On her blog Tiara Lestar is writing about the upcoming launch of Playboy Indonesia and her future career as a ‘nude’ model for that magazine. Let me quote some paragraphs (I suggest you read the whole posting. Quite interesting how she sheds some light on her thoughts about modeling and politics).I respect Playboy as an internationally known publication. Everyone from legendary Marilyn Monroe to Pamela Anderson to Madonna to Cindy Crawford have benefited from their professional relationships with the magazine. I have made a personal decision as a model to also follow that route last year. This decision certainly wasn’t popular in my own country. Heck, it was a huge disappointment for my parents too. I regret that part of it. For that, I am sorry. For my parents who I love very much, and for them alone, I have made another personal decision to not pursue that line of work anymore. Being on the cover of Playboy can be considered peak of any model’s career. As they say, “Been there done that.”

However, I was aware of one thing; I appeared in a country that does not consider Playboy and nudity as taboo. My appearance was never intended for consumption of Indonesia. How many Indonesians do you now read Playboy Spain? My pictures circulating on the internet happened without my being consulted. I do not have rights to those pictures. Not offending my countrymen was one of the criteria of my decision making process in appearing in Playboy Spain.

Tiara, as a ‘cosmopolitan woman of the world‘, you could have known that appearing in Playboy Spain (and Penthouse Holland) would mean that these images could find their way to Indonesia. This is the information age… Everything we say or do is captured somewhere on the web. Once a photo is out there, someone will scan it or rip it of a site and it will never go away and travel the world in a split second. You must have realised this?

Personally I think you should be very proud of the pictures by Adam Yurman and the role you are playing in the path to a perhaps more liberal Indonesia. But it sounds to me a bit like you are backing out on the whole thing? Not so long ago you were honoring Asian-Sirens for our role in all this…

Just my two cents 😉

An Indonesian publisher vowed on Friday to go ahead with the launch of a local version of Playboy magazine despite growing protests from conservative Muslim groups and nationalist politicians. Since word of the planned launch circulated a few weeks ago, some Islamic groups have urged the government to prevent publication of the men’s magazine in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, even if it was a less racy version.”There was a thought to issue Playboy Indonesia mid-year but with this controversy that plan may be expedited or pushed back,” said Ponti Carrolus, director of PT Velvet Silver Media, which holds the Indonesian license from the U.S.-based magazine.

Carrolus told a news conference that Playboy Indonesia would not publish nude pictures, the magazine’s trademark.

Avianto Nugroho, who handles the magazine’s promotion, told Reuters separately the launch was a “certainty,” but gave no date.

Media observers said Playboy Indonesia’s content would be close to local franchises of men’s magazines such as FHM or Maxim, which rely heavily on pictures of scantily dressed women but stop short of nudes.

Despite regular campaigns against pornography, many sidewalk vendors in Indonesia stock sexually explicit movies and the country has a flourishing sex industry.

In recent years, lifestyle magazines for Indonesia’s growing secular middle class have flooded the market, including those targeting a male audience.

Many are franchises of foreign publications in the United States, Europe, Australia and more liberal Asian nations.

Founded in 1953, Playboy has about 20 local editions around the world that cater to local taste rather than simply exporting and translating its U.S. content.

Source:
Reuters