Most likely you are surprised that such a thing exists. You are not alone.
When I discovered Playboy in Braille years ago, it was in a box in an abandoned building. I found myself in a state of disbelief. The kind you feel when you’re being chased by a leprechaun with a crossbow.
It’s normal to not want Playboy in Braille to exist. Because it’s weird. It raises too many questions. Questions like: Why is the government printing Playboy in Braille? And: How do you explain a naked woman to a pubescent, visually impaired teen?
“Elka leans against a wall, wearing only a carpenter’s tool belt. She’s hot. Believe me.”
“Katsumi arches unnaturally over a coffee table. You can see the whole thing.”
“Anja’s Mediterranean skin is a warm brown, like the craft paper Playboy you’re reading with your finger.”
Playboy in Braille makes you think. It’s exciting but uncomfortable at the same time. Like Courtney Love fixing your stove.
Run your fingers over the pages, never really knowing if you’re touching a gorgeous blonde or an essay by Tom Clancy. Was that Cindy Crawford’s bum, or an interview with Gore Vidal? Frankly, it’s whatever you want it to be.
That’s the glory of Playboy in Braille. November 1995.Volume XLII, No. 11.
It’s number 2 in a 4 part series. I don’t know where the other parts are, but you’d only miss them if you could read Braille. And you can’t, because you’re reading this.
This would be a terrible gift for the visually impaired, because you don’t give the visually impaired one quarter of a decade-old Playboy as a gift.
But for you? Put it out on the coffee table like I did. Owning Playboy in Braille is like having a Day-Glo orange monkey that can curse in Farsi. It gets attention. People talk.
You want Playboy in Braille. Playboy in Braille wants you.
At least that’s what I think it says.
[In a fit of irony, eBay removed the listing, citing it as being for “Mature Audiences.”]
I always thought it had like raised pictures or something, wow…i guess thats why it never really took off
So is it a pop up book?
I discovered Playboy in braille when we were looking for a house to buy quite a few years back. There was a big pile of ’em in one of the houses we walked through.
I guess some people really do read it for the articles, eh?
I Only Read It for the Articles
In all fairness to Playboy, it really does (did? Nobody here has read an issue in ages) have top-notch articles. Even the ones that didn’t involve soapy breasts.
Rub One Out — You’re Already Blind, Anyhow.
Playboy. In Braille. [Banterist]…
Seems to me a sell-item of that nature would be even more appealing to “immature audiences.”
I’ve never seen a copy, um, in the flesh, but the movie “Sneakers” features a scene with the blind character, Whistler, reading a copy.
OMG!! My brother is blind (now 27 yrs. old). When he was in junior high, he would get Playboy in Braille and read the raunchy stories aloud to his nerdy friends. He had so many Braille materials delivered to the house (textbooks for school, etc), and they usually come unmarked in boxes, so my parents never knew what he was reading.
Wow.. i guess people DO read playboy for the articles..
who would have known?
Also, how would a blind person KNOW that its a playboy in braille? Why does it even say it on the front?
Hey! I have one of these. I assume the regular writing is for the non-blind employees who send these out to blind people. They are produced by the Library of Congress as part of their program for the blind.
El Playboy tambien se lee. Comprobado
Si existe una version en braille., es que si.
Via: Al abordaje
…
Playboy in Braille
Sounds perfectly great that the blind should be able to read Playboy. After all, the articles ARE actually pretty damned good if you bother to read them. But it is pretty cruel that they have to read a *description* of the centerfolds, rather than actu…
From the category ‘you’ve got to see it to believe it’
Playboy in braille. Via Mediabistro….
As a photographer, I find this braille Playboy obscenely (sorry) funny. I want a copy…
Let your fingers do the walking
In the week that “Podcast” has been named the “Word of the Year”, news reaches us of yet another porn podcast, this time an audio one. “Porn for the Blind” aims to create audio stories for reading challenged people,…
Where can you purchase one of these??
Playboy en Braille
Porque sí que hay gente que las lee y no sólo mira las fotos.
i had to read this 5 times because i needed to make sure it wasnt’ a hoax
i got mine at a swap meet….
I’m still trying to figure out why there is braille text next to the all of the tanks at the Seattle Aquarium….
So did you hang on to this for posterity, or because you knew there were boobies in there SOMEWHERE?
http://www.self-aggrandizement.com/linkblog/archives/#002539
Playboy. In Braille….
Odd Things I Learned Today.
Sometimes I think I’m better off not knowing.
But since I don’t want to be the only one not sleeping tonight, here are the Yak’s top reasons for not spending too much time on the Internet (all images safe for work, as always, though you might or
Hell, I am still trying to find why they have braille on my drive up ATM machine.
You know how hard it is to rub your tummy with one hand and pat your head with the other? Trying to read with one hand and “pat the head of the one-eyed monk” with the other? Seems like you would have to be talented.
Odd Things I Learned Today.
Sometimes I think I’m better off not knowing.
But since I don’t want to be the only one not sleeping tonight, here are the Yak’s top reasons for not spending too much time on the Internet (all images safe for work, as always, though you might or
You have to get a hold of page 54. You won’t believe your, er, fingertips.
LOL @ Esther! :D
I bought it for the pictures.
Thanks for making me laugh out loud in my cubicle.
Ohhhh, you used “Courtney Love” and “exciting” in the same sentence! Bleah! Other than that, loved it!
You’re welcome. I think. I buy also Maxim for the snappy writing and high-brow commentary.
Playboy in Braille
Waarom niet, de interviews zijn altijd puik (h)
I bet a lot of people read it one-handed….
Banterist – Playboy. In Braille.
Well, we all have our needs… Banterist – Playboy. In Braille.
:-D
…
What’s next? “Scratch & Sniff Playboy”
Playboy In Braille
…
I am wondering how this blog can be any funnier.
{ Geishas? -B. ]
Damn that ebay! I would have bid on this for the coffee-table effect of it alone!!!
Of course, there’s a Playboy in braille. Hugh Hefner actually put out a serious literary magazine. I always liked the old Playboy ads suggesting that you might want “to get a little behind in your reading”.
Being visually impaired (you don’t know what browser I am using) I know that LOC puts out over a hundred magazine titles in braille along with tape editions which are more awkward to use. It’s a valuable service, and one that people might want to remember as they and their loved ones age. You can usually arrange for the LOC program via your local library.
Sure, Playboy has pictures, but they tend to be for entertainment. Have you considered what the braille versions of Make or National Geographic look like? They rely on image descriptions, and describing pictures is an art in and of itself.
I had a friend at MIT who was blind, and she explained that braille interpreters get very good at translating pictures to text, even the charts and graphs in calculus texts which sort of amazed me. Then again, she got her PhD in math, I didn’t.
She actually liked to go bicycling. She and her boyfriend rode a tandem, and they had a great time exploring Europe.
It’s easy to make jokes of the “How did Helen Keller burn her hand? Trying to read the waffle iron.” ilk, but being blind doesn’t mean you have to live in a box somewhere.
Why do drive up ATMs have braille? Maybe because they are open when the bank branch is closed, and blind people walk up and use them. I know I’ve walked up and used them when the bank was closed. Then again, I’m visually impaired.
I suppose the only thing left to worry about would be your palms getting hairy.
I guess the pages would be even more likely to stick together too.
You won’t believe this, but one of the “less-classy” adult men’s magazines (probably Hustler) actually did a Scratch n Sniff issue back in the 80’s. I remember seeing it as a teenager.
УЖОС НАХ!
Playboy für Blinde
Aus der Playboy-FAQ: “The only people who can rightfully claim to read it solely for the articles are the thousands of blind readers who peruse our Braille edition, which has been distributed by the Library of Congress since 1970.”
(via…
First time I noticed our library carried Playboy in Braille, I expected popups, cutouts, or something more… ehm… three dimensional. In fact, Playboy in Braille really is enlightening: It proves that at least one person really does buy Playboy magazine for the articles!
Не, ну Вы прикинте нах?!? для слепых!!! ГЫЫЫЫ, а хотя слкпые – тоже люди=)
[ Apparently Banterist is popular in Russia at the moment. Lacking Cyrillic: Zdravstvoovetyeh. -B. ]
LOL . LOL !
Thanks for making me laugh !
dergi ve fantezileriniz çok sex i cesaret verici sizin playboy süper
Yzhosnax!
When I was 13, I was told that reading Playboy in conjunction with other activities would make me go blind – – the braille edition puts Hugh Hefner in the same category as the tobacco companies. Now I can sue him for my carpal tunnel.
I love tits. And the small raises makes my unit tingle.
Wife of a blind person here. Not ‘visually impaired’, but blind. Totally.
First, it’s pretty trivial to read a blog in braille. Check out refreshable braille. I also assume you have heard of text to speech technology.
Why does it say ‘playboy’ on the front? Well, duh, someone has to put it in the box to mail it. Or put it on the shelf at the LOC. Or to clean it up around the house.
She’s never done it, but I understand that some blind people also ride in taxis, and operate the ATM from the back seat. More important, the braille display is useful for walkup only ATMs. Rather than making two different panels, Diebold makes just one universal panel, and lets the bank put it wherever.
I have a braille playboy from 1985 does anyone know what it is worth
[ No, because eBay killed the auction, citing their “Mature Audiences” rule. -B. ]
In the late 1980s/early 1990s, Ray Charles came grumpily off a long United flight to Auckland NZ, waving away waiting journalists with some magazine. Only on development of the photos did it turn out to be a Playboy. Braille. The articles, I guess.
Searching out some braille sites for work I do with VI and blind and came across these postings. I had a good chuckle as it brought back a lot of memories. Over 30 years ago when training as a teacher of the blind and living/working at a school for the blind I was working on a trial project for a device that converted print to tactile letters via a display of tiny teflon pins. It was marketed for a brief period of time but did not become immensely popular (noise and tactual sensation may have been turnoffs). I was teaching a couple high school students who were part of the project and one of them, a 19 year old senior boy, hated the whole thing and wished he’d never volunteered. It was like pulling teeth to get him through the lessons. I finally asked him if there was anything that would motivate him to make these lessons less deadly for him and myself. He said getting him into the staff library where he had heard there were braille copies of PLAYBOY. So that’s what we did after hours. He was quite disappointed that there were no tactile pictures, but the clandestine adventure of it all was enough to keep him focused during lessons!
dont be nice to sex lifes
I don’t understand the “mature audience” thing you’re referring to on eBay. There are tons of Playboy magazines (non-braille) available. Was it rejected due to your description? Anyhoo, I also own a braille version and am planning on eBay-ing it soon. Thanks for the inspiration!!!
[ Apparently Playboys after 1980 are considered ‘mature’ but anything before that is A.O.K. with eBay. -B.]
You are obviously totally having us on.
I have caressed and groped my monitor for 20-25 minutes now and I feel nothing. Nothing!
Don’t mess with the blind mister, because when the zombies cut the power lines, we’re your only hope.
“Playboy on tape” as read by…? Actually, that might work. Imagine hearing the interviewer and the interviewee. Open to a page and a sound chip starts to play a sample. Turn to the centrefold and hear her likes and dislikes. Imagine the fun as pre-pubescent teens try to hide the magazine under their bed as their mothers come barging in, wondering how’s talking to their sons.
what they said
I can’t see nothing, don’t play with me pardner.
hi shan it is jADE WHAT U BEEN DOING ME AT SKOOL
funny, I have the March 1983 edition. it is part 5 of 5. found it in the garage. I think my brother took it home from school and hid it in there!
Looking for an address or phone number that I can meet up with an agent in regards to negatives/photos.
Jennifer L. Tongue
doody.reception@doody-united.us
[ What? -B. ]
Even more surprising than Playboy in braille, is a new ‘adult’ web site designed for blind users called http://www.soundsdirty.com. I read about it on http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/index.php/2006/blind-accessible-porn
What next??
hey I have a army outfit made by you guys its has pink and blue and glitter
I want to looking for more friends.
I have an issue of playboy that is in braille it was given to me by my mom. Its from 1977 and it is Part IV of V. Volume 24 Number 9!! Let me know what its worth if you know!!
1. I’m a little spun out by how many people have commented they own one of these. :)
2. Why all the ‘articles’ jokes? Surely they’re reading it for the smutty stories that readers (read:liars) send in? Even the non-visually-impaired do that. Or is that only Penthouse? I never have read a Playboy, for any reason. Penthouse stories on the other hand were hugely popular when I was in high school. We used to read them out loud at lunchtime to scare the year 8s.
Thank you re: the eBay rules, I have a 1980 October volume 27 number 10 part 1 of four parts.May I ask is it 1980 and up or 1980 and older? Also anyone sell one yet so I may set a fair reserve price? Thank you all Cheers, D PS Thank you for the site had a few laughs now after reading all the above posts not sure if I want to part with it now…
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:::.::.!!!
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I found your site amusing….I too tried to sell my November Issue of PLAYBOY In Braille on Ebay-they removed it due to its sexual content….LOL…I found that too funny…and a bit aggravating…
It looks like some ancient manuscript. It takes another thousand years…
Points of interest:
1) blind people do surf the web with refreshable braille displays or using screen reading software thus a blind person read this
2) sighted people can read braille, that is how sighted people teach braille to blind people, they memorize the patterns of dots and how they encode letters and punctuation
3) neither photos of nor descriptions of naked women will ever be as good as touch a real one
OMG! I just found one of these last night in an old abandoned building! Mine is from 1971… Are these worth any money? Btw. you are flippin hilarious–I thought all of the same things when I came across it. I mean seriously, on the back it says “provided by the united states government through the library of congress”…
Just found one as well… Anyone know what the market is for them?
brailleboy? hmm?
these are printed in the good ol’ fashion way and, as such, are extreme hastle to read, cheap bastards. ring bound pls.
good i like it
coooooooooooooooooooool
LOL……boy was I glad to see this article….I have one of them myself Feburary 1987 Edition. part 2 of 4 parts….there were several boxes of them but they got destroyed before I knew anything about them.
oooooooooooh dat pic looks fab i want to no who invented this playboy coz i will give them some playboy naughty
I have a bunch of these; if anyone is interested in buying, email me at beberlow@yahoo.com
I have interest in buying one for novelties sake…
Looking for ~$30
Email if you have some!
What a concept! Chubbies for the blind :)
sweet! im learning braille!! i always wanted to know what Miss November FELT like….didn’t you!!??
I would be interested in purchasing any and all playboy braille publications that anyone would like to sell. Please email me at spp1682@yahoo.com
that is so kool i wismh i had one i will love to have one can you send one to me pleez my name is tiffany xoxoxo i love playboy
Of course people read Playboy for the articles, else they’d buy one of the many erotica magazine. I don’t think people get much excited by 3 short photosets showing a woman’s breasts…
Now which one would you rather have to read, dumb Maxim or clever Playboy?
It’s an issue full of articals.
[ Or articles, even. -B. ]
Yeah, editorial content is a main focus at Playboy, so I could see how there would be an edition for the blind. It would have been far more surprising to learn that a magazine that could care less about who’s writing the articles — like Hustler, Perfect 10, or maybe Glad Granny Monthly — ran a braille edition.
Wow i bet that issue has been fingered throughly
They could’ve done the centerfold as an adult “Pat the Bunny.” And how come so many copies were found in “abandoned buildings?” Do blind readers need THAT much privacy? And finally, with so many altruistic females volunteering as readers and guides for blind people, perhaps some of the more adventurous ones could volunteer to, er, add some “dimension” to a blind Playboy reader’s literary experience.
how stupid
hey i love the playboy bunnys they are awsome i really wanna be one wwhen im 18 im only 17 now so im almost there but i really dont kno if ill make it becomeing a playboy bunny is always been my dream but i dont kno im really short im 4″11 and really skinny im really beautiful people tell me that all the time i live in monroe with my mom and step dad shane and my bird sunny….my bird keeps me compuny all the time i love my bird but yea im in the 10th grade at monroe high and well thats all about me and i waz i cheerleader in the 7th grade and i played baskitball all though middle school so im a team sport im not mean or roud i stick to what im told to do so yeah i love my school i have alot of friends but i only have one best friend her name is tammy shes like a sister to me…..i have 2 brothers and a half sister but i really want to be a playboy bunny i do really
i have a braille playboy in great un torn un folded shape feb. 1980,volume 27,number 2. does anybody know how much it could get?
I am looking to buy a copy of one of these magazines…would appreciate an email from serious seller. Thank you
I have the february 1985 braille edition part 4 of 4 volume xxxii, no.2 playboy in EXELLENT condition! email me an offer at kmekej@yahoo.com
I think it’s hilarious how everyone has to insist that the reason blind people are reading it is for the articles only, like blind people don’t get aroused or ever want to read descriptions of hot babes. Yeah, it’s a literary magazine, it’s also a sexy one, many blind people like to read and many like to have sex and many like to read about either or both of these things. Why does that shock you able bodieds so much??! do you think you have a monopoly on getting off or on reading smut?
I picked up braille edition – knew my hubby wouldn’t believe if I just told him. Now it’s up to him what to do with it. I see there is one on E-Bay right now – same year as mine (1979) but different month and it’s going for $20.50 with 5 bids and 4 days left.
Playboy in braille, what an amazing novelty! I am just wondering how the blind will appreciate the visual beauty of its essence to be
It’s always good to know that… I wonder if there are some other stuff like this.
I don’t know who posted this but he’s a fuckin’ moran. THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T PUBLISH THIS, so why would you ask such a dumb fucking question? Also, why wouldn’t the blind want to read/feel porn? they can see imagine rather more vividly the those who can see, considering they have to use thier imaginations and other senses. Your a nigger.
I still can’t get over the fact that this exists.
And yes, the irony of ebay removing it due to sexual content.