a few photos that are tastefully nude where I’m topless,” she said. “At the beginning, there were pieces of me like ‘oh Playboy…’ and then I had a think and I was like ‘oh cool!’ I get to make this movement for curve women during a global pandemic and let them know they have every right to celebrate their bodies. Looking at those images I have to say there were definitely moments on set where I was apprehensive because it was my first time ever shooting something like this.”
“It was one of those moments where you have a thought bubble and that apprehensiveness – but then that positive thought came back in and said ‘hold on a second that’s the whole reason you’re here today,’” she added.
Earlier this month, actress Lena Dunham launched her own line of plus-sized clothing and lamented her issues with the current body-positive movement, taking issue with words like “plus” or “curvy.”
“The thing that’s complicated about the body-positive movement is it can be for the privileged few who have a body that looks the way people want to feel positive,” she said. “We want curvy bodies that look like Kim Kardashian has been up-sized slightly. We want big beautiful butts and big beautiful breasts and no cellulite and faces that look like you could smack them on to thin women.”
“I have a big stomach, I always have. That’s where I gain my weight — especially after early menopause, I have a straight-up gut, like an old man — and that’s not where anybody wants to see flesh. It’s not like if I posted a sensual nude of myself on Instagram, people would be marveling at my beautiful derrière,” she added.
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