Celebrity2 min(s) read
Published 14:39 05 Oct 2021 GMT
Playboy has made history after featuring their first openly gay man on the digital cover.
Bretman Rock, a social media beauty influencer, graces the magazine's October issue in what is a first for Playboy, NBC News reports.
The 23-year-old donned the iconic black bunny corset – complete with bunny ears, cufflinks, and bowtie, as he posed for a series of sultry shots for the magazine.
While it isn’t the first time Playboy has featured a man on the cover, Rock is the third to feature solo after the late Hugh Hefner and Puerto Rican rapper, Bad Bunny.
What's more, he is the first openly gay man to grace the cover of the magazine, which has gone fully digital in 2020.
The magazine took to Twitter with the announcement, writing: "It's Bretman, b***h," alongside a clip of Rock strutting and posing for the cover.
"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. A total ‘is this even f***ing happening right now?’ type of vibe. And I’m so pretty," Rock told Playboy.
He later celebrated the milestone by sharing two of his Playboy shots with his 5.7 million Twitter followers.
"I'm a Playboy bunny DUHHHHHH," he wrote.
The Filipino beauty influencer rose to stardom on YouTube and Vine, where he posted a series of makeup tutorials and his humorous views on life.
Shortly after, he became inundated with brand offers, mostly with major makeup companies such as Morphe and Wet n Wild.
Speaking about the iconic bunny outfit which has been sported by everyone from Dolly Parton to Kate Moss, a Playboy senior manager, said: "Bunnies like wearing it for different reasons."
"Some see it as playful and nostalgic; others see it as badass empowerment. We don’t need to define it for them," they added.
Last year, fellow beauty influencer Victoria Volkova became the first transgender woman to appear on the cover of Playboy Mexico.
Anthony Allen Ramos, LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD’s head of talent, praised Playboy’s inclusion of Rock on its cover, calling it a "powerful step forward in the ongoing movement towards greater diversity and inclusion in fashion and modeling."
