Filipino Bretman Rock is the cover for October 2021 Playboy which makes him the first gay man to grace the cover of the famed magazine.
Bretman Rock is the first open gay man to don the famed bunny ears of Playboy magazine for its October 2021 digital issue.
The 23-year-old Filipino beauty influencer, who rose to fame on YouTube before landing his own MTV show, is one of the few men to ever wear the Playboy ears, joining actors Ezra Miller and Paul Rudd.
Rock took to Twitter saying, “I’m a @playboy bunny 🐰 DUHHHHHH,” and received thousands of likes.
“For Playboy to have a male on the cover is a huge deal for the LGBT community, for my brown people community, and it’s all so surreal,” Rock is quoted as saying on Playboy’s Instagram page.
He has worked with the brand before, producing clothing with them, but this is his first time posing in an editorial for the magazine.
And he follows in the footsteps of Bad Bunny, who made history last July as the magazine's first male cover star besides its late founder, Hugh Hefner.
Playboy introduced the social media personality wearing the famous Playboy Bunny Suit for the issue and wrote:
“Although he isn’t the first male-identifying star to wear the suit, he’s in good company: Steve Martin, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd, Johnny Carson, Burt Reynolds, and Flip Wilson have all borrowed elements of the trademarked costume, some even going as far as to wear the full suit.”
This progressive move came after the massive rebranding in 2019 that sought to bring what was widely considered an increasingly dated, controversial brand into a new, post-Hugh Hefner age of more progressive sexuality, the magazine has now welcomed its first-ever gay male cover star.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone is thrilled with Playboy’s new direction.
The disappointment is from the usual crowd of close-minded homophobes have taken it upon themselves to express their disdain for Playboy’s inaugural gay male cover star.
Rock, for his part, remains unfazed by the haters, addressing them directly in an Instagram caption accompanying several steamy photos from the shoot: “posting to piss off more straight men, if you’re pissed Bc I turn you on then- say that geez.”
Tags: #BretmanRock, #entertainment, #LGBTQ+