Bretman Rock makes history on the cover of 'Playboy' magazine

Social media star Bretman Rock made history when Playboy featured the Filipino American on its digital cover in its October 2021 issue.

Rock is the first openly gay man to be on the cover of the iconic men's lifestyle  magazine wearing the prerequisite bunny ears, bustier and white collar and cuffs.

“I’m a @playboy bunny 🐰 DUHHHHHH,” tweeted Rock, receiving thousands of likes. Rock is a 23-year-old Filipino beauty influencer who has amassed nearly 9-million subscribers on YouTube.

Playboy shared a statement from the beauty influencer, "Just for Playboy to have a male on the cover is a huge deal for the LGBT community, for my brown people community, it’s surreal Like ‘is this even f—king happening right now? type of vibe. And I’m so pretty. So yea, everything happens for a reason and it proves that I’m a big ass witch. Weird flex but okay.” 

The Philippines-born Bretman Rock is his real name, but his full name is Bretman Rock Sacayanan.

Playboy, famous for its nude images of women, stopped publishing a print edition in March of 2020 as the pandemic took hold with the intention of resuming printing the quarterly magazine in 2021. However, the transformation to a digital format appears to be permanent.

Playboy has transformed its business model and stopped printing its famous magazine earlier this year. It now describes itself as a consumer products company that includes sexual wellness, clothing and gaming.

While most of the reaction to Rock's romp in Playboy has been positive, there have been too many that have been homophobic and/or racist; too many for the magazine's editors.

“Standing for freedom and equality is in the DNA of this brand," wrote the publishers. "Today, Playboy is much more than a magazine. Our digital covers are creative snapshots that drive and reflect the current dialogue around pleasure, sexuality, equality and culture. If a gay man feels sexy in a bunny costume, an iconic symbol of sexiness, why shouldn’t he be able to wear it proudly? Serving as a platform for representation and freedom of expression is and will always be what Playboy stand for.” 

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, rips, raves and remembrances, follow me on Twitter @DioknoEd

Transgender Geena Rocero is this summer's Playboy centerfold

INSTAGRAM / GEENA ROCERO
Filipina American Geena Rocero is the first AAPI trans model featured as Playboy's Playmate centerfold.

As a Filipina transgender model, Geena Rocero is used to breaking down barriers. This month, she becomes the first AAPI transgender centerfold for Playboy Magazine.

“This Playboy Playmate honor is another moment that I will never forget. I will always know that expressing my unapologetic love for my self, my body, my vulnerability, my journey, my dreams and my hustle is my ultimate power,” she wrote. “I remember seeing Caroline Cossey (Tula) on the cover of Playboy, I told myself that one day I want to be like her. To now be a part of the ICONIC Playboy Family is a definite pinch-me moment, as I think of that little Trans Filipina who grew up in the little alleys of Manila. Woah!!!!”

In 1994, Tula was the first trans woman to pose in the nude for Playboy.

“As the First Trans Asian Pacific Islander Playmate, I feel that I’m making it possible for someone to reach for their biggest dreams just like the people who came before me. I also hope that for anyone who’s been deemed ‘other’ to know that what makes you different, is your power, especially the unapologetic expression of your sexuality, gender and the value of your unique perspective. In this constant political attack on trans lives, I am more inspired to unapologetically proclaim how proud I am of being a Trans Woman of Color and an immigrant.”

Rocero shocked the fashion world in 2014 when she came out during a TED Talk. By that time, she had made a name for herself as a highly sought international fashion model. Until she came out, even her agent didn't know her secret.

“At that time, there was not an ‘out’ trans-identified fashion model so I made the decision to hide my personal journey in order to survive,” she revealed. “After years of being a successful model, my depression and the paranoia of being ‘Outed’ grew larger every day. The shame that I felt about my transness limited the expression of my full self, my ideas and dreams.”

PLAYBOY

Some poses of Geena Rocero's photo spread in Playbody.

Since then, she has become an activist for trans people and the LGBTQ community. She founded a nonprofit, Gender Proud, which uses media to educate and advocate on behalf of the transgender community.

"For so long, we trans people have not been in charge of our own stories," she said in her Playboy article. "Our representation has been predicated on the idea that we’re not the people we are.

Rocero added: "Obviously, this is who we are. This is our lived experience. It’s not up for debate."

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TGIF FEATURE: Playboy - Dating sucks if you're an Asian dude or black woman

The calendar, Haikus on Hotties, was created to counter the Asian male stereotype.

STEREOTYPES SUCK. An article in Playboy brought up that old, sad trope that Asian men are not desirable as romantic partners.

“We’re the product of a racist society,” Toronto-based matchmaker, Sofi Papamarko wrote in the Toronto Star recently, “and we’re going to have to work hard at being inclusive and open-minded in dating and in every other aspect of life if we’re set on making any progress at all.”

Papamarko, who operates one of the online dating sites that are so popular these days. Asian men, along with black women, she says in the Plalyboy article are the hardest ones for whom to find matches.

“When we see Asian men and black women having a harder time, part of it has to do with beauty standards and part of it has to do with the ways people are socialized to imagine how Asian men or black women behave inside and outside of relationships.”

This is pretty much old news. The only reasons to justify Playboy coming out with this  article this month is 1. that men's magazine might have seen the demographic data showing the growing diversity in the U.S, or 2. to boost the egos of its primarily white, male readership, (ie. Things may be bad but, thanks god I'm not Asian.)

However, it’s not just people on Papamarko's dating site who feel this way. The findings are pretty much the same as data taken from other dating sites. That doesn't mean that people are necessarily racist.

“Beauty is a cultural idea as much as a physical one, and the standard is of course set by the dominant culture,” writes OKCupid co-founder Christian Rudder. In a 2013 poll, the website surveyed 25 million website visitors. The study came to the same conclusion as Papamarko.

Long Duk Dong was played by Gedde Watanabe

Unforunately, despite leading-man heart throbes James Shigeta, Bruce Lee, Daniel Dae Kim and Steven Yeun, the image that persists in American culture comes from Sixteen Candles. Yup, that sex-crazed nerd, Long Duk Dong. 

A small survey of 350 Asian American men from 2015 pretty much echoes these results. Nearly half of Asian men have heard someone say “I don’t date Asian men” in their presence and many reported this dating preference within their own ethnic or racial group: East Asian, South Asian and Southeast Asian. 

Another study at Columbia University tried to estimate how much men of different ethnic groups would need to earn to become as desirable to a woman as a man of her own race. With all other factors normalized, an Asian man would have to earn an additional $247,000 to stand on equal footing with his white counterpart. This statistic is less intimidating to a pediatric surgeon or venture capitalist than it is to, say, a freelance writer and part-time house-sitter.

Elliott Rodger and part of his journal.

Most recently, comedian Steve Harvey made a racist har-har joke based on the (in his view) the unattractiveness of Asian men. Harvey was mocking self-help books when he came across a title How to Date A White Woman: A Practical Guide for Asian Men. He guffawed.  He found it laughable that a white woman could ever find Asian men attractive.

"That's one page, too!" he laughed at his own joke. "Excuse me, do you like Asian men? No. Thank you."

On the opposite end of the attraction scale were white men and Asian women, who are seen as more attractive dates. 

The role of media and pop-culture in shaping our concepts of beauty cannot be underestimated. From the time Renaissance artists began to reimagine Jesus in their own image to the time when David Carradine was picked over Bruce Lee to star in the Kung Fu TV series to the countless times when Asian men are not even considered for leading men roles in the movies and television. 

With that onslaught of propaganda that's so deeply ingrained into the American psyche, it is no wonder most Asian men in the U.S. are not seen as serious dating material. Getting over that self-hatred is like a rite of passage for Asian/American men. Some never dig themselves out of that hole and you end up with an Elliot Rodgers, who went on a killing spree.

“All of this centers on Eurocentric beauty standards, which privilege those who are white or are white adjacent in appearance—things like lighter skin, light colored eyes, thinner noses, certain jawline shapes,” Shantel Buggs, a PhD Candidate in sociology at the University of Texas, told the Toronto Star. 

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Oh, by the way, for you ladies ... and guys. Here's a link If you want a copy of, the  2017 Haikus on Hotties calendar at the top of this post. It was produce out by Dragonlady Productions.

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